L. J. Cooke

Who was L. J. Cooke?

Louis Joseph "L. J." "Doc" Cooke was the first head men’s basketball coach at the University of Minnesota. He coached the Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s basketball team for 28 seasons. Cooke also served as the University’s athletic director for a time and is responsible for the creation of Little Brown Jug tradition between Minnesota and the Michigan Wolverines, the longest existing traveling trophy tradition in college football.

Cooke came to Minnesota in 1895 to be the director of physical education for the YMCA in Minneapolis after completing his M.D. at the University of Vermont. His degree from Vermont led to his nickname of "Doc". He began to work with the University of Minnesota’s basketball program on a part-time basis in the 1896-97 season. In February 1897, the University agreed to pay part of Cooke’s salary, and he was employed by the school full-time by the fall of 1897. This made him one of the earliest professional coaches.

Cooke spent a couple of seasons building the program playing smaller schools in the Twin Cities and YMCA teams. By 1900, the University was largely playing other public universities in neighboring states. His Gopher teams were retroactively awarded the 1901-02 championship by both the Premo Poll and Helms Foundation; Premo also gave the Gophers the 1902-03 national title. When the Big Ten began basketball play in 1905, the Gophers were an early power, winning the first two regular season titles. They also won a disputed conference title in 1910-11 under Cooke; the Gophers and Big Ten official records list the Gophers’ conference record as 8-4, good enough for a tie for first place. Other sources, however, indicate that the Gophers’ record was only 7-4. The Big Ten indicates the Gophers as co-champion for the 1910-11 campaign, though, so they do officially hold the title.