Today's Tidbit... When The Gophers Played With Fire

The Tidbit from a week ago covered the itinerary and game during the Minnesota Gophers' trip to play Washington in Seattle in 1941. Last week’s story mentioned that Minnesota made the same trip in 1936 but said nothing about those events. However, an alert reader, Phil Allen, recalled that the Minnesota team experienced a fire at their hotel during one of the trips to Seattle, so I looked into the claim and found it was true.

The 43 members of the 1936 Minnesota traveling party left the Twin Cities aboard a mix of train cars that included a Pullman sleeping berth for each member, though they planned to spend one night at a hotel in Missoula, Montana. Minnesota's coach, Bernie Bierman, played at Montana before the Great War and then coached the team on his return, so the university and town hosted Bierman and his team on Thursday as they traveled to Seattle.

Bernie Bierman (1937 Minnesota yearbook)

After practicing and enjoying a few other activities, the team bedded down in the 175-room Florence Hotel for the night. About four in the morning, however, Edward Shaver, a Minneapolis reporter, awoke to the smell of smoke, initially dismissing it as coming from area wildfires. When the smoke intensified, he opened the door to the hallway, saw smoke, and ran downstairs to alert the hotel officials in the lobby.

Nowadays, you would expect Ed Shaver to pull the fire alarm, but those devices did not exist in most hotels in the 1930s, so the desk clerk, bellboy, and night watchman began calling each room and knocking on doors throughout the hotel to wake their 125 guests.