I am the opposite. I grew up hating the Badgers with a burning passion. Chris Chelios was a player I loved to hate. So was Bruce Driver. But starting in the early 1990's, Goldy Gopher started to get under my skin. All those biased telecasts on Minnesota Sports Channel (MSC), hearing that stupid Minnesota Rouser over and over and over, hearing their fans talk about 25-year-old Canadians and that whole "Minnesota Pride On Ice" bullcrap , hearing about how the new Mariucci Arena was a palace and the Old Ralph was a dump, etc. By the mid-1990's, Blais had taken over the program and rebuilt it pretty fast and we started to gain a measure of revenge on the disease-infested little Rodents. Of course, when they can't win the hockey arguments, they resort to bashing the state of North Dakota, the city of Grand Forks, the academic standards of UND, the fact we aren't D-I in all sports (soon to change), etc. I don't think I've ever heard Badger fans pull this kind of crap on a regular basis.
Sure the Gopher fans on this forum are pretty decent and polite, but go over to USCHO.com and that is where the "Pride On Ice" true believers run around bashing our program. And if you ever go to the Final Five or even a regular season game in Minneapolis, you'll feel the wrath of the Rodents just for having a Sioux jersey on.
I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree.
End rant.