Patrick Fenelon blew our mind with tweeted footage that he said shows Wolves coach Flip Saunders, during his Gophers basketball playing days in 1975, riding a unicycle and juggling basketballs.
Sadly, it appears as though it's too good to be true. A little further digging indicates it is almost certainly Mike Monson on the unicycle in the footage you see below.
From an Oct. 16, 1974 Associated Press story that ran in the Bemidji Pioneer under the headline "Unicyclist stars with University of Minnesota Basketball Team" it identifies Monson, of Golden Valley, as the juggling unicyclist who convinced then-coach Bill Musselman to incorporate him into the Gophers' elaborate pregame routine. He honed his act, the story said, after watching George Schauer perform ball-handling feats the previous year in the warmups.
It's too bad it's not Flip. If he could re-enact this during halftime of a Wolves game, this would instantly replace the retiring Red Panda as our favorite. Then again, it looks as though George Schauer was still doing his act as of a few years ago, albeit not on a unicycle.
In any event, here is the entire 20-minute video of pregame warmups the Gophers used to do, which includes Monson on the unicycle a little after five minutes in. All of it is awesome, regardless of who is doing what.
