If this jersey did not have the Black Bar Memorial Patch on the arm, there might be no definite pinning down of what it actually is, and I will get to why after explaining what the patch is all about. The patch was worn at the end of the 1984-85 season after the crash of Galaxy Airlines Flight 203, which crashed on January 21, 1985. The patches were quickly put on the jerseys after this tragedy: see the above dated wire photo of Corey Millen (1/27/1985). Counted among the 70 victims was Gophers Associate Director of Men's Athletics Robert Geary. Not only that, but the flight, which was a return flight from Reno to Minneapolis after a Caesar's Palace Tahoe-sponsored Super Bowl Party trip, was said to be full of Minnesotans. It is not surprising that the Gophers would want to commemorate and show mourning not only for a member of their own administration, but also broadly, for all of the friends and families of the victims in the region. So, sadly, it is only because of that tragedy that we can say with certainty that this was Paul Broten's jersey in his freshman season. It's not like Paul wore #10 for his whole college career. Paul wore both the #7 and the #10 at Minnesota, with his freshman season being the only one in which he wore #10 (see photo above with 'BROTEN' nameplate still attached: 3/9/1985 game against the UW Badgers).
It would be one thing if there were some distinguishing feature to that season's jerseys besides the memorial patch, but there is not. The confusing part about the jerseys that the Gophers wore that season is that the staff seems to have raided the closets and recycled whatever they could. Research shows us that there are 4 different, distinct, and easily differentiated sets of tagging that have been seen on Black Bar Gopher jerseys, 3 of them being jerseys thought previously to have been discarded by this time (the 4th being the Norcon-branded ones originally thought to be standard issue in this season):
1. One has a 1980 set/year flag tag and a Steichen's Sporting Goods Pre-83 neck tag; No hem tagging
2. This one has no set/year flag tag and a Steichen's Sporting Goods Pre-83 neck tag over a Good Sports neck tag; No hem tagging
3. Pederson's hem tagging
4. Norcon hem tagging
So from when was this recycled? Well there seemed to be a big uptick in the population of teams using Good Sports-tagged jerseys in the 1981-82 season, so that would be my guess. It has been suggested that this was the jersey that Aaron Broten wore in the 1980-81 Gophers season, but the fact that there are mesh jerseys out there with '80' flag tags tells me that this is very unlikely. The original source of this jersey apparently disagrees with me on this point, and he is an authority that is hard to dispute. He is the former longtime Gophers equipment manager Harry Broadfoot, who entered the Gophers' athletics department in 1976 and stayed on until 2009. Interestingly, this jersey was won from Mr. Broadfoot in a poker game at his home and his claim at that time and since was that it had been first worn by Aaron in his final season (1980-81), and then by Aaron's little brother Paul in his first season (1984-85). Now clearly, certain rules go out the window on poker night, and I won't speculate on which rules those are. All I will say is that I would be very very skeptical of calling this an Aaron Broten. There is no clear evidence of any nameplate at all, neither the 'BROTEN' nameplate like we see pictured above, nor the full 'AARON BROTEN' namplate that Aaron wore in 1980-81, nor any other at all; and that makes the full story harder to know.
So with the guidance of that patch taking me to the correct year, I believe that I have now have been able to find two photomatches on the right sleeve:
1. dark red mark to the lower left of the #10
2. dull area on the shoulder which corresponds directly to the location of a sewn team repair with backing material.
I don't have a clue about the damage on the right sleeve or the popped-open neck. The neck does not have what I would call a back-to-use repair, so the 3 or 4 stitches were probably only applied so it would stay on a hanger. The sleeve damage does not appear on the game photos I have from the last home regular season game, but it could have happened in the playoffs too; but also, who knows what in the world this jersey got up to in the days since it was on the ice?! Another possible explanation of the damage?:
'The first rule of Poker Night is: you do not talk about Poker Night'.
It would be one thing if there were some distinguishing feature to that season's jerseys besides the memorial patch, but there is not. The confusing part about the jerseys that the Gophers wore that season is that the staff seems to have raided the closets and recycled whatever they could. Research shows us that there are 4 different, distinct, and easily differentiated sets of tagging that have been seen on Black Bar Gopher jerseys, 3 of them being jerseys thought previously to have been discarded by this time (the 4th being the Norcon-branded ones originally thought to be standard issue in this season):
1. One has a 1980 set/year flag tag and a Steichen's Sporting Goods Pre-83 neck tag; No hem tagging
2. This one has no set/year flag tag and a Steichen's Sporting Goods Pre-83 neck tag over a Good Sports neck tag; No hem tagging
3. Pederson's hem tagging
4. Norcon hem tagging
So from when was this recycled? Well there seemed to be a big uptick in the population of teams using Good Sports-tagged jerseys in the 1981-82 season, so that would be my guess. It has been suggested that this was the jersey that Aaron Broten wore in the 1980-81 Gophers season, but the fact that there are mesh jerseys out there with '80' flag tags tells me that this is very unlikely. The original source of this jersey apparently disagrees with me on this point, and he is an authority that is hard to dispute. He is the former longtime Gophers equipment manager Harry Broadfoot, who entered the Gophers' athletics department in 1976 and stayed on until 2009. Interestingly, this jersey was won from Mr. Broadfoot in a poker game at his home and his claim at that time and since was that it had been first worn by Aaron in his final season (1980-81), and then by Aaron's little brother Paul in his first season (1984-85). Now clearly, certain rules go out the window on poker night, and I won't speculate on which rules those are. All I will say is that I would be very very skeptical of calling this an Aaron Broten. There is no clear evidence of any nameplate at all, neither the 'BROTEN' nameplate like we see pictured above, nor the full 'AARON BROTEN' namplate that Aaron wore in 1980-81, nor any other at all; and that makes the full story harder to know.
So with the guidance of that patch taking me to the correct year, I believe that I have now have been able to find two photomatches on the right sleeve:
1. dark red mark to the lower left of the #10
2. dull area on the shoulder which corresponds directly to the location of a sewn team repair with backing material.
I don't have a clue about the damage on the right sleeve or the popped-open neck. The neck does not have what I would call a back-to-use repair, so the 3 or 4 stitches were probably only applied so it would stay on a hanger. The sleeve damage does not appear on the game photos I have from the last home regular season game, but it could have happened in the playoffs too; but also, who knows what in the world this jersey got up to in the days since it was on the ice?! Another possible explanation of the damage?:
'The first rule of Poker Night is: you do not talk about Poker Night'.