(Courtesy of Andrews McMeel Publishing)

MATT EICHELDINGER: Launches “Matt Sprouts and the Day Nora Ate the Sun,” second in his Matt Sprouts series in which Matt has to babysit Nora the goat. 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul.

AISHA M. BELISO-DE JESUS: Discusses “Excited Delirium,” about a now-denounced syndrome used by medical examiners to describe the deaths of Black men and women during interactions with police, claiming that Black people with so-called excited delirium exhibited superhuman strength induced by narcotics abuse. It was heart failure that killed them, they said, not forceful police restraints. The author, a cultural and social anthropologist, examines this fabricated medical diagnosis and its use to justify and erase police violence against Black and Brown communities. In conversation with Michael L. Walker, University of Minnesota Beverly and Richard Fink professor in liberal arts in the sociology department. 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls. Registration required: magersandquinn.com/events.

LITERARY BRIDGES: Celebrates its seventh birthday by hosting a program featuring host/curators of other Twin Cities reading series, including Douglas Green, Becky Boling. Rick Hilber, Frances Jams, George Colburn, River Maria Urke, Julie Martin, Tim Nolan, Dralandra Larkins, Ronal J. Palmer, Jeanne Lutz, Haley Lasche, Ted King and others. 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.

MULTI-MYSTERY AUTHORS: Wendy Webb, Catriona McPherson, Sarah Stonich, Jess Lourey, Kristi Belcamino and Joshua Moehling sign copies of their books. 1-4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, Open Book at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Terminal 1.

POETRY AND MUSIC: St. Paul Almanac and Walker/West Music Academy collaborate on “Listen! An Evening of Prose and Poetry” at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts featuring Twin Cities poets and spoken-word artists whose work has been published in the almanac during the past 20 years, and Walker/West music instructor and band leader Kevin Washington leading an ensemble of Walker/West faculty. “It’s a historic moment for St. Paul Almanac poets and Walker/West musicians to collaborate on the Ordway stage,” writes Pamela Fletcher Bush, Almanac CEO/publisher. “It is also a historic moment for the Ordway to feature poets. To build on this occasion the almanac is launching a yearlong celebration of its 20th anniversary until fall, 2025. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington St., St. Paul.  Tickets from $67 to $39 available through the Ordway ticket office, 651-224-4222, or boxoffice.ordway.org.

POLING/MICHELL: Writer Chan Poling and illustrator Lucy Michell present a musical story time celebrating their picture book “The Moons,” which reminds us that friendships can be treasured through song.10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul.

MARCIE RENDON: Author of the popular Cash Blackbear series launches her new stand-alone novel “Where They Last Saw Her,” about missing Native women on a reservation near where workers are laying a pipeline, and a woman who brings other women on the reservation together to show solidary and find their lost sisters. 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 3, Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.

Related Articles

Readers and writers: Outside the spotlight, editor brought to life hundreds of stories

15 must-read romance novels to love as summer ends

Readers and writers: Three Minnesota writers provide indelible characters

Literary calendar for Aug. 25

Literary pick for Aug. 18

If you attend any big literary event in the Twin Cities you will see a tall woman with short white hair surrounded by people who want to talk to her. She is Ann Regan, one of the most quietly influential editors in Minnesota and beyond. As editor-in-chief of the Minnesota Historical Society Press, she has worked with some 350 authors to publish books that tell us about ourselves. Yet she has remained out of the spotlight.

“Editors delight in working in the shadows. I am very comfortable there,” Regan acknowledged in a conversation from her office at the Minnesota Historical Society building that looms over St. Paul on Kellogg Boulevard. “My job is to elevate the author. I am happy to be sitting back and applauding.”

Then, with typical Regan humor she adds, “But I’m also as egotistical as anyone else I ever met.”

Regan, 69, officially retires Tuesday after 46 years with the nonprofit publishing arm of the Minnesota Historical Society. Besides working directly with authors, she has been acting director off and on. (“It’s more fun to be an editor than director.”) During her career she has strived to fulfill the press’s mission — to serve all of the people of Minnesota by creating powerful engagement with history to cultivate curiosity and foster a more inclusive, empathetic and informed society.

“When you know more about the place where you live, you are a better citizen,” she says. “You know the back story, understand why some things are the way they are.”

Regan (pronounced “Reegan”) gets down to the nitty-gritty of grammar and punctuation as editor, but colleagues and writers she’s worked with say she has personal qualities that make her special.

Jim Cihlar, MNHSP marketing director, appreciates Regan’s thorough understanding of publishing and her ability to work with writers of different temperaments and skills.

“One of Ann’s catchphrases is ‘Over to you,’ meaning she has done her best work as editor, and now she trusts her co-workers to do their best as the project moves through to publication,” Cihlar said. “Ann has a remarkable memory and the ability to hold a whole manuscript in her head. She asks herself tough questions, too, challenging her own assumptions to better herself as an editor. She has natural poise, a striking presence, and a rich sense of humor.”

Ann Regan talks with friends during her retirement party at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Patty Wetterling and Joy Baker, authors of “Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope,” credit Regan with keeping them going when they were questioning their writing partnership.

“I’ll never forget meeting Ann for the first time at Maynard’s (restaurant) in Rogers,” Baker recalled. “It was January of 2020, just before the world shut down due to COVID. Patty and I were working hard to complete her memoir, but struggling with co-writing. Ann assured us this was normal: She told us: ‘Your process sounds just right, and you’re making all the right complaints about how difficult it is, which is a good sign. Keep it up and you will have a book.’ ”

Related Articles

Readers and writers: Three Minnesota writers provide indelible characters

Readers and writers: Plenty of thrills and danger in these Minnesota author’s mysteries

Readers and writers: Cork O’Connor returns in Kent Krueger’s latest

Readers and writers: A rom-com after mastectomy? It works.

Readers and writers: Longtime sci-fi writer to be honored as convention returns to Twin Cities

Patty Wetterling: “Ann Regan helps writers grow and rise above their wildest imaginations. With humor, patience and skill she helped me believe in my story and select a shorter, more impactful way of sharing it. Ann has been a gift to us all and will forever bring a smile to my heart.”

Lynette Reini-Grandell, author of “Wild Things: A Trans-Glam-Punk-Love Story,” calls Regan “a dream combination of attentive mother and tough coach’” during the editorial process: “We had hours of discussions on structural ideas and minutiae (should we really have all those hyphens in the title?), and she set aside time to let things simmer. She was there when I needed to cry and knew how to leave the door open for me to come back and make the book better.”

Melvin Carter Jr., a former St. Paul police officer, appreciated Regan’s attention to detail when they worked on Carter’s autobiography “Diesel Heart,” but thinks she “sometimes overdid it a little” when it came to fact-checking. “It was like being nibbled to death by ducks,” he recalled with amusement about Regan questioning details such as whether the lilacs were really blooming in St. Paul when he returned from military service. When Carter wrote about happenings in Oak Park Heights prison, Regan hunted down witnesses, newspaper articles, and police reports to verify his memories. “She investigated because she cared about the integrity of me and my book,” Carter said. “She wasn’t a dictator; she helped me say things I wanted to say.”

From Montana to Minnesota

Regan grew up in Billings, Mont., with two sisters and a brother. Her father, Tom, was an architect, and her mother, Pat, taught junior high and served in the Montana legislature.

“My mother was a force of nature, a smart, strong woman, a good role model, ” Regan said. “Both my parents were really people of the book. Loving books, reading together. I thought it was what everybody did. I read so widely it’s hard to pick my favorites. I know I read all the Narnia books. I’ve gone back and tried to figure out why I liked something like a fairly sappy British book, “A Little Princess,” about a noble person treated badly and vindicated. It was built on a colonizer story about who should rule the world. You can grow out of that stuff.”

After graduating from the University of Montana, Regan was a volunteer at the Montana Historical Society editing book reviews for the organization’s widely respected Montana: The Magazine of Western History. That experience gave her the first glimpse of how to explain history through stories.

Still, Regan knew she wanted to leave her home state. Armed with a letter of recommendation, she moved to Minnesota where her big sister Kate was living. Thanks to a federal program, Regan was able to apply to the Historical Society Press, where she was introduced to immigrants’ history by working on, among other books, “They Chose Minnesota,” a survey of the state’s ethnic groups.

One of Regan’s first fans was former Historical Society director Nina Archabal, who watched the young woman climb the leadership ladder at the press.

“Ann is an unsung hero,” Archabal said. “We met in 1977, and I liked her from day one. She is one of the most positive people I know. Authors would come to me for help as director and I would send them to Ann in the publications department. Nobody ever got bad treatment there. They were either published or Ann would tell them where to look elsewhere.”

The intersection of story and history enriched the MNHSP list when Patricia Hampl brought Regan an idea.

“I first came to Ann with an idea for an anthology of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald,” Hampl recalls. “I suppose I was my own literary agent — just walked down Summit Avenue to the History Center. She immediately got it, and with (chapter) headnotes by Dave Page, she published “The St. Paul Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald” (2004) with an introductory essay I wrote. Ann, along with the brilliant production team headed by Will Powers, brought out a book with enduring appeal. Later, Elaine Tyler May and I had the idea for a collection of essays by memoirists and historians that took on the relationship between autobiographical writing and history writing. Our idea was that history is public memoir, and memoir creates personal history. Once again, Ann immediately saw its value for the press.and published ‘Tell Me True,’ a collection of essays by writers.”

Regan points to the late Evelyn Fairbanks’ memoir “The Days of Rondo” as the book that “made me an editor.” It’s about living in the thriving Rondo area of St. Paul in the 1930s and ’40s, before the largely Black community was ripped in half by construction of the Interstate 94 freeway.

“Working with Fairbanks taught me how to be a developmental editor, looking at the manuscript and giving the author advice on how to revise,” she recalls. “Evelyn was very willing to rewrite. She had good stories to tell, a natural writing voice that was engaging. I would give her advice and she would tease me. Immediate closeness is very important when you are editing.”

On Regan’s first day at the History Center she met Bruce White, then assistant editor at the Historical Society’s Minnesota History magazine. They were married in 1984, a year after they bought their house in the Cherokee Heights neighborhood on the West Side. Their son, Ned, lives in New York.

“Bruce is a brilliant guy who’s been doing expert witness work for tribal nations pursuing treaty rights,” Regan says of her husband.

White, a historian and an anthropologist, has written several books for MNHSP including Minnesota Book Award-winner “Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota,” written with Gwen Westerman, now Minnesota poet laureate. His latest is “They Would Not Be Moved,” about the legal battles of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe to retain and recover their land. To ensure there is no conflict of interest, Regan has nothing to do with the books her husband publishes with the press.

When the couple is able they head to “the farm,” a little vacation home near Taylors Falls. Ann describes it as “lovely, surrounded by farm fields, quiet and peaceful.” And if their guests are lucky, they might be served Regan’s specialty as a tart baker, a cranberry-caramel-almond treat.

Leaving with pride

Regan is most proud of books she edited by writers of all ethnicities — Native American, Black, Asian, European, Scandinavian and others. She worked on several by Anton Treuer, professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, including the popular “Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians but Were Afraid to Ask.”

Treuer talked about Regan’s wide-ranging influence in the most recent Minnesota History magazine: “I watched her solicit, edit and publish manuscripts consistently for decades until (MNHSP) emerged as the best state historical press in the country with the deepest and broadest list of Native American history. Her leadership … elevated many often-marginalized voices.”

A book Regan edited that got national attention is “A Good Time for the Truth: Race in America,” in which 16 accomplished writers discuss what it’s like to be a person of color in Minnesota. The anthology was edited by Sun Yung Shin, who calls Regan an inspiring collaborator.

“I could not be more proud of my work with Ann,” Sun Yung Shin says. “An editor has to be a visionary, a tactful diplomat, a businessperson, a kind of therapist, and much more. She is one of the many dedicated and deeply knowledgeable book people who make living in Minnesota a historically grounded experience. Her leadership in that role will be missed by and forever appreciated by me.”

Regan says working with these diverse authors enriched her.

“I grew up in Billings where ‘diversity’ is the Crow people from the reservation and Mexican-American field workers,” she recalled  “It is a stupendously generous act on the part of these (diverse) writers to speak with honesty. They don’t have to put themselves out there so I and a lot of other people could learn. That is the work that has changed me the most, taught me the most, explained my world to me the most.”

Ask Regan why she’s retiring and she replies there isn’t a single reason. “I am not fed up, exhausted, losing it,” she says. “It was time and there will be new colleagues, John Rahm as director and Ryan Hemmer as acquisitions editor. They are strong, smart publishing professionals. This place is heading in an interesting new direction. They have energy and good ideas.”

And the question every retiring person is asked: What’s ahead?

“I’ve never been big on planning, but I have a good set point for happiness, so I’m not worried about it,” Regan says. “I’ll do all the things people do, like travel and volunteering. But mostly I’ll figure out who I am when I’m not in this job.”

(Editor’s note: The abbreviated quote from Anton Treuer comes from a profile of Ann Regan in the current Minnesota History magazine, published by the Minnesota Historical Society, written by Allison Ortiz in collaboration with Sarah T. Williams. Go to shop.mnhs.org/minnesota-history-magazine-summer-2024-64-2.)

More author praise

Roger Barr: “As a professional writer, I’ve worked with dozens of editors over the years. Hands down, Ann Regan is the best I ever worked with. If she hadn’t chosen to be an editor, she could easily have been a diplomat for the State Department. She’s fearless in her critiques, yet at the same time, she’s willing to listen to a defense and change her mind. She possesses an unparalleled ability to get inside a writer’s head and work almost invisibly to improve a manuscript.”

Kathryn Kysar: “Ann Regan is a book doula, a master at massaging a manuscript, easing the process, and supporting her authors for the best outcomes possible. She is sensitive, insightful, sharp and honest, Blunt or sympathetic as needed. Ann has shaped the literary landscape in Minnesota, one book at a time.”

Danny Klecko: “I have been lucky enough to work on several projects with MNHSP. During times when I felt overwhelmed or out of place, I found myself ducking into Regan’s office because five minutes with her calm and patience more often than not put me back on track. Ann Regan is more than a regional legend. She’s a national treasure.”

Christopher P. Lehman: “Ann was the editor for my most recent books, ‘Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State’ and ‘It Took Courage: Eliza Winston’s Quest for Freedom.’ As I worked with her, she made me a better researcher and a better storyteller. She has my eternal thanks for taking a chance on my proposals and guiding me through their fruition.”

The Minnesota Vikings say they consider J.J. McCarthy their quarterback of the future. But they really don’t know how that’s going to go. Neither does anyone else. The 21-year-old rookie remains unproven.

McCarthy is out for the season after surgery last month to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. Should the Vikings suffer a disheartening season, which appears likely, and end up with a top-five pick in next spring’s draft, it wouldn’t be a shock if they were to choose another quarterback of the future.

The Vikings took McCarthy with the No. 10 pick in April’s draft. Georgia’s Carson Beck is considered the top QB in next year’s draft, probably a top-five pick.

>> When Jimmy Johnson was in Dallas, he had Troy Aikman as his quarterback. But he also spent a first-round pick in the 1989 supplemental draft to take Steve Walsh from Miami via St. Paul. Once Aikman won the starting job, the Cowboys traded Walsh to the New Orleans Saints for first-, second- and third-round draft picks.

Nothing is certain.

Had McCarthy been healthy and able to play this season, the Vikings would have been better able to project his future.

Now it’s still uncertain.

>> In 2008, Gophers QB Adam Weber had surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his right knee. Six days later, Weber led Minnesota past Illinois 27-20 in Champaign, Ill.

>> None of the three QBs the Vikings have to start the season — Sam Darnold (age 27), Nick Mullens (29) and Brett Rypien (28) — are young enough to be developmental projects.

>> The Falcons, who host the Steelers in the season opener next Sunday, are favored to win the NFC South division with ex-Vikings QB Kirk Cousins, 36, and his $180 million contract.

>> Ex-Vikings pass rusher Danielle Hunter, 29, now playing for his hometown Houston Texans, still drives a Nissan car despite having earned more than $90 million during his 10-year NFL career, he told si.com last week. The Texans are a legitimate Super Bowl contender after hitting on QB C.J. Stroud with the No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft.

>> The Vikings’ release of QB Matt Corral was no surprise — he was signed only because they needed an extra arm for a couple weeks after McCarthy’s injury. The same for ex-Gophers running back Mo Ibrahim — the Vikings needed an extra running back for the final exhibition game against the Eagles because they couldn’t afford to have others get hurt.

Ibrahim was expected to get about $3,000 for his exhibition week with the Vikings.

>> Ex-Viking Josh Dobbs, 29, has made the 49ers roster as third-string QB and will play for $2.3 million this season.

>> QB Kellen Mond, 25, drafted by the Vikings in the third-round in 2021, no longer is in the NFL.

>> There was no chance the Vikings would sign Cowboys’ No. 3 backup QB Trey Lance. The Marshall (Minn.) High grad, 24, in his fourth season in the NFL, has a $34 million guaranteed deal.

>> Until last week, it appeared ex-Viking Greg Joseph would win the preseason kicking job with the Packers. Then he was released.

>> Ex-Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, the new defensive coordinator for the Cowboys, last week lured ex-Vikings DT Linval Joseph to Dallas to go along with LB Eric Kendricks, who the team signed in March.

>> The Vikings are still hoping to host a future NFL draft, which next year goes to the Packers in Green Bay.

>> The touring Waterford Crystal College National Championship football trophy, which costs $30,000, was on display Thursday at the Gophers stadium before Minnesota’s 19-17 loss to North Carolina. This week, the trophy heads to Ann Arbor for next Saturday’s big Texas-Michigan game.

>> Within six days last week, with a goal of raising $350,000, more than 3,200 well-wishers donated via a GoFundMe account $376,648 for courageous former football Gopher Casey O’Brien, 24, who has had a cancer relapse that is not covered by insurance. Michael Jordan has been the top contributor with $10,000.

>> There were 180 participants, including three females, who attended last week’s free baseball umpire seminar at the Saints’ CHS Field. Eight former major league umps, including Bethel University grad Jeff Nelson, headed the four-hour session.

>> Les Jepsen, 57, the 7-foot former Iowa and NBA center, each Thursday hosts a classic car display in the parking lot of the A&W restaurant he owns in Inver Grove Heights.

>> That was ex-Twin Corey Koskie, age 51, hitting a three-run, two-out, 10th-inning, 450-foot home run to advance the Loretto Larks to the state amateur baseball tournament. Koskie wears jersey number No. 47, the same number he wore with the Twins, Brewers and Blue Jays during a nine-year major league career.

>> North Oaks native Frankie Capan III is averaging 311 yards in driving distance on the Korn Ferry Tour, but that ranks just 56th overall. At No. 57 is Van Holmgren from Wayzata at 310.7 yards. No. 1 is Aldrich Potgieter from Pretoria, South Africa at 339 yards.

>> Thomas Lehman of Scottsdale, Ariz., son of former Gophers golfer Tom, was in a tie for 149th place after shooting 75 on Friday in the CRMC Championship in Brainerd, Minn.

>> Good guy former Gopher Kevin Hamm, who played split-end (1969-71) for Murray Warmath, passed away Friday due to leukemia.

>> At a memorial gathering last Sunday for Roger Erickson, some 150 admirers of the beloved Cretin-Derham Hall flexibility guru, including Joe Mauer, Matt Birk and Steve Walsh, turned out at Mancini’s Char House. Erickson died the other day at 71 of an apparent heart attack.

He was an amazing guy.

“Roger healed the body but also your mind,” said Mauer, the Baseball Hall of Fame former Twin.

Birk, the six-time Vikings Pro Bowl center who finished his career with the Baltimore Ravens, convinced Ravens coach John Harbaugh to hire Erickson for the Ravens’ 2013 Super Bowl championship season.

“In three days (after being hired by the Ravens), Roger had every single player totally bought into his philosophy,” Birk said. “That entire year, we did not have one soft tissue injury, not one pulled hamstring, not one pulled groin. Roger was absolutely the best at what he did.”

>> No, in case you’re still wondering, Gophers offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh is not related to Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh.

>> Minnesota high school hall of fame basketball coach Tom Ihnot, 76, suffered a stroke in February and underwent double-bypass surgery and heart valve replacement in May and is back shooting in the high 70s on the golf course. If Ihnot returns to coaching at St. Thomas Academy next season, it will be his 57th straight season on the bench.

>> Tom Mee Jr., 69, the former Gophers and minor league outfielder and son of late Twins Hall of Famer Tom Sr., was at Target Field for last weekend’s Twins-Cardinals series in his 37th years as St. Louis’ TV director.

Don’t print that

>> Pssst: Even though a November arbitration hearing to determine majority ownership of the Timberwolves and Lynx is theoretically binding, don’t count on the result being a final resolution.

The delay in scheduling the hearing (Nov. 4) has been to find dates for three agreed-upon judges to meet together. Meanwhile, the Timberwolves in November already will be into their regular season after five preseason games. Team budgets for the 2024-25 season already have been approved and completed by Glen Taylor with plans for him to continue as owner throughout the season.

>> The Vikings visit the Giants in their season opener next Sunday. The game is considered a toss-up. But Minnesota will be an underdog in six of its ensuing seven games. A victory in East Rutherford, N.J., against the Giants is paramount. Otherwise, a 5-12 season is not an unreasonable forecast.

>> Next year (2025) will be a pivotal season for the Vikings. Depending on circumstances (dire season), the Vikings could be a sleeper team for Bill Belichick, despite his age (72). But the future Hall of Fame coach is first expected to be the next Cowboys’ next coach.

>> The Vikings currently have only three picks — one in the first-round and two in the fifth-round — in next year’s draft. They’re likely to receive a compensatory pick, probably late in the third-round, for losing Kirk Cousins.

>> The Vikings are now worth $5.05 billion, a 9% increase over last year, ranking No. 21 among the NFL’s 32 teams, per Forbes’ new valuations last week. Owners Zygi and Mark Wilf easily could get more than $5 billion if they put the team on the market. This is their 20th season in Minnesota, and there is no indication that they would be interested in selling.

The Packers rank No. 13 at $5.6 billion, a one-year change of 22%. No. 1 is the Cowboys at $10.1 billion, helped, in part, by the Vikings’ trade for Herschel Walker in 1989.

The Vikings receive nearly $380 million from the NFL’s new national media rights deal.

>> This is the 40th season that the Pohlad family has owned the Twins. Glen Taylor has owned the Timberwolves for 30 years, Craig Leipold the Wild for 16 years.

>> Hall of Fame former Viking Paul Krause was in Canton, Ohio, recently for Pro Football Hall of Fame festivities. Some current NFL defensive backs were astounded to learn that Krause has a still-record 82 career interceptions.

“I told them that’s what the book says,” Krause, 81, said.

To what does Krause attribute his record?

“To be able to run, jump and catch,” he said. “And, we had a head coach, Bud Grant, who told me, ‘I can’t tell you how to play free safety because you do it better than anybody.’ Bud said you can do anything you want to out there, just don’t get beat deep.’”

Krause laments today’s defensive backs getting beat deep.

“These guys, they’re getting beat deep all the time now,” he said. “That’s probably because their coaches haven’t told them how to play their spot. My goodness, you’ve got to know your own ability, and if you’ve got to take off a step early, you’ve got to do it.”

Krause resides in Lakeville. He was an exceptional golfer, a 2-handicapper, but no longer plays.

“My hips hurt, my back hurts,” he said.

>> The release of Vikings QB Jaren Hall, 26, on Thursday and the signing of QB Brett Rypien, 28, who was released by the Bears, was no surprise, despite Hall and Rypien having played well in exhibition games. Coaches rate players more on daily practices than exhibitions against vanilla defenses with no starters.

Rypien is a nephew of Mark Rypien, who quarterbacked Washington to the 1992 Super Bowl victory Buffalo at the Metrodome.

>> A little birdie says junior Pharrell Payne gets a check for $10,000 every Friday from his name, image and likeness (NIL) deal for leaving the Gophers last spring for Texas A&M. Ex-Gophers teammate Elijah Hawkins’ Texas Tech NIL deal is worth $400,000.

>> One former Gophers football season ticket holder suggests rerouting revenue from extortion fees for preferred seating to players for NIL deals.

>> A prominent former Gophers basketball player is quietly picking up the $8,000 cost of the funeral of beloved Gophers-Timberwolves assistant Jimmy Williams, who died of Parkinson’s disease at age 77 and whose service was Thursday in Quincy, Fla.

>> Venerable former football coaches Gerry Brown of St. Thomas Academy and Rich Kallok and Mal Scanlan of Cretin-Derham Hall will do the honorary coin flip before the Cadets-Raiders rivalry game Sept. 21 at the Vikings’ TCO Stadium in Eagan.

>> Don’t think new Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson, 55, wouldn’t have given consideration to replacing recently retired Gophers coach John Anderson at his alma mater.

Wilson, said former longtime Gophers associate coach Rob Fornasiere, “is the finest person I have ever met.”

>> The University of Minnesota, that lost 19-17 to a mediocre North Carolina football team on Thursday, paid the Tar Heels $200,000 to come to Minneapolis. Meanwhile, Wisconsin paid Western Michigan $1.5 million for Friday night’s 28-14 victory in Madison, Front Office Sports points out.

>> A parking lot several blocks from the Gophers stadium was charging $50 for the game Thursday against the Tar Heels.

>> People who know pitching find it interesting that Twins’ closer Jhoan Duran, whose fastball has reached 104 mph, lately has been throwing more breaking pitches.

>> The Gophers baseball job pays about $200,000 a year. Meanwhile, Tennessee just signed its baseball coach, Tony Vitello, to a $3 million per season deal.

>> The Twins’ chances of making the playoffs are 87.4 percent, per fangraphs.com.

>> Former Minneapolis Laker Frank Selvy died at age 91 the other day. That leaves former Gopher Chuck Mencel, also 91, as the last surviving player from the Minneapolis Lakers franchise. Mencel played for the Lakers from 1955 to 1957.

>> Ex-Gophers left-handed pitcher Connor Wietgrefe from Prior Lake received a $247,500 bonus to sign with the Pirates, who drafted him in the seventh round in June. Another ex-Gophers lefty, Tucker Novotny from Cottage Grove, received $125,000 as the A’s 18th-round draft pick.

>> Unknowingly, a Twins infielder tossed Joe Ryan’s 500th strikeout milestone baseball into the crowd in San Francisco because it was the third out of the inning.

>> Former Wild winger Jason Zucker of the Sabres has sold his Minneapolis home near Lake Harriet for $3.5 million.

>> A personally-designed Nike basketball shoe, retailing at $190, that Paige Bueckers from Hopkins will wear for her senior season at Connecticut will have two area codes _ 860 for Connecticut and 612 for Minnesota, reports soleretriever.com.

Overheard

>> A former basketball recruiting competitor at Florida State, speaking Thursday at the memorial service for Gophers ex-recruiting whiz Jimmy Williams, 77, on Jimmy’s response when he asked how he was able to get star Mychal Thompson out of warm weather Miami to come to freezing Minnesota: “Jimmy said Mychal had never been to heaven, but he had been to Minnesota.”

Related Articles

Charley Walters: Signs point to this being make-or-break season for Vikings’ Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Kevin O’Connell

Charley Walters: Vikings could really use Adam Thielen now

Charley Walters: From start, Mauer had Cooperstown potential

Charley Walters: Knicks’ moves mean no room for Towns trade

Charley Walters: Twins fans left waiting for Bally bankruptcy court

Today is Sunday, Sept. 1, the 245th day of 2024. There are 121 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 1, 1985, a U.S.-French expedition located the wreckage of the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean roughly 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

Also on this date:

In 1715, following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France died four days before his 77th birthday; he was succeeded by his five year-old great-grandson, Louis XV.

Related Articles

Today in History: August 31, Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in Paris crash

Today in History: August 30, hundreds rescued across flooded New Orleans in wake of Hurricane Katrina

Washington County Historical Society to host rural-school reunion

Today in History: August 29, John McCain picks Sarah Palin for running mate

Today in History: August 28, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers “I Have a Dream” speech

In 1897, the first section of Boston’s new subway was opened, creating the first underground rapid transit system in North America.

In 1914, the passenger pigeon, once one of the most abundant bird species on earth, went extinct as the last known example, named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.

In 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives.

In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, an event regarded as the start of World War II.

In 1964, pitcher Masanori Murakami of the San Francisco Giants became the first Japanese baseball player to play in a Major League Baseball game.

In 1969, a coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power.

In 1972, American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, as Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union resigned before the resumption of their 21st and final game.

In 1983, 269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.

In 2004, Islamic terrorists took more than a thousand people hostage in a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia; the siege would end three days later in gunfire and explosions, leaving 334 people dead — more than half of them children.

In 2015, invoking “God’s authority,” Rowan County, Kentucky, Clerk Kim Davis denied marriage licenses to gay couples again in direct defiance of the federal courts and vowed not to resign, even under the pressure of steep fines or jail. (Davis would spend five days in jail as a result, and is currently appealing a ruling ordering her to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in related legal fees.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz is 86.
Comedian-actor Lily Tomlin is 85.
Singer Barry Gibb is 78.
Talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is 74.
Singer Gloria Estefan is 67.
TV host-author Padma Lakshmi is 54.
Actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira is 53.
Fashion designer Rachel Zoe is 53.
Actor Scott Speedman is 49.
Composer-producer Ludwig Göransson is 40.
Actor-singer Zendaya is 28.