By Kaitlin Merkel
Murphy News Service

It’s almost as if Minnesota redshirt senior catcher Matt Halloran was born to be a Gopher baseball player.

Halloran’s father, Mike, played as a catcher on the Minnesota baseball team from 1984-1987. Halloran’s mother, Laura, played softball at Minnesota for one year as well. Even Halloran’s grandpa played Gopher hockey during his time at the university.

“I’ve bled maroon and gold my whole life,” Matt Halloran said. “This was the place I wanted to play my whole life.”

Halloran and his younger brother, Danny, were even more destined to play the sport of baseball from an early age.

His dad recalls Halloran playing with foam baseballs just after he started walking, and soon the two started playing catch. Before long, he was hooked.

“If he could catch five in a row, he’d get ice cream,” Mike Halloran said. “He was pretty dialed in right away, it wasn’t really hard to get him fired up about playing catch.”

This baseball connection between father and son continued into Halloran’s high school baseball career at Eden Prairie High School, where Mike was the head coach at the time.

Halloran also played football and hockey during his high school career and left EPHS with two state championships, one in hockey and one in baseball. He said out of the seven seasons he played high school sports, his EPHS teams made their respective state championship games all but two times.

Minnesota began to seriously recruit Halloran during his junior year, a task aided by his father’s connection with Gopher baseball. Minnesota assistant head coach Rob Fornasiere joined the program in 1985 and coached Mike Halloran for his last two years as the Gophers catcher.

Fornasiere said the Halloran family had shown “a lot of loyalty to the program, so it was kind of a no-brainer to recruit him, and obviously he was an outstanding high school player.”

“Obviously I had a previous relationship with Rob … I went on a recruiting visit the fall of my senior year,” Matt Halloran said. “But I knew I was coming here as soon as Rob gave me the call.”

The Gopher baseball tradition has been a mainstay in the Halloran family ever since.

“To have Matt playing for the coaches I played for and wear the same uniform, play in the same program, it’s unbelievable,” Mike Halloran said. “It’s really a dream come true for me … I’m really proud of him.”

Both father and son stress it’s merely coincidence that both played catcher for Minnesota.

“He never really pressured me into it,” Matt Halloran said. “It was a position I loved doing. I loved putting the gear on, I love being in every play.”

“Both of my kids are catchers and I didn’t push them that way,” Mike Halloran said. “I really enjoy watching Matt frame pitches, block balls in the dirt … he makes it look pretty easy. He’s definitely better than I was.”

Halloran’s Gopher career didn’t come without setbacks, however. In the first week of the 2014 season, his true senior year, he tore his UCL in his elbow and was out for the rest of the season.

Knowing “right away” he would come back for a fifth year, Halloran began to rehab the elbow and watch the team from the bench.

“It was tough. I think being a senior and having to redshirt and sit on the bench after starting for a couple years was really hard,” Matt Halloran said. “It was just frustrating knowing that I could be on the field helping the team … it was more of a mental struggle than anything.”

Fornasiere said this adversity only pushed Halloran to improve all aspects of his game.

“He does an excellent job of calling the game,” he said. “We’ve put that responsibility on our catchers and he does an excellent job … he’s like a coach behind there.”

Off the field, ‘Hall’ as he’s affectionately called by his teammates, said he enjoys hunting and fishing.

Halloran also likes to play videogames with his roommate of four years, Gophers redshirt senior shortstop Michael Handel.

“First meeting him, [he was a] real shy guy, real quiet,” Handel said. “He definitely opened up … he’s one of the nicest kids in the world. When he gets on the field, he’s a gamer, so he’s got two different sides to him.”

Mike Halloran describes his son as “very easygoing, low key, [with a] great sense of humor.”

Studying finance and entrepreneurship at the U’s Carlson School of Management, Halloran plans on working in financial planning downtown with the Minneapolis Financial Group after graduation.

“I did an internship there last summer when I was rehabbing and I liked it, so I’m going to keep going with that,” he said.

As for his favorite moment in a Gophers uniform, Halloran named his walk-off home run against Michigan during his sophomore season, which completed the Gopher’s sweep of their Big Ten rival, “I’m never going to forget that.”

There was more at stake for Halloran in that series besides a conference win. Before that weekend, Halloran and his father made a bet that if the Gophers swept Michigan, Mike Halloran would buy his son a new musky reel and rod.

“They won the first two and he ends up hitting the walk-off,” Mike Halloran said, “I really enjoyed that.”

As his five years with Gopher baseball come to an end, it’s a bittersweet goodbye for everyone who knows ‘Hall.’

“I’ve really enjoyed the last five years, watching him play,” Mike Halloran said, “It’s hard to believe it’s coming to an end.”

“Matt is a very, very loyal Minnesota Gopher and we’ll certainly miss him,” Fornasiere said.

For Halloran, his time as a Golden Gopher has been a dream come true.

“Putting on the uniform is just such a good feeling … I just love to do it,” he said. “And I love this university.”

Reporter Kaitlin Merkel is studying journalism and Spanish at the University of Minnesota.