Carlson played high school football at
Deerfield High School under noted coach
Paul Adams. During his tenure with the Gophers, Carlson competed with
Wendell Avery for the starting quarterback position, both having varying success at different times during this period. Carlson first made a name for himself during his sophomore season in 1977, in one of the biggest wins in Gopher history. The Gophers were scheduled to face the
Michigan Wolverine team in their annual
Little Brown Jug game, which would be played at the Gopher's
Memorial Stadium. Michigan was coming into the contest as the number one ranked team in the country with a 6–0 record. The Gophers – who were 4–2 at the time with wins over
Washington and
UCLA – still were considered major underdogs against the Wolverines and
Bo Schembechler. What added to the Gopher's uncertainty was that they still didn't know who their starting quarterback was going to be. After having former Gopher hero
Butch Nash give a rousing pep talk on the Friday night before the game, Minnesota's head coach
Cal Stoll met with all three of his top quarterbacks to decide who would be the starter for the big game. "I kept looking in their eyes when I talked to them." Stoll would later say, – "Mark Carlson was looking right back into my eyes. I made a gut decision right then that he would be my quarterback." Carlson has a son named Kevin Carlson who ended up as a catcher in baseball, who played for both the
Minnesota Gophers and the
St. Paul Saints. ==References==