Patrick Reusse: Key stadium players count the days

The University of Minnesota Foundation is located on the fifth floor of the McNamara Alumni Center. Bob McNamara makes regular visits, not to see his family name attached to the building but to deliver checks from his personal fundraising for the on-campus football stadium.

"I'm dropping off checks, so I drive by the stadium site two or three times a week," McNamara said. "I can't wait for the first game in 2009. There are two guys I want to take with me: my brother Pinky and coach [Murray] Warmath.

"I talked to Murray the other day and said, 'Two more years, Coach. We have to hang in there.' "

The challenge is somewhat greater for Warmath, who will turn 95 in December. McNamara's 76th birthday was Aug. 12. "Seventy-six and still in the mix," he said.

Pinky is 74. He's the McNamara who made a $10 million donation toward the alumni center. He's had some memory issues in recent years, although he's still fine physically and plays golf with his brother.

"Pinky was at lunch with us today," Bob said Thursday. "We were going to play our weekly nine holes of golf, but we were rained out. So, I found a racquetball court for 2:30.

"You know anyone who wants a game? I'm not bad, for a 76-year-old with two artificial knees, an artificial hip and a surgically repaired shoulder."

Bob and Pinky played football for the Gophers in the 1950s. They were in the same backfield in 1954 -- Bob as a senior, Pinky as a sophomore. Warmath's first season was '54, meaning Bob played for him only one year.

"We had Wes Fesler for three years before Murray," McNamara said. "Wes was a P.R. man, but he didn't really get the most out of his team. Murray came in and I thought he was great.

"I wouldn't say he was a Marine drill sergeant, but he was close. That was fine with me. I had been through paratrooper training and spent a year in Korea."

Now, we move ahead more than 50 years, and the hard-nosed coach, Glen Mason, has been replaced by the super salesman, Tim Brewster, and McNamara couldn't be more impressed.

"I tell you what: I've been in Tim's office and I've been to a half-dozen functions with him, and I get goose bumps listening to him," McNamara said. "I told him the other day, 'Coach, I'm 76 and half my joints are artificial, but after listening to you, I'd like to give it one more shot.' "

So, you don't think this Rose Bowl mantra has been a bunch of hooey?

"It's not, and I'll tell you why," McNamara said. "First, I'm an optimist myself, so I know one when I see one, and that's him. He's sincerely an optimist.

"And second, Mike Shanahan is a good friend of mine and he told me, 'We stole Tim Brewster [as a Denver assistant] from San Diego for one reason: He's a good football coach. He can coach, he can recruit and he can relate to the fans. You got the whole package with him.' "

Bob and Pinky grew up in Hastings as the middle two of six brothers. Their father was an alcoholic and not in the picture.

"My mother, Eva, was the breadwinner and the hero of our family," Bob said. "One advantage for her was she worked at the Hastings mental hospital. So, when she got home and her six boys were running all over the place, we seemed fairly normal."

Richard earned the name Pinky at a young age.

"Our family didn't have any money, obviously," Bob said. "Pinky had a pair of red corduroys. If you wash red corduroys often enough, they become pink. The neighbor kids gave him the nickname because of those cords.

"In '54, the first day we were at the 'U' together, he said to me, 'Don't tell anyone about Pinky. I hate that nickname.'

"Old habits are tough to break. Five minutes later, Sid Hartman comes up to me in the locker room and I say, 'Sid, did you meet my brother Pinky?'

"And that was it. He was Pinky for the rest of his career, in football and business."

The business worked out so well that when Bob does his volunteer fundraising for the Gophers -- whether it's to save golf and men's gymnastics, or to endow all tennis scholarships, or to return to an on-campus football stadium -- he knows where the first call is going.

"To Pinky," he said.

The short trip to campus for the 2009 season opener isn't the only football journey that McNamara is anxious to make.

"Brewster is taking us to the Rose Bowl, definitely," McNamara said. "You coming along?"

Love to, Bob, but I'm going to have to get in much better shape to live another 20 years.

Patrick Reusse can be heard weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP at 6:45 and 7:45 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. • preusse@startribune.com