On Oct. 5, 1923, the Iowa State Cyclones football team was in the Twin Cities to play the Minnesota Gophers. It was the first collegiate game for a young Iowa player, Jack Trice. He was the only Black player on the Cyclones.

Because of segregation, Trice had to spend the night before the game alone because he wasn’t allowed in the hotel where his white teammates stayed. And there, in his hotel room he wrote this in a letter: “My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life. The honor of my race, family, and self are at stake. Everyone is expecting me to do big things. I will!”

But three days later, Trice died. What happened?

Jonathan Gelber is an orthopedist at Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester and the author of the new book The Idealist: Jack Trice and the Fight for a Forgotten College Football Legacy. He joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about what happened.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here. 

What happens now that a candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota’s second district has died, less than a month from the election? Paula Overby, the Legal Marijuana Now candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s 2nd District, died on Wednesday. She was competing in one of the tightest House races in the country between incumbent DFLer Angie Craig and Republican Tyler Kistner. To talk more about what Overby’s death may mean for that second district congressional race and what the ballot will look like now, Secretary of State Steve Simon joined host Cathy Wurzer.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.  

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here. 

Wednesday on Minnesota Now, Cathy Wurzer talks to former Minneapolis TV anchor Pat Miles about her new book on living and dying well. And Paul Huttner is back with our early fall forecast.

Joe Biden declared the pandemic ‘over’ on the television show "60 Minutes" in September. But if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that more twists may be in store.

To answer our questions about what this fall might look like, Michael Osterholm is on the line. He is an epidemiologist and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

We like to talk with creatives around the state from time to time to get insight into their art and their lives.

Today, Cathy Wurzer talks to Duluth multidisciplinary artist Jonathan Thunder - a citizen of the Red Lake Nation who was recently honored with the Jim Denomie memorial scholarship.

His work is currently on exhibit at the Watermark Art Center in Bemidji.

There are fewer than 200 confirmed meteorite crash sites in the world. And just in the past week, the University of Minnesota has found one in Dakota County.

Cathy Wurzer talks to Jim Cotter, a professor of Geology at the University of Minnesota – Morris. Every month on Minnesota Now, Professor Cotter tells the story of our state through geology.

The biggest weather news continues to be the devastation in the southeast United States and Puerto Rico.

In Minnesota, the skies have been calm and the temperatures warm. But that's about to change.

MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner shares a detailed forecast — and more.

For more than 25 years, Pat Miles came into your homes to deliver the news for WCCO and KSTP.

From her anchor desk, she told stories that mattered to people. Now she’s telling her own story. 

In 2018, Pat and her husband were aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean when events began to unfold that would compel her to write the book she never wanted to: Before All Is Said and Done: Practical Advice on Living and Dying Well.

She spoke with Cathy Wurzer about it.

The head of the new Minneapolis Public Safety department talks about his work and the city’s potential new police chief. We talk with a psychologist about how digital media can be particularly harmful to Black young people. We get a look at political forecasts and fundraising in the midterm elections. One woman shares what she’s doing because she says military vets are being under-estimated and underemployed. And a first-of-its-kind concert by the Minnesota Orchestra this weekend explores the work of Black composers who have historically been overlooked.

Louise Toppin, performer, scholar and professor, speaks with host Cathy Wurzer about the rarely-heard Black composers being highlighted in a new performance by the Minnesota Orchestra happening Friday, October seventh.