Souhan: Tommies, Johnnies meet again during ‘special evening’

On Thursday night, the protagonists of one of the most storied rivalries in Minnesota history renewed pleasantries.

The St. Thomas and St. John’s men’s basketball teams played for the first time since 2021, when the gym was empty because of the COVID lockdown. This also marked the first time the teams have played since St. Thomas graduated to Division I and built a stunning new home.

The Tommies won the reunion 80-56 at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena. The standing-room-only crowd was announced as 5,325, and there were splotches of Johnnie red amid the sea of purple sweatshirts and seats.

St. Thomas sophomore guard Nolan Minessale, who dominated the game with 30 points, 11 rebounds and three assists, grew up in Wisconsin.

“This was my first time hearing about it,” he said of the rivalry. “I think I saw that two weeks ago it was sold out, and I was kind of shocked by that. Leading up to this, our coaches did a good job of telling us what it meant and what the rivalry was like back in the day.”

That included St. Thomas coach Johnny Tauer showing game film from when he starred for the Tommies.

“On the film we could see guys from St. John’s getting kicked out, guys from St. Thomas getting kicked out,” Minessale said. “It was rowdy.”

“It was in color,” Minessale said. “But it wasn’t great. There were a couple of Johnny Tauer dunks that looked like layups, just because the camera work was very good.”

Tauer remembered his mother, at a game in Collegeville, hearing St. John’s fans screaming “Steroids!” at her son. He explained that they weren’t making a serious accusation; they were teasing him for being skinny.

Thursday night, a handful of St. John’s fans sneaked into some of the prime seats and made their presence known before security escorted them away, but the game felt more like a family reunion than professional wrestling.

Tauer is friends with St. John’s coach Pat McKenzie. Both are highly successful and maintain their composure on the sideline. St. Thomas alum Dan O’Brien is St. John’s interim athletic director.

Neither side seemed sure of when these teams might play again. Tauer said one of the biggest surprises of becoming a Division I school is the difficulty of putting together a nonconference schedule. Playing what was a regular-season game for St. Thomas and an exhibition for St. John’s is not always going to work for both teams.

St. John’s is a Division III powerhouse that lost eight of its top nine scorers entering this season. The Johnnies, led by senior guard Kyle Johnson of Prior Lake, are 3-5. Johnson led the team with 15 points on Thursday.

“It was a fun game for us,” McKenzie said. “It was fun to get the band back together.”

Why play a Division I team?

“I thought for us it was a stress test,” McKenzie said. “We’re young and, frankly, struggling a little bit right now. So if it’s one of those things — if it works against these guys, maybe we can lean into it a little bit. If it doesn’t work so well, it might not, so what the heck?”

The victory was the 299th of Tauer’s career. St. John’s was within four at the half before St. Thomas pulled away, allowing Tauer to play his sons, Jack and Adam, for two minutes at the end.

St. Thomas is 8-4, including 5-0 at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena. The Tommies have a home winning streak of 23 games, best in Division I.

As fans filed out, leaving behind an amphitheater filled with purple seats, Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” played loudly.