15th in a series
Where Are They Now? Gopher Jon Melander, DE/OT (1986-1989)
Jon Melander was recruited to Minnesota by head coach Lou Holtz from Fridley High School, Fridley, MN. Jon was one of two Fridley Tigers (Craig Graffunder was the other) to ever play football for the Gophers, and the only Fridley player to play in the NFL.
When Holtz left Minnesota to take the Notre Dame coaching job, John Gutekunst was hired as the Gophers' head coach. At 6'7", 280 lbs., Jon was a 4-year letter winner under "Gutey" at Minnesota, playing defensive end his first two seasons (1986-87) and switching to offensive tackle for his junior and senior seasons (1988-89). He was part of the offensive line that blocked for all-time Gopher rushing leader Darrell Thompson (4,654 total rushing yards and 40 rushing TDs).
After graduating, Melander was drafted by the New England Patriots in the 5th round of the 1990 NFL draft, 113th overall. His first season (1990) he was on the IR. He played 10 games with New England in 1991 and then signed with Cincinnati in 1992 and played in 15 games for them, starting 7. He played two seasons with the Denver Broncos in 1993-94, playing in 29 games and starting 22. All told, he played in 54 NFL games over 4 seasons, starting 32. He was forced to retire after the 1994 season due to a neck injury.
Jon is part of a three-generation Gopher football legacy. His uncle Raymond McNamara also played football for the maroon and gold. Jon's nephew, Rian Melander, a Cretin-Derham Hall grad, played OL for the Gophers from 2000-2004.
Jon graduated from the Carlson School of Management at the U of M, with a Bachelor of Science in Business degree. Jon has a 20+ year career in wealth management, financial and retirement planning and is currently a partner with Boulay Group in the Twin Cities, working in the area of wealth management and retirement planning. Melander lives with his family in Victoria, Minnesota.
Interview Questions:
1.How is your physical health, 19 years removed from your Gopher football career, and 14 years removed from the NFL? Do you have lingering effects from concussions or any other football injuries?
It is hard to play football for any length of time and not have some lingering effects. Personally, I have had 5 knee surgeries, shoulder surgery and two neck surgeries over the years and I am sure will have a few more before I am done. I can’t do a lot of the physical activities I used to be able to do, but I try to stay somewhat active. The scary thing to think about is the CTE that they have found in some former players. I haven’t shown any symptoms of that yet, but I think most former players worry about developing it down the road.
2. Were you a Gopher football fan growing up? What are your early Gopher sports memories? Your Gopher sports idols?
I loved playing all kinds of sports growing up, but I never really rooted for a particular team or idolized a player as a youth. I did go to a few Gopher football games in Memorial Stadium and had a lot of fun watching the games though. Now I look back in awe on how great the teams were back in the early 60’s.
3. College football recruiting has changed dramatically since your college days. Describe your recruitment process, who recruited you, and how you made the decision to play for the Gophers.
I received a lot of letters and calls from different schools and coaches for football and basketball. Basketball was my favorite sport to play but I wasn’t going to pay for my college by pursuing it since mostly DII or small DI AA schools recruited me. I took official football recruiting visits to Nebraska, Iowa, Notre Dame, UCLA and Minnesota and an unofficial visit to Wisconsin, all of which offered me a full scholarship along with some other schools. Lou Holtz was at Minnesota at the time and really sold me on why going to the U of M made sense and talked about what he was building there. Both of my parents' health was not great at the time so staying close to home made sense so I committed to the U during a Lou Holtz home visit. Tom Osborne from Nebraska, Gerry Faust from Notre Dame, Terry Donahue from UCLA and Hayden Frye from Iowa all visited my home as well.
4. I believe you played all 4 years under HC John Gutekunst. What is your favorite Coach Gutey story?
John was a really good defensive coordinator but was almost polar opposites to Lou Holtz as far as personality goes. I remember when we went through a tough streak on the field and I think John felt he had to do something different for a pre-game speech. Normally he would be fairly low key and talk about what he wanted to accomplish for the game. This particular game he got in front of the team and was really fired up. At the end of his fiery speech he said ‘Now let’s hit the field and in the words of Aretha Franklin, let’s go out and get some R-E-S-P-E-C-T!’. We were all kind of laughing at that one.
5. What are some of your favorite memories of your time at Minnesota (on and/or off the field)?
Being around the guys and joking back and forth makes up most of my favorite memories. I have made great friends playing for the Gophers and it is fun getting together with them now and telling stories about our time there. On the field favorite memory, I was on the defensive side of the ball to start my career at Minnesota and I got a sack, a few QB hurries and some nice tackles against Ohio State as a redshirt freshman. It was in the Horseshoe and I played pretty well that game. A bitter sweet memory would be listening to the team beat #2 ranked Michigan at Michigan from my hospital bed after surgery three weeks after the Ohio State game and a week after I hurt my knee against Wisconsin. I was happy for the team, but I wanted to be part of that celebration so bad.
6. What Gopher loss from your playing days stung/stings the worst?
Losing to Ohio State 41-37 my senior year after leading 31-0 at one point in the game. Also, the loss to The University of Pacific 24-20 my freshman year also stung. I think I played 78 defensive snaps in that game.
7. What was the most satisfying Gopher win of your career?
I think beating Iowa at Iowa in the last game of my senior year 43-7 was a big highlight. Also beating Wisconsin 3 out of 4 years was really satisfying!
8. What important life lessons did you learn from your football experiences?
Learning what hard work really meant. Not giving up after my knee injury and learning how to persevere through adversity.
9. How actively do you follow Gopher football? Do you attend any games? Are you a member of the MN Rivals site? How do you receive most of your Gopher sports news and information? Do you keep in touch with any former GG teammates? Are you a close personal friend of Sid Hartman?
After I retired from the NFL, I got season tickets and have been going to as many games as I can. It was great watching my nephew Rian Melander play the same position as me and have a lot of success on the field and off. I have my season tickets next to 5 other former Gopher players and keep in contact with a lot of former teammates. I follow The Gopher Report on Twitter and other Gopher related sites. Yes, I am a close personal friend of Sid!
10. Did you get your degree from the U of M? What was your field of study?
Yes, I graduated from the Carlson School of Management with Bachelor of Science in Business with a Finance Emphasis.
11. Your Linkedin page indicates you are a Wealth Management Partner at Boulay Financial Advisors LLC in the Twin Cities. Minnesota, with over 20 years experience in wealth management and financial planning. Please describe the career path that led you there, and what you like best about your job.
I had done several internships at different financial firms while I was in college, so I knew I wanted to get into the business in some capacity. I never expected to play football beyond college but about half way through my senior season I started to get interest from pro scouts. I got drafted by the Patriots in the 5th round so put the financial career on hold. After two years at New England, I played at Cincinnati for a year and Denver for two years before hurting my neck and having to retire. Keith Fahnhorst (former Gopher great) was one of my investment advisors and he knew I wanted to get into the business. He introduced me to his branch manager at Dain Bosworth and they hired me. I ended up being in the same training class as former MN Twins and Yankees player Roy Smalley. I stayed at Dain for about 5 years before starting my own financial planning practice, which I had for approximately 13 years before merging my practice into Boulay Financial Advisors 3 ½ years ago. I have since been promoted to a Partner of the greater firm of Boulay, which has traditional accounting services of Tax and Audit along with the Wealth Management and Estate and Trust. I enjoy helping people realize their goals and finding them ways to save money on taxes through our planning process.
12. Do you have any family/relationship news you want to share ? (This is your opportunity to brag on your kids and/or your spouse).
My son graduated from the University of St. Thomas this last Spring after four years of football along with studying for his Mechanical Engineering degree. He will be enrolling into graduate school this fall at the University of Minnesota and getting his master’s in aerospace engineering, so we will have another Gopher in the family! My middle child played DII volleyball at the U of M Crookston and St. Cloud State before getting a bad concussion which forced her to give up volleyball. My youngest daughter is a senior at Holy Family HS in Victoria and plays basketball and lacrosse. I am going to miss watching all of their sports activities after my youngest finishes her last seasons this year! My wife and I have been married for 23 ½ years and live in Victoria.
13. Could you still take your nephew and former Gopher, Rian Melander, in a 1-on-1 matchup?
Who said I could ever take him 1-on-1?
14. Has the current Gopher coaching staff made any contact with you?
Norries Wilson is a former teammate of mine and he had me come in and talk to the team last year about careers in accounting and finance. Norries does a good job of keeping the alumni engaged and welcome around the team.
15. Do you have any Gopher tattoos? (Pics if possible)
No tattoos! (But I’d be open to getting a Gopher tattoo if they go to the College Football Playoffs!) J
16. Are you active on social media? Yes. Which platforms?
Mainly Facebook and Twitter although I also have a LinkedIn account for business and Instagram and Snapchat with the family.
17. Who was/is your funniest OL teammate on the Gophers? Funniest teammate?
My OL teammates all seemed to have a pretty dry sense of humor like mine so we had a lot of fun together. Dan Liimatta was my best friend on the line, so we would crack each other up. Funniest teammate was probably Pete Najarian.
18. Are you involved in any sports/fitness/physical activities and/or coaching? Please describe.
I coached my kids in pretty much every youth sport activity you could name as they grew up. I also coached a year of high school football before stepping aside to just be a fan. I am on the Local Advisory Board for the Positive Coaching Alliance of MN whose mission is to create positive character-building experiences for young athletes.
19. Concussions and CTE are on the minds of many sports fans and participants. Did any of your kids play football? Did they experience concussions? If you had/have kids or grandkids just starting out in sports, would you encourage or allow them to play tackle football?
My son played football at The University of St. Thomas and got a concussion in practice. He also had gotten one in high school during basketball season. As I said earlier, my middle daughter had to quit volleyball after a bad concussion (and she had a few before that one) and she is still feeling the effects of it. Football is one of those sports that you can start later on in school and not fall behind others like you would in hockey or basketball. I would probably wait until they were a little older before I had them go out, like in middle school. That being said, the biggest positive change coming recently is the awareness that coaches, trainers and parents have about the symptoms and treatment of concussions. If you give an athlete the proper time to heal after suffering a concussion, I believe you can minimize any long-term effects. It’s the ones you get before you fully heal that can be problematic.
20. Tell us about something exciting/unusual/inspiring you’ve done since your Gopher days? (e.g.- travel, volunteering, TP’ing Camp Randall, memorizing the periodic table, etc.).
Having the opportunity to play in the NFL for 5 years alongside Hall of Fame players such as Bruce Armstrong, Anthony Munoz, Gary Zimmerman, John Elway and Shannon Sharpe. Also, getting my butt whipped by HOF’ers like John Randall! But more importantly, using that experience as a platform to make a difference in kids lives through volunteering for several kid focused organizations.
21. What are you most passionate about?
Helping people have successful retirements through our planning process!
22. What might Gopher fans be surprised to learn about you?
My wife and I bought a Harley Davidson Street Glide motorcycle a few years back and have traveled out to Bike Week in Sturgis, South Dakota. We have really enjoyed taking trips with friends on the bike and meeting new people in the process.
23. Do you have any message for Gopher fans, Coach Fleck, or the current team?
I am really excited to see how this Gopher football team progresses over the next few years. Coach Fleck and his staff have tremendous energy and are taking the program in the right direction and doing it the right way. I can’t wait for the season to kickoff!
Where Are They Now? Gopher Jon Melander, DE/OT (1986-1989)
Jon Melander was recruited to Minnesota by head coach Lou Holtz from Fridley High School, Fridley, MN. Jon was one of two Fridley Tigers (Craig Graffunder was the other) to ever play football for the Gophers, and the only Fridley player to play in the NFL.
When Holtz left Minnesota to take the Notre Dame coaching job, John Gutekunst was hired as the Gophers' head coach. At 6'7", 280 lbs., Jon was a 4-year letter winner under "Gutey" at Minnesota, playing defensive end his first two seasons (1986-87) and switching to offensive tackle for his junior and senior seasons (1988-89). He was part of the offensive line that blocked for all-time Gopher rushing leader Darrell Thompson (4,654 total rushing yards and 40 rushing TDs).
After graduating, Melander was drafted by the New England Patriots in the 5th round of the 1990 NFL draft, 113th overall. His first season (1990) he was on the IR. He played 10 games with New England in 1991 and then signed with Cincinnati in 1992 and played in 15 games for them, starting 7. He played two seasons with the Denver Broncos in 1993-94, playing in 29 games and starting 22. All told, he played in 54 NFL games over 4 seasons, starting 32. He was forced to retire after the 1994 season due to a neck injury.
Jon is part of a three-generation Gopher football legacy. His uncle Raymond McNamara also played football for the maroon and gold. Jon's nephew, Rian Melander, a Cretin-Derham Hall grad, played OL for the Gophers from 2000-2004.
Jon graduated from the Carlson School of Management at the U of M, with a Bachelor of Science in Business degree. Jon has a 20+ year career in wealth management, financial and retirement planning and is currently a partner with Boulay Group in the Twin Cities, working in the area of wealth management and retirement planning. Melander lives with his family in Victoria, Minnesota.
Interview Questions:
1.How is your physical health, 19 years removed from your Gopher football career, and 14 years removed from the NFL? Do you have lingering effects from concussions or any other football injuries?
It is hard to play football for any length of time and not have some lingering effects. Personally, I have had 5 knee surgeries, shoulder surgery and two neck surgeries over the years and I am sure will have a few more before I am done. I can’t do a lot of the physical activities I used to be able to do, but I try to stay somewhat active. The scary thing to think about is the CTE that they have found in some former players. I haven’t shown any symptoms of that yet, but I think most former players worry about developing it down the road.
2. Were you a Gopher football fan growing up? What are your early Gopher sports memories? Your Gopher sports idols?
I loved playing all kinds of sports growing up, but I never really rooted for a particular team or idolized a player as a youth. I did go to a few Gopher football games in Memorial Stadium and had a lot of fun watching the games though. Now I look back in awe on how great the teams were back in the early 60’s.
3. College football recruiting has changed dramatically since your college days. Describe your recruitment process, who recruited you, and how you made the decision to play for the Gophers.
I received a lot of letters and calls from different schools and coaches for football and basketball. Basketball was my favorite sport to play but I wasn’t going to pay for my college by pursuing it since mostly DII or small DI AA schools recruited me. I took official football recruiting visits to Nebraska, Iowa, Notre Dame, UCLA and Minnesota and an unofficial visit to Wisconsin, all of which offered me a full scholarship along with some other schools. Lou Holtz was at Minnesota at the time and really sold me on why going to the U of M made sense and talked about what he was building there. Both of my parents' health was not great at the time so staying close to home made sense so I committed to the U during a Lou Holtz home visit. Tom Osborne from Nebraska, Gerry Faust from Notre Dame, Terry Donahue from UCLA and Hayden Frye from Iowa all visited my home as well.
4. I believe you played all 4 years under HC John Gutekunst. What is your favorite Coach Gutey story?
John was a really good defensive coordinator but was almost polar opposites to Lou Holtz as far as personality goes. I remember when we went through a tough streak on the field and I think John felt he had to do something different for a pre-game speech. Normally he would be fairly low key and talk about what he wanted to accomplish for the game. This particular game he got in front of the team and was really fired up. At the end of his fiery speech he said ‘Now let’s hit the field and in the words of Aretha Franklin, let’s go out and get some R-E-S-P-E-C-T!’. We were all kind of laughing at that one.
5. What are some of your favorite memories of your time at Minnesota (on and/or off the field)?
Being around the guys and joking back and forth makes up most of my favorite memories. I have made great friends playing for the Gophers and it is fun getting together with them now and telling stories about our time there. On the field favorite memory, I was on the defensive side of the ball to start my career at Minnesota and I got a sack, a few QB hurries and some nice tackles against Ohio State as a redshirt freshman. It was in the Horseshoe and I played pretty well that game. A bitter sweet memory would be listening to the team beat #2 ranked Michigan at Michigan from my hospital bed after surgery three weeks after the Ohio State game and a week after I hurt my knee against Wisconsin. I was happy for the team, but I wanted to be part of that celebration so bad.
6. What Gopher loss from your playing days stung/stings the worst?
Losing to Ohio State 41-37 my senior year after leading 31-0 at one point in the game. Also, the loss to The University of Pacific 24-20 my freshman year also stung. I think I played 78 defensive snaps in that game.
7. What was the most satisfying Gopher win of your career?
I think beating Iowa at Iowa in the last game of my senior year 43-7 was a big highlight. Also beating Wisconsin 3 out of 4 years was really satisfying!
8. What important life lessons did you learn from your football experiences?
Learning what hard work really meant. Not giving up after my knee injury and learning how to persevere through adversity.
9. How actively do you follow Gopher football? Do you attend any games? Are you a member of the MN Rivals site? How do you receive most of your Gopher sports news and information? Do you keep in touch with any former GG teammates? Are you a close personal friend of Sid Hartman?
After I retired from the NFL, I got season tickets and have been going to as many games as I can. It was great watching my nephew Rian Melander play the same position as me and have a lot of success on the field and off. I have my season tickets next to 5 other former Gopher players and keep in contact with a lot of former teammates. I follow The Gopher Report on Twitter and other Gopher related sites. Yes, I am a close personal friend of Sid!
10. Did you get your degree from the U of M? What was your field of study?
Yes, I graduated from the Carlson School of Management with Bachelor of Science in Business with a Finance Emphasis.
11. Your Linkedin page indicates you are a Wealth Management Partner at Boulay Financial Advisors LLC in the Twin Cities. Minnesota, with over 20 years experience in wealth management and financial planning. Please describe the career path that led you there, and what you like best about your job.
I had done several internships at different financial firms while I was in college, so I knew I wanted to get into the business in some capacity. I never expected to play football beyond college but about half way through my senior season I started to get interest from pro scouts. I got drafted by the Patriots in the 5th round so put the financial career on hold. After two years at New England, I played at Cincinnati for a year and Denver for two years before hurting my neck and having to retire. Keith Fahnhorst (former Gopher great) was one of my investment advisors and he knew I wanted to get into the business. He introduced me to his branch manager at Dain Bosworth and they hired me. I ended up being in the same training class as former MN Twins and Yankees player Roy Smalley. I stayed at Dain for about 5 years before starting my own financial planning practice, which I had for approximately 13 years before merging my practice into Boulay Financial Advisors 3 ½ years ago. I have since been promoted to a Partner of the greater firm of Boulay, which has traditional accounting services of Tax and Audit along with the Wealth Management and Estate and Trust. I enjoy helping people realize their goals and finding them ways to save money on taxes through our planning process.
12. Do you have any family/relationship news you want to share ? (This is your opportunity to brag on your kids and/or your spouse).
My son graduated from the University of St. Thomas this last Spring after four years of football along with studying for his Mechanical Engineering degree. He will be enrolling into graduate school this fall at the University of Minnesota and getting his master’s in aerospace engineering, so we will have another Gopher in the family! My middle child played DII volleyball at the U of M Crookston and St. Cloud State before getting a bad concussion which forced her to give up volleyball. My youngest daughter is a senior at Holy Family HS in Victoria and plays basketball and lacrosse. I am going to miss watching all of their sports activities after my youngest finishes her last seasons this year! My wife and I have been married for 23 ½ years and live in Victoria.
13. Could you still take your nephew and former Gopher, Rian Melander, in a 1-on-1 matchup?
Who said I could ever take him 1-on-1?
14. Has the current Gopher coaching staff made any contact with you?
Norries Wilson is a former teammate of mine and he had me come in and talk to the team last year about careers in accounting and finance. Norries does a good job of keeping the alumni engaged and welcome around the team.
15. Do you have any Gopher tattoos? (Pics if possible)
No tattoos! (But I’d be open to getting a Gopher tattoo if they go to the College Football Playoffs!) J
16. Are you active on social media? Yes. Which platforms?
Mainly Facebook and Twitter although I also have a LinkedIn account for business and Instagram and Snapchat with the family.
17. Who was/is your funniest OL teammate on the Gophers? Funniest teammate?
My OL teammates all seemed to have a pretty dry sense of humor like mine so we had a lot of fun together. Dan Liimatta was my best friend on the line, so we would crack each other up. Funniest teammate was probably Pete Najarian.
18. Are you involved in any sports/fitness/physical activities and/or coaching? Please describe.
I coached my kids in pretty much every youth sport activity you could name as they grew up. I also coached a year of high school football before stepping aside to just be a fan. I am on the Local Advisory Board for the Positive Coaching Alliance of MN whose mission is to create positive character-building experiences for young athletes.
19. Concussions and CTE are on the minds of many sports fans and participants. Did any of your kids play football? Did they experience concussions? If you had/have kids or grandkids just starting out in sports, would you encourage or allow them to play tackle football?
My son played football at The University of St. Thomas and got a concussion in practice. He also had gotten one in high school during basketball season. As I said earlier, my middle daughter had to quit volleyball after a bad concussion (and she had a few before that one) and she is still feeling the effects of it. Football is one of those sports that you can start later on in school and not fall behind others like you would in hockey or basketball. I would probably wait until they were a little older before I had them go out, like in middle school. That being said, the biggest positive change coming recently is the awareness that coaches, trainers and parents have about the symptoms and treatment of concussions. If you give an athlete the proper time to heal after suffering a concussion, I believe you can minimize any long-term effects. It’s the ones you get before you fully heal that can be problematic.
20. Tell us about something exciting/unusual/inspiring you’ve done since your Gopher days? (e.g.- travel, volunteering, TP’ing Camp Randall, memorizing the periodic table, etc.).
Having the opportunity to play in the NFL for 5 years alongside Hall of Fame players such as Bruce Armstrong, Anthony Munoz, Gary Zimmerman, John Elway and Shannon Sharpe. Also, getting my butt whipped by HOF’ers like John Randall! But more importantly, using that experience as a platform to make a difference in kids lives through volunteering for several kid focused organizations.
21. What are you most passionate about?
Helping people have successful retirements through our planning process!
22. What might Gopher fans be surprised to learn about you?
My wife and I bought a Harley Davidson Street Glide motorcycle a few years back and have traveled out to Bike Week in Sturgis, South Dakota. We have really enjoyed taking trips with friends on the bike and meeting new people in the process.
23. Do you have any message for Gopher fans, Coach Fleck, or the current team?
I am really excited to see how this Gopher football team progresses over the next few years. Coach Fleck and his staff have tremendous energy and are taking the program in the right direction and doing it the right way. I can’t wait for the season to kickoff!
