"Flipper won us a CBA championship and got me a job with the Timberwolves," Minegar said Monday.

Today, 21 years later, Minegar is chief operating officer of the Arizona Cardinals, who on Feb. 1 will play the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Fla. On Monday, he put his wife, daughter and son on an airplane in Phoenix for the Twin Cities, where he owns a home in Apple Valley.

"So they can enjoy the tropical weather there," Minegar said with a laugh. "In three weeks, we'll all be there ice fishing."

Minegar, 50, spent nearly five years with the Timberwolves as director of corporate sales, then moved across the river for nearly two years as vice president for business for the Minnesota Moose minor league hockey team that played at the Civic Center.

"With the Moose, I remember the Spamboni," Minegar said. "We had the Zamboni decked out like a giant can of Spam. Those were interesting and fun times. I worked with a great group of people back there, trying to fill the void after the North Stars left."

Minegar also worked in marketing for the then-Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Anaheim Angels. He's in his eighth year with the Cardinals, who initially hired him to help the franchise land a new stadium.

"I got different experience from each job that prepared me for the next one," he said. "But I've always loved the NFL, which I kind of feel is the top of the pyramid."

And now, the Super Bowl.

"This," he said, "is really rewarding."

Clearly, Minegar said, it has been the Cardinals' new stadium in suburban Glendale that has allowed the team to make it to the Super Bowl.

"The plan all along was once we got those revenue streams, we would be able to field a competitive team," he said. "Literally, 29 months after we opened the new building, we're playing in the Super Bowl. For years, we played in Sun Devil Stadium in front of small crowds. We were a tenant in (Arizona State's) building. We didn't have suite revenues, the same sponsorship revenues. We were asking people to sit outside in bleacher seats when it's 107 degrees at kickoff, those kinds of things.

"You can't compete with everybody else in the league with those kinds of economic circumstances. The economics are absolutely night and day. (The new stadium) has allowed us to go out and get the phenomenal coaching staff we've got here, the talented roster of players. It has been a game changer for us. We've got playmakers all over the place. Back in the day, we didn't have the revenue streams to go out and attract free agents, and to keep our own guys after their first contracts ended.

"Our ownership group said that if we got a stadium here, we would put in the resources necessary to win football games. And they've done everything they said they would do."

Any stadium advice for the Vikings?

"I just know it's a challenge, but it's also rewarding, both for the team and the fans," Minegar said. "Just keep the foot on the accelerator."

Another homegrown product who has done well is Tim Scanlan, who will return home this week for the ESPN telecast of the Gophers-Purdue men's Basketball game Thursday night at Williams Arena. Scanlan, 48, a Park (Cottage Grove) graduate, is an ESPN vice president who oversees major league baseball, boxing, all amateur sports and World Cup soccer in South Africa in 2010 for the network.

While in town, Scanlan will stay with his parents, Jerry and Rose, at their Cottage Grove home.

Former Indiana and Texas Tech coach Bob Knight, teaming with Brent Musburger, will work his first Big Ten broadcast for ESPN on Thursday.

"(Knight) is kind of like E.F. Hutton -- when he talks, everyone listens," Scanlan said Monday.

DON'T PRINT THAT

When Twins catcher Joe Mauer was a senior quarterback for Cretin-Derham Hall, he won an award emblematic of the state's top football player. In his acceptance speech, Mauer said he was honored but wasn't sure that he was the best player in Minnesota. His reference was to Super Bowl-bound Larry Fitzgerald, the Holy Angels graduate who caught three touchdown passes for the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.

Former North Stars scout Dean Lombardi is president and general manager of the Los Angeles Kings, who play the Wild tonight at Xcel Energy Center. Former North Stars GM Jack Ferreira is a special assistant to Lombardi.

Bob Fowler, who covered the Twins and Vikings for the Pioneer Press and Minneapolis Star before investing in the minor league Utica Blue Sox baseball team that he eventually sold to Cal Ripken Jr., died Friday in Orlando, Fla., after batting ALS for several years.

OVERHEARD

Sports Illustrated, on Gophers men's Basketball coach Tubby Smith's resignation at Kentucky: "The move from Lexington may have cost Smith more than a quarter of a million dollars in guaranteed salary, but it's turning out to have been worth every lost penny."