A Gopher Football Blast From the Past
Bernie Lusk was "the Voice of Rochester." He started his broadcasting career on KROC-AM in 1942 and remained "on the air" full-time for the next four decades until his retirement in 1982.
While Bernie may have been best known for being the "Iron Man" host of the annual Eagle's Cancer Telethon for 30 years, he also spent two decades providing Rochester area fans of Minnesota Gopher Football with the play-by-play coverage of Gopher games from the early 1960's into the early 1980's.
The YouTube video featured in this post is of Bernie broadcasting the Gopher game against the University of Washington Huskies on October 1st, 1977. It was among the seven Gopher victories that season that helped the team earn a bowl invitation for the first time since 1962. The Gophers ended up losing to Maryland in the Hall of Fame Classic at Birmingham, Alabama.
The 1977 Gopher squad included three players from Rochester. Fullback Kent Kitzmann from the State Champion John Marshall High School teams of 1973 and 1974 was the Gophers leading rusher, Dave Gardner played defensive tackle and Tom Fitzpatrick was a member of the offensive line.