May 24, 2011
Dave Winfield
c/o San Diego Padres
P.O. Box 122000
San Diego, CA 92112
USA
Dear Mr. Winfield:
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Richard Pennington. I am a native of the USA but have been living in Korea since late 2007. I have written 18 books—16 of them pertaining to sports history.
I am, of course, aware of your superb 22-year career with the Padres, Yankees, Angels, Blue Jays, Twins and Indians. I always admired your skills as a hitter, fielder and base runner. And for what it’s worth, you gave a good interview. You were obviously an intelligent and well-spoken man.
My letter is not about baseball but the upcoming 40-year anniversary of the 1972 Minnesota-Ohio State basketball game at Williams Arena. It has been called, for good reason, the darkest day in the history of college hoops. You, Clyde Turner, Corky Taylor, Ron Behagen and Jim Brewer may prefer to say this is “old news” and all is forgotten. But history does not work that way. Should it be forgotten or—to put it differently—swept under the rug? No.
Although I was not in Minneapolis that night, I have done a fair amount of research on the game and would like you to tell me whether I have my facts wrong. The halftime incident between Luke Witte and your teammate Bob Nix was really of no consequence. Your coach, Bill Musselman, and other Gophers later sought to somehow direct blame or responsibility to Witte but that was simply not true.
I realize it was a hotly contested game, with the Big 10 title on the line. But with less than a minute to go, it was clear that the Buckeyes were going to win. Turner, Taylor, Behagen, Brewer and you, enraged at the thought of losing to a predominantly European-American team, then went berserk. Turner committed a blatant foul on Witte when he was going in for a layup, Taylor pretended to give him a helping hand and then kicked him in the groin, Behagen stomped on his head and neck, Brewer whacked OSU’s Dave Merchant, and you leapt on top of Mark Wagar and gave him five strong shots.
All of this and more happened over the course of 90 seconds, as is well documented. Some UM people have attempted to characterize it as a “fight” when in fact it was a one-sided assault. Would that Witte, Merchant, Wagar and the others were better fighters, able and willing to return blow for blow. Silly boys, they thought they had come to Minny to play a basketball game that night! Was it or was it not a racial attack? The facts are plain: All of 
those doing the hitting and kicking were black, and those on the receiving end were European-American. Nobody laid a hand on the two black players on the Ohio State squad.
Nearly 40 years have passed since that awful night, and I have a few questions to ask if you don’t mind. First, do you think the punishment by the University of Minnesota, Big 10 and NCAA was adequate in light of your actions and those Turner, Taylor, Behagen and Brewer? Second, should criminal charges have been filed? Third, were you and your teammates at all concerned that you were inflicting serious harm on your opponents? (Witte suffered a concussion and a scratched cornea, and needed 29 stitches.) Fourth, what was the source of your anger—apart from losing to a mostly European-American team? Fifth, how were you able to avoid any negative ramifications during your long pro baseball career? And finally, did you ever apologize to Wagar for chasing him down and giving him a pounding?
I welcome your response.
Sincerely,
Richard Pennington
301-ho, Teheranro 4-gil
13, Gangnam-gu
Seoul 135-080 Korea
e-mail: raput76@gmail.com
29 Comments
Mr. Pennington,
Did you ever receive a reply from Mr. Winfield?
Never. I think he should have answered and that his legacy calls for him to do so.
Dave Winfield has no obligation to respond to you or any other man on the street. Give it a rest it was decades ago. I was at the game, there was plenty of blame to go around on both sides. Luke Witte used his elbows as a weapon all game long. The stakes were high and emotions charged. I don’t condone what happened but it was not 1 sided as you write. For heavens sake you weren’t even there.
Dear Gopher Fan for Life:
Thank you for writing. I have read over my letter to Winfield and find nothing whatsoever to retract. We must agree to disagree, because I think Winfield has gotten a pass over the last 46 years. What happened in Minneapolis was not a brawl or fight—it was a neo-racist attack. So I call it what it was. By the way, you are letting your school colors get in the way. I am a University of Texas grad, and I can see my alma mater objectively.
Richard, I hope you have a chance to see today’s article from the Columbus Dispatch by Rob Oller. I’ve corresponded with Rob on a couple of other topics in the past. I texted him with background about this article, and I prominently mentioned your site here and told him this might be a good resource for the article.. I particularly stressed my distaste for Winfield, but your attempt to get Thug Winfield to respond. He managed to get in a line and mention that he was a baseball hall-of-famer, but it was confined to one line. Columbus had grown exponentially since 1972, when it had about 400K residents. Now it’s close to 1 million with a metro area of about 2.2 million, and it’s the second most-populous city in the Midwest. The racial tensions have grown at a rate similar to the population growth, and I expect the Dispatch editors didn’t want to accuse the black players of a racist attack — even though that’s what it was. One problem with Witte was that he became a man if God, and forgiveness is his middle name. He and three of the Minnesota players met and became “pen pals” as a result. I’m sure he’d forgive Hitler, Stalin, and Jeffrey Dahmer. Neither I — nor anyone who attended OSU in 1972 will forgive anyone who hasn’t asked for forgiveness like Winfield.
My suggestion is this: Barring an apology from the thug, we should mount a drive to revoke Winfield’s membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The BHoF’s most pertinent rule for membership is this:
“5. Voting: Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played.”
That’s it. Simple. It’s also simple to show that as AN ADULT, albeit an egotistical and arrogant one who thought he deserved all the hero’s praise he received, Thug Winfield exhibited the OPPOSITE of THREE of the SIX requirements for Hall admission: INTEGRITY (Take responsibility for your actions); SPORTSMANSHIP (uh, duhhh. . .) and character (as in total absence of) . There are no policies in place for rescinding a member of the Hall. But in any civil court, there ARE stipulations in place that allow actions to be taken against a perpetrator of a crime when not all the facts are known. Winfield was guilty of assault, which thousands of people witnessed. It’s time he owned up to it.
Your post is one of the most idiotic statements I have ever read. What a jackass. Yeah, it was a crime that was decades ago. All four of those Minnesota players should have been banned from basketball for life
Don’t condone?
So you and the Goofer fans approved
Of your team and yourselves acting like thugs after they were beaten fair and square on the basketball court.
Dave Winfield, or any of them, do not deserve a statue anywhere, for their lowdown behavior.
To Mr. Gopher: I guess we should now let John Wilkes Booth and Charles Guiteau off the hook. After all, both assassinations were “decades ago”. Actually the two 19th century gunmen might fare better in the court of history as there were no videos taken in the two D.C. incidents. Film of the racist outrage in Minnesota is all over the place and only biased “1-sided” views could deny the horrible happenings of that historically recent night.
As Mr. Pennington says, objectivity needs to be in play here. A trip to the eye doctor might be good for our friend who’s having trouble seeing through his maroon and gold lenses.
You said it better than I could, Mr. Holmquist. What does the Gopher-man mean by “give it a rest”? I’m sure Behagen, Taylor, Winfield et al. were really hurt by Luke Witte’s elbows. They did not like losing to a predominantly European-American team.
I was 4 years old when this game was played so I don’t remember it. I do think talking about it is important. A lot can be learned from these types of incidents even if they happened 40 years +.
I was only about 4 during that. Dad told me the whole thing. Wasn’t one of the Buckeyes brain damaged from that, or did my Dad have his facts wrong?
I saw a telecast of the game and subsequently read many follow up articles. If memory serves me, Witte was on the cover of SI depicting him sitting bloodied on the floor. I do not think any players involved had brain damage.
Just because there was no brain damage, no problem??? It was a brutal racist assault.
With all of the recent positive press about Mr. Winfield, he should step up and apologize for his role in the fight. Until that point, the incident in 1972 should absolutely tarnish his legacy.
As I stated in my letter, he has been treated very kindly by the media ever since this awful incident nearly 50 years ago.
Mr Winfield not responding to you is the most predictable thing in the world. He’s obviously had a very successful career, but it’s also been a career in which he loved the limelight, loved the cameras being on him, loved attention. The media adores guys like that, so his getting a free pass should surprise no one. Clyde Turner & Corky Taylor, to their credit, reached out to Luke Witte years later. Winfield? No time for such nonsense. Breaking out the Pepsodent smile and getting your image polished is much more important.
You should not assume that I expected Winfield to respond. Nevertheless, I thought it appropriate to bring this issue to his attention–regardless of how many years have passed. He’s going to own it whether he likes it or not.
I was an OSU college student at the time, watched the game on a small B&W television with friends. We could not believe what we saw. The Minnesota team should have been suspended for the remainder of the season, forfeiting all games – instead they still call themselves ‘champions’ of the Big Ten. Luke Witte was never the same player after that incident. The OSU coach, Fred Taylor, basically had his spirit ripped out of him, only coached a few more years; he should have had a longer career. Winfield, Behagen, Taylor and the other Minnesota players were thugs and criminals. Justice was NEVER served.
Michael, thanks for your comment. I agree wholeheartedly. Winfield and the other perpetrators got a (mostly) free pass from the media. There was an atmosphere of “Let’s not bring up that unpleasantness with Mr. Winfield. He might get upset.”
I was also an OSU student at the time. This was an assault plain and simple. Criminal charges should have been sought. No justice.
2021, Dave Winfield smirks and has never said a word. The Minnesota team should have punished severly.
This was assault. I remember as a kid, seeing the pictures in SI. Damn shame. It was a dark day for Sports that night.
Quite correct. I get infuriated when I read of it as a “fight.” It was, as you stated, an assault by those racist black guys representing the University of Minnesota.
I was in college at the time and was and still am a huge University of Michigan fan. As always I rooted for whomever was playing against OSU, who had edged us out for the Big Ten title the previous season. The game was televised in Michigan and Ohio. Musselman had coached for several years at Ashland College in Ohio, and had a terrible reputation. But he was a winner! I was disappointed with how poorly Minnesota played. I believe they shot under 30% for the game. When the riot commenced, I was stunned. I remember vividly both Witte and Wagar being kicked in the head, and a fan with an enormous Afro kicking and punching players. He was never identified , but it was rumored he was a member of the Gopher football team. The game was called at about 9:45 eastern time, and there was videotape of the brawl/mugging on all the local tv stations. The next week OSU played the real UofM in Ann Arbor, and for the only time in history, received a standing ovation! Witte and Wagar I believe we’re at the game, but did not dress. With Witte out of the lineup the Buckeyes lost two of the next three games, and dropped to third place. The Gophers won the league, but I was so happy that they lost their first game in the NCAA tournament. By the way you were spot on with your comments on Dave Winfield: a fantastic athlete, a rotten human being. He had very few friends among his MLB teammates, and on at least one of his teams was considered the proverbial “cancer in the clubhouse” Enjoyed your fair report very much.
Brady, thank you for writing. Very interesting about the black guy with afro coming out of stands to join his black brothers in their assault on OSU’s White players. Winfield, needless to say, never responded. However, I did hear from Witte last year.
The Ohio State players should have pursued criminal charges against the Minnesota players involved. The University of Minnesota should have ejected all three as well and immediately fired Musselman. Behagen, Taylor and Winfield should have done time behind bars for their criminal actions.
I could not agree more.
It’s been so long but I’ve always wondered what happened to the video of the game. Not the handheld camera video from the floor but the Ohio State broadcast. Even the game tape which is on YouTube cuts out the fight. Reason is that broadcast showed a lot more of the viciousness that’s missing in the handheld. I cannot recall if it showed Winfield but the video was run on all the news channels. My guess is that the NCAA confiscated it so as not to have that brawl in circulation. And you’re right — this was clearly racially motivated. I cannot image the media coverage if it was 5 white players & a white fan pummeling 5 black players.
I was at this game and I condemn every bit of violence that occurred in this incident. The atmosphere in Williams Arena was electric well before the game started. When the Minnesota players first came on the court, The sound system was blaring Jackie Wilson’s hIt “You’ve lifted me up higher and higher”. The excitement built almost to a frenzy. As the game progressed, the drama was exactly what everyone who likes to see a good game wants to see. As it got down to the last few minutes, it didn’t seem like Minnesota team was going to win and the atmosphere in the arena was rarified. It felt like a room filled with gasoline fumes. Then the spark came. Honestly, it was terrifying. I am thankful that the violence did not spread into the stands or that a panic or riot ensued. My friends and I left with all the other attendees – almost all of us students – in a peaceful, if not stressed exit. The latter were the only rational folks in the arena and their calmness is to be congratulated. Summary: January 25, 1972 was a very sad night.
It was a low point in the history of college sport in the USA.
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