College Football Rivalry Trophies

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The Illibuck

The teams: Illinois and Ohio State
The skinny: The tradition began in 1925, with an actual live turtle given to the winner. But, hey, turtles die, and the original turtle moved on to (presumably) a better place in 1927. It was decided that instead of a live turtle, the winner would get a replica and -- voila! -- a 32-pound wooden replica came into use. The wooden turtle has its own Twitter account (@IllyIllibuck), and the scores from the games are painted on its back. The teams no longer play annually, which drops it a few spots on our list, but the tradition still will live on when they do meet.

 

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The Heartland Trophy

The teams: Iowa and Wisconsin
The skinny:
The Wisconsin-Iowa rivalry trophy is a bull that used to have testicles

The Badgers and Hawkeyes are playing for a bronze bull. That’s cool and fine, but their series was already special.

The Badgers and Hawkeyes have been playing for a long while. Their first game was in October 1894, and 122 years later, they’ll meet for a 90th time. The rivalry has been close to annual for a century and a quarter.

The teams have played for the Heartland Trophy every year since 2004, and they’ve split the series 5-5 since then. The all-time mark is almost dead even, too, with Wisconsin ahead 44-43-2.

The Big Ten loves its rivalry trophies, and I guess it always made sense for this game to have one.
Wisconsin-Iowa is a good series by pretty much any measure. Trophies can give series an extra pinch of spice, so why not, right?

There’s a bull on top of it. The bull “symbolizes the kind of games that have been typical when the schools meet,” then-Iowa athletic director Bob Bowlsby said in unveiling it in 2004.

“Playing for the Heartland Trophy adds another dimension to what is already a highly anticipated annual competition for college football bragging rights,” Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez said at its inception.

Former Iowa player Frank Strub designed and built the third version, the one currently in use. A description of the second:

“It had some balls on it at first,” chuckles Jones, Strub’s co-collaborator on the Big Ten traveling trophy and president of Russell’s Trophies & Engraving in Urbandale, Iowa, a western suburb of Des Moines.

“And then when he took it over and he showed Bowlsby, I think it was Bowlsby who said, ‘Yeah, we can’t have these balls hanging down there.’”

No problem, Strub said. I got this.

“I’ll never forget when (Frank) took that little X-Acto knife and just — SHOOP!” Jones says, swinging a flat hand like a pretend blade. “And they dropped off.

“We laughed about that more than not. It was pretty funny, man.”

Entire article: http://www.sbnation.com/college-foo.../wisconsin-iowa-rivalry-trophy-bull-heartland

 

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The Victory Bell

The teams: UCLA and USC

The skinny: It's a big trophy, for sure -- a 295-pound brass bell that once was on a Southern Pacific Railroad locomotive. It has been awarded to the game's winner since 1942. The Bell is mounted on a four-wheeled carriage, and both the bell and the carriage are painted in the winning team's colors; the winning team shows off The Bell at each of its home games the following season.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Bell_(UCLA-USC)

 

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Territorial Cup

The teams: Arizona and Arizona State
The skinny: The Cup first was awarded in 1899, making it the oldest rivalry trophy in college sports. The rivalry always has been heated, but the Cup itself wasn't that big a deal; indeed, it was "lost" for 80 years before it was found in 1980 in the basement of a Tempe church. A replica of the Cup is handed out on the field every year. The actual cup is housed in special places on each campus, depending upon the winning team.

and it now has a sponsor.....:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Farm_Territorial_Cup_Series

 

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Golden Egg

The teams: Mississippi State and Ole Miss
The skinny: The schools annually end their regular seasons in the "Egg Bowl," so named because of the egg-shaped trophy that goes to the winner. The game's winner has received possession of the trophy since 1927.

‘The Egg Bowl’ has nothing to do with actual eggs

This rivalry game’s name has an interesting history.

www.sbnation.com

Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss is called the Egg Bowl because of newspapers, not actual eggs​

This rivalry game’s name has an interesting history.

On Thursday night, a game that’s been played on Thanksgiving Day a total of 21 times will return to the holiday primetime slot. Ole Miss will travel to No. 14 Mississippi State in their 114th meeting and first Turkey Day battle since 2013.

The winner will receive the Golden Egg Trophy, and that’s part of the reason this whole thing is called the Egg Bowl.

The tradition of the Golden Egg as the game’s trophy started in 1927, which also marked the first game between these two on Thanksgiving.

The Golden Egg was first proposed by members of Iota Sigma, an Ole Miss honorary activities fraternity. As thoughts of last year’s game, Iota Sigma proposed that a trophy be awarded in a dignified ceremony designed to calm excited fans. One proposal that was rejected was to send the goal posts to the winning side each year.
A&M [MSU at the time] approved the suggestion of an award, and Ole Miss, two weeks before the game, officially added its approval. The trophy, to be called “The Golden Egg”, would be a regulation-size gold-plated football mounted on a pedestal. Costs of approximately $250 would be shared by both schools. Ole Miss students held a tag day to raise funds.

As for the “Egg Bowl” nickname, it wasn’t coined until 1978. Both teams were having down years and not bowl eligible, so Tom Patterson of the Clarion-Ledger used “Egg Bowl” throughout the week leading up to the game, just to try and give the game some importance.
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Here's one nobody cares about (a friend of mine went to Northern Michigan, he posted about the game on another board):

The Miner's Cup

Since 2002 Northern Michigan University and Michigan Tech University have battled for the Miner’s Cup Trophy, awarded to the annual winner of the historic Upper Peninsula football rivalry.

Michigan Tech won the inaugural Miner’s Cup in 2002 and currently holds an 9-3 record over Northern Michigan. The traveling trophy has stayed at MTU since 2009 when NMU last won it, the longest winning streak for the annual trophy.

Though the Miner’s Cup has only been awarded since 2002, the rivalry dates back 1920. The two teams have met a total of 87 times since. As of Michigan Tech’s 2013 victory, the series is split even, 41-41-5 record.

Entire article: http://www.nmuwildcats.com/sports/fball/2012-13/releases/20130130m0u9uz

Both of these school would be totally worthless even if they weren't in Michigan....

 

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The Stanford Axe

The teams: California and Stanford
The skinny: The game rarely has much national cachet, but it's a nasty rivalry; at its core, it's smart public-school kids vs. smart private-school kids. And it evidently has been that way a long time: The axe reportedly made its first appearance in April 1899, during a rally at Stanford when it was used to decapitate a straw figure wearing Cal's colors. The trophy has gone to the winner since 1933 and actually is an axe head mounted on a plaque, which has the series scores.

 

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Old Oaken Bucket

The teams: Indiana and Purdue
The skinny: From the truth in advertising department: The bucket really is an oak bucket and it is old. It has been in use as the rivalry trophy since 1925, and legend has it that the bucket was used in Indiana during the Civil War.

 

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