The Gopher was produced by mechanical engineering students as part of the Engineering Departments curriculum.
The earlist version was a regular, vertical outboard motor but they changed the program to produce the stick motor to simplify the design toshorten build time and to make it more economical for the students to produce.
A 1925 article in the university's Engineering Department's publication The Techno-log explains the program.
By 1926 they had changed to producing a stick motor according to the 1925 article. This article,above, explains the new model has 120 parts, while the original design had 270!
A later story is given in the articles written by Dayton A. Rogers, the instructor that organized this program, and in an article describing the later program in the University of Illinois's engineering journal, The Technograph.
Each engineering student could take a Gopher if they paid the cost of the few purchased parts (the carb, being the only main one) and materials.
In 1929 the output for that year was 85 outboards.
Go to this page for the history.
This is the Gopher photographed by Jack Weston, the grandson of Dayton Rogers. See the history page up above for links.
