FEATURE STORY: THE SECRET LIFE OF GOLDY THE GOPHER

By: Claudia Staut

Photo by: Claudia Staut

Right outside of the University of Minnesota’s Coffman Memorial Union stands a big bronze statue of the university’s biggest fan with university gear, a welcoming face and two big front teeth: Goldy Gopher

Goldy is the famous anthropomorphic mascot and figurehead of the “spirit squad” for the University of Minnesota. Goldy’s face can be found nearly anywhere in Minnesota on or off campus. He appears on T-shirts, water bottles, university advertisements and almost anything anyone can imagine, there is likely a Goldy version of it.

Goldy’s current look wasn’t inspired by a gopher, even though he is one. His friendly design was inspired by a 13-lined ground squirrel.

Despite being one singular mascot, Goldy is made up of an estimated 10-15 students who walk among the regular student population.

The role is not for the weak. It takes training and requires athleticism, improvisational skills and the ability to keep a big secret.

Luke Pauling, a 2020 Goldy alum, said being able to act quickly is critical to the role.

“Goldy is always on,” Pauling said. “If you ever see Goldy just kind of walking around like, ‘What am I supposed to be doing,’ that's just kind of off-putting. I mean, he can be bored, but then he just ends up playing the trash can for 20 minutes and make something out of that.”

The two main requirements to be Goldy are being a full-time University of Minnesota student and maintaining a 2.0 cumulative GPA, according to Wyatt Fitzsimmons, Goldy head coach and Goldy alum.

Fitzsimmons said prioritizing school is important and should come before everything else, including Goldy which is why they enforce the minimum GPA.

A common rumor at the university is that the Goldys have to be at least 5’9 but that isn’t a requirement, according to Fitzsimmons.

After school requirements come personality requirements. Ben Harrington, a 2020 Goldy alum, said traits alumni and coaches look for at tryouts are similar to traits looked for in job interviews.

Auditions were held March 26, 2024, at Bierman Field Athletic Building, a student-athlete practice facility.

There were 26 auditionees, 23 of them white and 3 of them female, who filled the room in hopes of putting on the Goldy suit and being the face of the university someday.

Some of the auditionees however had already secured the role of Goldy in the past and were added to the mix of students. This is done so the current Goldys can interact with the auditionees on a more personal level without the newbies knowing they’re interacting with a Goldy, according to Alexander Robinson, a fourth-year Goldy.

All of the students were wearing nametags with numbers they picked instead of names to make it easier to distinguish between each student.

Alums try to scope out people who are easy to work with, have flexible personalities, and show promise in team activities, according to Harrington.

The team activities involved a lot of quick-thinking improvisation games.

One included acting in different situations with the same singular prop while the rest of the group had to guess what they were improvising.

The first prop was a fishing net which was used as a metal detector, golf club, mirror and a horse.

Another improvisation activity was where a group of 6-7 students had to use their bodies together to recreate a scenario or bring an object to life.

One group attempted to become a tricycle and another an airplane.

Students who tried out for Goldy said they wanted to be the mascot because of the large amount of school spirit they hold.

John Thielke, a junior at the university, decided to audition because he wanted to become more than a student.

“School spirit is a big thing for me,” Thielke said. “I don’t want to just go to the University of Minnesota and only do school. I want to be part of the university.”

Kennedy Heidel, a freshman auditionee, said her Goldy fervor is genetic: both of her parents went to the university. 

“My family's a gopher family and I've always, like, since I was little, I was like, ‘I wanna be Goldy,’” Heidel said.

One thing stuck out like a sore thumb at auditions. 23 out of 26 auditionees were white and 23 out of 26 auditionees were men.

Robinson said he can’t recall any current or Goldy alums that were not white.

Coach Fitzsimmons is not sure why this is a trend. He claims their advertisement for auditions goes out to a large university audience but they continue to attract white men to the role.

“I've been wondering about that for many years, and have no idea why mascotting seems to appeal so heavily to white men,” Fitzsimmons said. “Goldy's tryout marketing is very broad. Goldy generally hands out flyers at dining halls, sports events, and busy campus locations like the mall, the bridge, the union and more in an attempt to reach as many different people as possible. But, as you observed, the people who actually come out are generally white and generally men.”

Robinson said he didn’t notice how white mascotting was until he was at a mascot camp in Wisconsin Dells with about 80 other mascots from around the United States.

He said they were sharing fun facts about themselves and one mascot from Tennessee named Gabe said he was the only black person there as his fact.

“It was like, everyone laughed because he was right,” Robinson said. “We didn't realize that there's not a lot of diversity in the group. Even when you look at across the nation at different schools who came into this camp, and he was saying it lightheartedly, but he raised a good point.”

Being Goldy may be an exciting role to obtain but it has to be kept secret.

This is no simple task as those who are Goldy are partaking in events 1-3 times a week depending on the time of the year, according to Fitzsimmons.

Robinson said a common way he combats this is by saying he works for the ‘spirit squad’ as a manager at the university.

“The biggest nail in the coffin for me is that [being Goldy] is 100% something that I would do,” Robinson said. “This just makes sense for me as my personality.”

Some of Robinson’s friends have caught on and attempted to pry the secret out of him in front of others.

Robinson said the best strategy is to ignore those who bring it up. However, if they keep at it Robinson will give up and tell them he is Goldy and tell them to be quiet about it.

However, at the end of the day, the face of the university will always be Goldy. No matter how many students with the role of Goldy get exposed, Goldy is the large bronze statue on campus and not a white male college student.

“It's like the quote, ‘nobody cared who I was until I put on the mask’ because they obviously love him so much more than anyone's going to love you,” Robinson said. “And that's okay, because it's like, that's what you're there to represent, right?”