Former U Athletes Finish Degrees Through Gopher Grad Program

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's 10:40 on a Thursday morning, and Marion Barber, Jr.'s Youth Studies class is just getting started.

When there's a bit of an interruption. His cell phone goes off.

"I'm totally embarrassed," Barber said, as the class erupted in laughter.

To be fair, cell phones didn't exist during Barber's first go-round in college.

"I've shared with students that I've been on a long, extended spring break," Barber said. "Mmmhmm."

Barber is back in school 36 years after he left – a year shy of graduating – for the NFL, where the former Gophers star running back enjoyed a seven-year career with the New York Jets before retiring in 1988.

"It's been a thorn in my side," Barber said. "And it's something that I started and I never just buckled down and said let me finish this."

He's far from the only former Gopher with that feeling.

After a decade of pro basketball overseas that took him to France, Turkey, and plenty of places in between, Vincent Grier --- who starred at Williams Arena before leaving early in 2006 --- is once again a Gopher. At least, in the classroom.

So is Keith Ballard, who won two national titles with Gopher hockey, then left early in 2004 for a 10-year career in the NHL.

All of them are pursuing the degree they put on hold when they went pro.

"It's a little bit different," Ballard said. "Felt a little out of place at times. Especially when I walked in right away and everybody had laptops out and I have a notebook."

"You see the tunnel at the end of the rainbow, understanding what's going on at this point," Grier said. "When you're young, you have so much going on with basketball, practices, everything that goes on in the college atmosphere."

"Aside from the grey hair, I think I fit right in," Barber joked.

Barber is pursuing a degree in youth studies. He wants to be a school guidance counselor, and will graduate this fall.

"I have perfect attendance," he said with a chuckle. "And I'm a A student."

Grier is also in youth studies. He wants to be a coach, and will graduate in August.

"And I knew I had to get my degree if I wanted to coach collegiately," he said.

Ballard finished his last final last week, for his degree in sports management. He's not sure what he wants to do with it yet, but is interning with his former agent to help figure that out.

For credit, of course.

"I've got two kids, about to have a third," he said. "And there's gonna come a time where it might come up, 'Well, dad, you didn't finish college.' And they're not gonna hold that over my head."

All three are enrolled in what's appropriately called the Gopher Grad program, which the U of M started in 2007 to help former players come back and get their degree.

"Minnesota was one of the first schools in the country to offer a program like this," said interim athletic director Beth Goetz. Most have now followed Minnesota's lead.

There are 25 former Gophers in it right now, and it's not just limited to retired players. Thomas Vanek, Mike Reilly and Amanda Zahui B. are all among those taking online classes.

It's all paid for, by honoring their original scholarship.

"We're going to be with them when we recruit them as 15, 16, 17-year-old prospects, and we're going to be with them to the very end," Goetz said. "And if their life path takes them away for some reason, we're going to help them get that degree, and it'll be something they can be proud of."

"I had to take advantage of it," Barber said. "There were no other excuses out there for me."