Reusse: Kitzmann's legend born in one 57-carry game in '77

The memory of Kent Kitzmann is as a giant fullback moving a pile of tacklers for extra yardage, both for two-time prep state champion Rochester John Marshall and the University of Minnesota. For sure, the tacklers did move, although not through sheer bulk.

"I'm 6-foot-3 and played at around 205," Kitzmann said. "I was a big back for then, but not huge."

Kitzmann's years with the Gophers were 1975 to 1978. The star running back on his arrival was J. Dexter Pride, 6-5, 221, and on his departure, it was the duo of Marion Barber II, 6-3, 226, and Garry White, 6-0, 204 pounds.

Yet, Kitzmann remains the power runner of lore, based primarily on one, phenomenal November afternoon in 1977, when the fullback carried 57 times at Illinois.

The Gophers of that season were a strange bunch. They opened with an unimpressive victory over Western Michigan and were thumped at Ohio State. Then, in back-to-back home games, the Gophers beat UCLA, a team that would go 5-2 in the Pac-8, and Washington, the Pac-8's representative in the Rose Bowl.

They split the next two — losing at Iowa, beating Northwestern — and that brought Michigan to town for the Little Brown Jug game on Oct. 22. The Wolverines were rated No. 1 in the country, yet the temperature for Gophers football was so tepid the crowd was 44,165, 10,000 below capacity.

"Like everyone else, I remember Butch Nash's speech on Friday night," Kitzmann said. "I remember a phenomenal defense that day. And I remember the postgame locker room, with the jug. That's probably my greatest experience as a football player."

Butch Nash had played for the Gophers in the glorious 1930s and had been a Gophers assistant for 30 years. For the first time, a head coach — Cal Stoll — asked Nash to speak to the full squad. And Nash did so emotionally, talking about the importance of the ancient water jug.

The Gophers shut out Michigan 16-0. It's the last time the Gophers were able to run across a field in Minneapolis to claim the trophy.

And then the '77 Gophers lost 34-22 at Indiana and 29-10 at home to Michigan State, to fall to 5-4, and Sid Hartman was writing this in the Minneapolis Tribune on Nov. 12, the morning of the game at Illinois:

"Today's game against Illinois is a big one for Minnesota football coach Cal Stoll. … If the Gophers can win today and then handle Wisconsin next week, the wolves will disappear."

The wolves were boosters who had wearied of Stoll in his sixth season. If Sid was saying it, Cal definitely needed a victory.

"Nobody said to me before the game, 'Get ready to run 50 times,' " Kitzmann said this week. "You just ran the plays."

In this case, it was basically three plays — Kitzmann left, Kitzmann right, Kitzmann straight ahead — that the Gophers used for a 21-0 victory.

Kitzmann had 57 carries for 266 yards. That surpassed Steve Owens' national record of 55 carries for Oklahoma. Kitzmann's record stood until Tony Sands had 58 carries for Kansas vs. Missouri in 1991.

"I'm excited," Kitzmann said to reporters after the game.

The reporters wanted more. "It was just our game plan: Run right at them," he said. "I guess it worked out OK."

I spent a half-hour with Kitzmann near his Bloomington home this week. He's as low-key today about the 57 carries as 37 years ago.

"There was a number for the main play that I can't remember," he said. "They sent plays in from the sideline. The linemen were laughing in our huddle after a while, sort of, 'I wonder what this play is going to be?' "

Kitzmann was never featured in that way again. Barber and White were the main backs in 1978, which was Stoll's final season. Kitzmann suffered a neck injury late in the schedule.

With that, a coaching change (to Joe Salem), and the prospect of limited playing time, Kitzmann didn't play as a fifth-year senior in 1979.

Last weekend, the Gophers ran the ball 58 times and completed one of seven passes in a 24-7 victory over San Jose State.

"I don't know if we threw seven passes that day against Illinois," Kitzmann said.

Nope. Quarterback Wendell Avery was 2-for-4 for 29 yards. Kitzmann, Barber (12 carries) and four other Gophers (seven carries) rushed 76 times.

"We felt the best way to win today was to say, 'Kent, here's the ball, run straight north with it,' " Stoll said.

Patrick Reusse can be heard 3-6 p.m. weekdays on AM-1500. preusse@startribune.com