SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2008 |
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THE TUSCALOOSA NEWS
I2008 IRON BOWLI
BRINGING HOME THE HARDWARE I
t may be one of the most heated rivalries in college football, but when it comes to the winner’s trophy, the Iron Bowl is in the back of the pack. College rivalries have been around for as long as college football itself. For some teams, playing for a regular, run-of-the-mill trophy isn’t enough. Some schools, like Indiana and Michigan State, play for the Old Brass Spittoon. Others, like Nevada and UNLV, play for the Freemont Cannon. Here is a look at some rival schools and the more intriguing trophies they play for each season.
JAMES E. FOY ODK SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD Alabama vs. Auburn
Trophy introduced: 1948 Series: Alabama leads the all-time series, 38-33-1 Story behind the trophy: On July 13, 1948, the two Circles of Omicron Delta Kappa from the University of Alabama and Auburn University joined together to sponsor a trophy devoted to sportsmanship between the two universities. This trophy is a tradition that symbolizes the good relationship between the two schools. Originally the trophy was displayed in Birmingham in Loveman’s store window the week prior to the football game at Legion Field. Then, in a parade preceding the game, the trophy would be carried in a convertible with the ODK presidents from each school on either side. The parade was stopped in the 1960’s, but the trophy has continued to be awarded every year. In January 1978, the trophy was dedicated to Dean James E. Foy V upon his retirement as the Dean of Student Affairs at Auburn University. He began serving in that position in 1950 after serving as Assistant Dean of Students at The University of Alabama. Dean Foy served as Faculty Secretary, the key campus faculty officer in ODK, at both universities. He was also very active in ACHS and as a national officer for Phi Eta Sigma. To view either trophy image full screen (the lower one is best), right-click on the image and use the feature on the menu to view full screen. The trophy is awarded to the winner at the half time of the Auburn-Alabama basketball game on the winner’s home court. The trophy remains in their care until the next year’s presentation takes place. At Auburn, the trophy was often displayed in the Foy Union Building, but currently it is displayed (during the years after an Auburn win) in the Auburn Lovelace Athletic Museum at the corner of Samford and Donahue. In Tuscaloosa, the trophy is displayed (after an Alabama win) in the Ferguson Student Center. It has become a tradition that the ODK contingent from the losing school is treated to dinner by the winning school prior to the basketball game. The ODK President from the losing school then makes a speech at midcourt presenting the trophy to the ODK President of the winning school, and usually the head coach and a few players are there as well. — Source: Auburn University
PAUL BUNYAN’S AXE | SLAB OF BACON Wisconsin vs. Minnesota Trophy introduced: 1948 Series: Minnesota leads all-time series 59-50-8; Wisconsin leads the Axe series 34-24-3. Story behind the trophy: Paul Bunyan’s Axe, named after the mythical giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan. Earlier, the schools played for the Slab of Bacon, a piece of wood with an M or a W, depending from which angle one would look on it. It was discontinued in 1943 and would not resurface until 1994. The Paul Bunyan Axe was instituted as the trophy in the series in 1948; the scores of each game are recorded on the axe’s handle. The first game in the series, a 63-0 Gopher victory in 1890, is printed on the handle near the axe’s head. The results of every successive game line the handle in red ink. There have been so many games that the scores scroll up and down the width of both sides of the handle, and school officials have now resorted to writing scores on the narrow edges of the six-foot shaft. To symbolically capture the amazing atmosphere of the annual match-up, Dr. R.B. Fouch of Minneapolis fashioned a bacon slab out of black walnut to serve as the traveling trophy that he hoped would compare to the well-known “Little Brown Jug,” which Minnesota and Michigan played for every year. The “Slab of Bacon,” first played for in 1930, had a football carved on top inscribed with an “M” or “W”, depending on how you held it. The idea was that the winning team would “bring home the bacon.” But in the early ’40s, the Slab of Bacon became the “Missing Slab of Bacon.” Peg Watrous, who was the president of Wisconsin women students at the time, relates that she and her counterpart from Minnesota were to have a symbolic exchange after the game, whereby the trophy would be awarded to the winning team. Minnesota won, but in characteristic fashion, a postgame melee broke out on the field, with students and spectators running crazy over the field. Watrous couldn’t find her counterpart, and was left “holding the bacon,” as it were. “I have no memory of what happened after that...The whole thing was a dud, as I feared it would be,” Watrous remembered good-humoredly, “and someone in charge probably hid the bacon.” But the two teams had to play for something, so in 1948 the Wisconsin W Club instituted “Paul Bunyan’s Axe” as a trophy more befitting the grand rivalry between the two schools. The annual battles have survived so long that in the ’60s the teams started to print the games’ final scores smaller and smaller, scrunching the letters in order to avoid reaching the end of the axe’s shaft. But the series continued to roll, and the last game to be painted on the broad face of the handle was in 1980. The 25 subsequent games appear on the narrow side of the handle. — Source: University of Minnesota
THE GOLDEN HAT
THE IRON SKILLET
Texas vs. Oklahoma
SMU vs. TCU
Trophy introduced: 1941 Series: Texas leads the all-time series, 58-40-5 Story behind the trophy: The Golden Hat trophy is a gold cowboy hat mounted on a large block of wood. According to The Daily Texan, “Both teams signed a contract to play in Dallas during the Texas State Fair, beginning with the 1929 season. The deal was for 10 years, but the tradition has carried on for three-quarters of a century. To show its gratitude, the fair donated the Golden Hat trophy, a golden replica of a 10-gallon cowboy hat, which the two teams play for every year. The Longhorns won the fi rst Shootout, but since then the Golden Hat has crossed the Red River many times.” The trophy was created in 1941. When it was created it was known as the “Bronze Hat” and it was bronze in color. However, when the hat was reworked in the 1970s it came out gold, and is now known as the Golden Hat. The Golden Hat trophy is kept each year by the winning team’s athletic department. — Source: University of Texas
Trophy introduced: 1950 Series: TCU leads the all-time series, 40-39-7. Story behind the trophy: During the post-World War II college football boom, TCU and SMU students created a traveling trophy called the Iron Skillet that was presented to the winner of the annual football game between the rivals. The tradition eventually died and the skillet was lost. In 1993, the tradition was revived. No one knows the original names to the story of the Iron Skillet, but it has been rumored that TCU and SMU fans originated this tradition back in the 1950s. During a pre game festivity a SMU fan was frying up some frog legs as a joke before the game. A TCU fan, seeing this desecration of the “frog”, went over and told him that eating the frog legs was going well beyond the rivalry and that they should let the game decide who would get the skillet and the frog legs. TCU ended up winning the game and the skillet and the frog legs went to TCU. The tradition eventually spilled over into the actual game and the Iron Skillet is now passed to the winner between TCU and SMU. — Source: Texas Christian University
THE LITTLE BROWN JUG Minnesota vs. Michigan Trophy introduced: 1903 Series: Michigan leads the all-time series 69-24-3 Story behind the trophy: The story of “The Little Brown Jug,” neither little nor brown, began at the turn of the century. The fabled “point-a-minute” Michigan football squads, coached by Fielding Yost, were destroying everyone in the nation, and had won 28 straight games heading into Minneapolis in 1903. The pregame revelry pulsed through the campus. Minnesota had one of its best teams in school history and expected to give Yost’s squad a run for their money. Before the game, students paraded across the field with various painted livestock, while fans filtered into the stadium from a constant stream of arriving streetcars. The 20,000 fans, positioned in bleachers, as well as atop trees and telephone poles, remained civil until the Gophers scored a second-half touchdown that tied the score at 6-6. At this point, fans stormed the field in celebration, causing pandemonium so great that the game had to be called with two minutes remaining on the clock. On the morning following the contest, Minnesota custodian Oscar Munson carried an earthenware water jug to the office of L. J. Cooke, head of the athletics department. Munson pronounced in a heavy Scandinavian accent, “Jost left his yug.” Still giddy from the tie, they decided to keep the prize, and painted on its side “Michigan Jug — Captured by Oscar, October 31, 1903,” and the score, “Minnesota 6, Michigan 6.” The Minnesota score appeared comically “as big as a house,” dwarfing the Michigan score beside it. Yost sent a letter asking Minnesota to return the jug. Cooke wrote back “if you want it, you’ll have to win it.” The two teams didn’t play again until 1909. Michigan won the game that year, and Minnesota dutifully returned the jug. In 1910, Michigan left the conference, and Minnesota didn’t have a chance to win it back until 1919. That year the Gophers, led by their star Arnie Oss, stormed into Ann Arbor and pounded the Wolverines 34-7 on their own Ferry Field. When Minnesota asked for the symbolic trophy at the end of the game, their rivals couldn’t find it. But the Gopher players persisted, and Wolverine equipment man Henry Hatch came up with it after a short time, saying that he found it “overgrown behind a clump of shrubbery near the gym.” Later, Minnesota historians said, “...but most likely it was found in a trophy case inside the gymnasium, easily dusted off and proudly brought back to Minnesota.” Cooke took out his paint brush again to paint that year’s result. In the end, his two artistic attempts had taken up the whole surface of the five gallon jug, so when Michigan took it back the next year, the two schools decided to give the entire jug a colorful gloss. Now, the results of 86 games — including two in one season (1926) are embossed on on its sides: 63 won by Michigan, 22 by Minnesota, and three ties. — Source: University of Minnesota
THE WAGON WHEEL Akron vs. Kent State Trophy introduced: 1946 Series: Akron leads overall 29-20-2. Kent State leads Wagon Wheel games 19-18-1 Story behind the trophy: As legend has it, Akron founder John R. Buchtel was traveling through Northeast Ohio in search of a place to build a college. While traveling through Kent, the wheel of his horse-drawn carriage got stuck in some mud. And when his horses tried to pull him out, the whole thing broke to pieces. Buchtel eventually settled on a site in Akron for Buchtel College, which would eventually became the University of Akron. One of his wagon wheels was left behind in pristine condition buried in the mud. Kent State Dean of Men Raymond Manchester found the now-legendary artifact and decided it would make a great trophy for a game. — Source: Kentnews.com
THE GOLDEN EGG Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss Trophy introduced: 1927 Series: Ole Miss holds a 59-39-6 advantage overall Story behind the trophy: Up until 1926, Ole Miss had claimed only five wins in the previous 23 meetings of the teams. When Ole Miss beat what was then known as Mississippi A&M College 7-6, the Ole Miss fans were celebratory, rushing the field, some trying to tear the goalposts down, which didn’t set well with A&M fans. Fights broke between the schools’ fans. Some A&M fans defended the goal posts with wooden chairs. Ole Miss and A&M students, shocked by the battle that erupted after the game, vowed that it must not happen again. The result was the “Golden Egg”, a trophy to cool the heat of battle — the trophy, not the goalposts, would be the winners’ reward. — Source: Eggbowl.com