What do an axe, a bucket and a cannon have in common? Meet the rivalry trophies of college football
Welcome back to Oklahoma Chronicles. Now we want to take *** deeper look at NIL rules, the current state of college athletics, and the transfer portal, and all of it. Joining our panel today, *** couple of really good guests. We have State Senator Todd Gher here who authored NIL legislation this year in Oklahoma, very busy keeping your eyes on everything and the moving and shaking. Also Bobby Lepack, who teaches an NIL class at the University of Oklahoma, thanks so much. for being here. Thanks for having me. Well, let’s talk NIL and the transfer portal and everything as we were talking earlier, we just talked about how everything is changing so much. In fact, Bobby, you have this class on NIL it’s through the the business college there at OU, and you had to stop teaching it for *** while because everything’s changing it so so fast sometimes, correct it’s, it’s *** really dynamic landscape and between the Alston decision and then the new rules after that and how litigation. And now potentially the score act and all of that, you know, how about back us up and we start talking about the Alston decision and all of that. I mean, I should even say NIL when we say that name, image like this, this was something created so that college athletes, student athletes could receive compensation, get some money for signing autographs or doing endorsement deals, but it’s, it’s, it’s really grown. So I wanna come back to all the nitty gritty, but this has become such *** huge thing that even. Legislators now are having to watch very closely not just in Oklahoma but around the country. That’s right you know this, uh, the legislation we passed this year was, uh, basically, uh, the governor had done an executive order. This was taken that executive order, worked closely with the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University to uh get this bill through the, the Senate and over to the house, uh, did, you know, but it’s so dynamic in, in that, uh. It’s almost there’s 32 states already running NIL legislation they’re all different from each other or they’re some of them are and it’s very competitive and so we ran this legislation in order to uh keep that competitive edge that our universities need as well as to protect the student athletes, OK, and, and, and everybody’s doing this at the same time because of these changing dynamics, Bobby, and how everything’s happening from. The decision and the you know and lawsuits and everything, how many different factors are in play right now? How many things are colleges juggling and athletic departments? I think you got 3 big ones, right? So you have the name, image and likeness stuff, NIL, which I think is *** distinct concept from pay for play, which is what’s coming from the revenue share agreements that are coming out of the house settlement and then the last is the transfer portal which is really I think the one that’s actually. I would say the culprit in so much of the consternation around college sports is the the kind of open transfer rules that are going on. I think when you talk to most college football fans they can get behind the, you know, these universities they’re making so much money off off of their backs, especially these, these. You know, these very revenue making sports like football and basketball, they should get something but now it’s become, but I don’t like them leaving every single year where every single year we got *** new roster of players whether or not you had *** good team or *** bad team it’s *** whole new thing is is the portal become exploited because of NIL did one kind of create *** monster out of the other, do we think? I think the portal has, uh, you know, as far as the fans are concerned, has created an impatience that instead of, you know, the traditional way we’ve always done it, which is, uh, take *** young man and, and red shirt him and then build that team and, and, uh, build those skill sets, now it’s, uh, hey, you’ve got the money, go out there and just buy *** team for us we want to win next year so it’s created an impatient and the fan base, uh, but it’s also created. Uh, impatient with the coaches and the coaching staff and the different styles, right? is this difficult on these coaching staffs? Oh, absolutely. I, I, I have *** personal connection to. You have *** brother, my younger brother Brian, who played football and so I, I saw it from the side of the athlete that wasn’t allowed to get an IL, um, beforehand beforehand and now right back in the day and uh. And now as *** coach dealing with the dynamic of the portal you’re you’re not just recruiting high school players you’re recruiting at various times in the calendar year players from other rosters that have gone into the portal but you’re also trying to prevent your own guys from going into the portal and so it creates this dynamic where. The coaching calendar is just *** nightmare. They’re working nonstop year round on roster management issues and recruiting guys that play for them, play in high school and are now in the portal. It’s, it’s *** very difficult situation and it doesn’t stop. It never stops and it’s changing. Sometimes because from *** leadership perspective you’re trying to protect the interests of the state universities correct? is that when you’re doing these, these you know these bills is it coming from that standpoint to make sure that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and and other universities in the state. Are on at least *** competitive footing. That’s right, you know, in this state, you know, it applies to all the universities, but you know if you’re just talking about University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, they’re actually in two different conferences and so it’s imperative that we actually evened out that landscape so that if the SEC did something early. And the Big 12 was late to catch up. There wouldn’t be *** political, I mean, ***, uh, *** disadvantage, *** competitive disadvantage between the two schools, much less, uh, uh, *** competitive disadvantage coming from other states and other universities, you know, they, they call it the wild wild west, but it’s more of an arms race at this point, right? And I remember the old arms. When it was about facilities and T. Boone Pickens was out there and they were dominating the arms race and now it’s something completely different but I think it’s, I think that’s actually *** really good point is you’re just changing the mix, right? Where are you allocating your resources in this and it’s this is something that’s coming up in the coaching world is how are you gonna manage your roster, how are you gonna manage your personnel. Uh, I think it’s gonna take *** new breed of coach, new breed of athletic director. I think you’ll see you’re seeing departments do that. Oklahoma’s done *** really, I think, outstanding job of changing how they manage the roster. They brought in *** GM with NFL experience, things like that. They actually have *** general manager for these programs, right? And, and I think you’ll see the people that that are creative and open to the chaos. And and willing to take that challenge on really succeed and blossom in this, and if you’re not willing to adapt to the new environment, then you’re gonna have *** hard time and there might be more adapting to come because there is federal legislation that that could be you know uh that could be changing things again with with the score Act for example which Bobby that would make *** big change as well or maybe would that bring. Us together perhaps because that the whole idea of that is it would create *** national system correct for state senators wouldn’t have to be every single year creating new NIL legislation. It’s interesting the SCOR Act, if if you look at it really closely, it’s basically saying we’re just gonna create what the NCAA used to be and give them the antitrust exemption and give them authority to enforce *** bunch of rules, right? and um. So it kind of harkens back, but then added in are the three components we talked about earlier. There’s got to be revenue share. There’s gotta be transfer portal options and then the NIL protections. Uh, it’ll be interesting to see what happens there. I’m not sure exactly where it’s gonna go, if it’s even gonna pass, you know what, what is your intuition and what are you hearing about this? Well, you know, I, I think it’s interesting that uh from the federal level to the to the state level that, you know, as we said we we were in it to keep the competitive. Uh, not, not wanting to be at *** competitive disadvantage and, and to protect our student athletes. When you listen to, uh, what’s coming out of the federal, federal side, they’re talking about stabilizing the system. And uh they’re talking about protecting them from uh antitrust lawsuits in NCAA and so it’s kind of *** different focus and in an individual state doesn’t want to be disadvantaged to another state or another university where the federal government’s trying to, you know, make that stability give uh give uh each uh. that ability to compete too. Bottom line, and we have less than 2 minutes here. Is this better than what it was when your brother was, was, was playing football? Bobby, what do you think? I think from an NIL perspective it’s absolutely better, right? My brother was *** very, he is still is *** very talented singer and I remember he’s *** walk-on player at Oklahoma. He couldn’t. Be somebody’s wedding singer and get paid the market rate for his services, that was wrong, right? That’s exploitation, all of those things, but I think the environment that’s created with the ongoing transfer portal, no rules or or very limited rules and *** lot of uncertainty on what’s going to happen with eligibility. We even see litigation over that. I think that’s worse, and I think that. Somebody’s gonna have to step up and and make *** change whether that’s *** federal solution or that’s the colleges themselves self regulating saying we’re not going to participate in this game this way anymore. I think somebody’s got to do something about that. Well, there’s always going to be billionaire donors, right, that are gonna be willing to step up and it’s just who has them and who’s willing to use it in less than *** minute, do you think, Senator, the current system is college athletics broken or. We’re moving towards *** better, *** better place or are we there now? I, I think, I think we’re moving towards *** better place and, uh, you know, the, the state and the state legislature and the governor are engaged in temporary solutions until we can figure this out nationally or uh however we’re gonna do it but I think we’re moving to *** better solution where we’re gonna have revenue sharing and we’re gonna have uh control. And and things over college athletics to ensure that you know the Olympic sports aren’t left behind to ensure that women’s sports aren’t left behind. I think that’s gonna take *** national solution on that. We’ll tell you what, we’re going to pause here. We’re gonna take *** break. You can find more. We’re gonna record *** little bit more. We’re gonna talk about those other sports and how we can protect them. You can find that on KOCO.com as well as our YouTube page.
What do an axe, a bucket and a cannon have in common? Meet the rivalry trophies of college football
Updated: 12:08 AM EST Nov 28, 2025
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The most-played series in major college football history, the bitter border-state rivalry between Minnesota and Wisconsin, is punctuated each year with a postgame ritual by the winning team that could be described as jubilant yardwork.When time expires on Saturday in the 135th edition of the Gophers-Badgers grudge match, currently even at 63-63 with eight ties, the victors will sprint toward Paul Bunyan’s Axe, take turns hoisting the six-foot shaft above their heads as they parade it around the stadium, and aim the head at one of the goal posts in pretending to chop it down like it’s a giant tree in the north woods. The axe has been awarded annually since 1948.Video above: Taking a deeper dive in NIL rules and impact on college athleticsThere’s hardly a richer — or quirkier — tradition in college football than rivalry trophies, one of the few elements of the game that remains the same in the new era of revenue sharing and the transfer portal. From the small schools to the powerhouse programs, nothing captures a sports fan’s attention quite like a traveling trophy.”It’s a way for a community — certainly the students, alumni, fans and faculty, but even more casual fans — to get revved up for a football game,” said Christian Anderson, a University of South Carolina professor whose research focus is on the history of higher education. “There are a lot of people who may not pay attention the whole season, and then the rivalry game comes and they’re a passionate fan for one Saturday.”Longtime members of the Big Ten boast perhaps the richest history of these one-of-a-kind prizes. The Little Brown Jug, which is neither little nor brown, dates to the Michigan-Minnesota game in 1903. Wolverines coach Fielding Yost, out of fear the Gophers might tamper with their water, had a student manager buy a jug for the team. After a brutal struggle ended in a tie as Minnesota fans stormed the field, the container was left behind. The Gophers formally returned it after the Wolverines won the next meeting in 1909.Minnesota fared better at the beginning with Floyd of Rosedale, a 98-pound bronze pig named after the state’s governor in 1935 who suggested the trophy to his Iowa counterpart as a way to deescalate tension between two fan bases with deep roots in farming.Indiana will face Purdue on Friday for the Old Oaken Bucket, found in disrepair on a local farm in 1925 with the belief it might have been used by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Indiana and Michigan State have competed since 1950 for the Old Brass Spittoon, a relic from the trading post era purchased at an antique shop by an MSU student to add incentive to the game. Illinois and Ohio State have played for a century for the Illibuck Trophy, now a wooden turtle after an ill-fated attempt to award the real thing — a 16-pound snapper — to a student society on the campus of the winning team. Michigan and Michigan State have fought since 1953 for annual ownership of the Paul Bunyan Trophy, a four-foot wooden statue of the mythical lumberjack donated by the state’s governor to mark MSU’s entry into the conference.As football became the front-of-the-brochure image of a college campus, the power of visuals has helped make these trophies lasting legends.”It’s a tangible representation that we beat our rivals,” Anderson said. “Maybe we only keep it for a year because it’s a traveling trophy, but next time we’re going back to get it if we didn’t win it.”The NCAA certified the Territorial Cup played for by Arizona and Arizona State as the oldest known rivalry trophy, awarded after their first meeting in 1899. But there’s a gap in the history of the small, silver-plated pitcher. It was missing for decades until its rediscovery in a storage area of a church near the ASU campus in 1983. Traveling-trophy formality was finally reinstated in 2001.If there’s one recurring theme among rivalry trophies, it is relics from the pre-industrial age. Nevada and UNLV play for the Fremont Cannon, a 545-pound replica of the cannon the explorer of the same name abandoned in a snowstorm during his trek through the state in 1844. Notre Dame and USC have the Jewelled Shillelagh, a wooden symbol of a traditional Gaelic war club that was first presented in 1952. Oh, and there are all kinds of bells waiting to be rung by a winning team out there. Lots of bells.California and Stanford play for an axe, too, except theirs is just the head mounted on a plaque, an oft-stolen trophy annually awarded since 1933. Kentucky and Tennessee battle for a beer barrel. When Mississippi fans stormed Mississippi State’s field after a Rebels win in 1926, MSU supporters balked and brawls broke out. To help restore dignity to the rivalry the following year, the student bodies from both schools introduced the Golden Egg, a gold-plated football mounted on a pedestal. Fortunately, the egg never gets too close to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas, where SMU and TCU have played for the Iron Skillet since 1946. The rivals from the defunct Southwest Conference have met 104 times in 110 years, but no future games have been scheduled.The Slab of Bacon is safely away from the skillet, too. That was the first version of the Minnesota-Wisconsin hardware, a wooden slab that went missing in 1943 after the planned exchange following a Gophers victory never took place, for reasons that depend on which school is telling the story. A summer storage cleanout project in Madison in 1994 turned up the trophy, which Wisconsin has since kept on display. Somehow, all the game scores through 1970 are inscribed on it even though it was supposedly unable to be found for all those years.
MINNEAPOLIS —
The most-played series in major college football history, the bitter border-state rivalry between Minnesota and Wisconsin, is punctuated each year with a postgame ritual by the winning team that could be described as jubilant yardwork.
When time expires on Saturday in the 135th edition of the Gophers-Badgers grudge match, currently even at 63-63 with eight ties, the victors will sprint toward Paul Bunyan’s Axe, take turns hoisting the six-foot shaft above their heads as they parade it around the stadium, and aim the head at one of the goal posts in pretending to chop it down like it’s a giant tree in the north woods. The axe has been awarded annually since 1948.
Video above: Taking a deeper dive in NIL rules and impact on college athletics
There’s hardly a richer — or quirkier — tradition in college football than rivalry trophies, one of the few elements of the game that remains the same in the new era of revenue sharing and the transfer portal. From the small schools to the powerhouse programs, nothing captures a sports fan’s attention quite like a traveling trophy.
“It’s a way for a community — certainly the students, alumni, fans and faculty, but even more casual fans — to get revved up for a football game,” said Christian Anderson, a University of South Carolina professor whose research focus is on the history of higher education. “There are a lot of people who may not pay attention the whole season, and then the rivalry game comes and they’re a passionate fan for one Saturday.”
Longtime members of the Big Ten boast perhaps the richest history of these one-of-a-kind prizes. The Little Brown Jug, which is neither little nor brown, dates to the Michigan-Minnesota game in 1903. Wolverines coach Fielding Yost, out of fear the Gophers might tamper with their water, had a student manager buy a jug for the team. After a brutal struggle ended in a tie as Minnesota fans stormed the field, the container was left behind. The Gophers formally returned it after the Wolverines won the next meeting in 1909.
Minnesota fared better at the beginning with Floyd of Rosedale, a 98-pound bronze pig named after the state’s governor in 1935 who suggested the trophy to his Iowa counterpart as a way to deescalate tension between two fan bases with deep roots in farming.
Indiana will face Purdue on Friday for the Old Oaken Bucket, found in disrepair on a local farm in 1925 with the belief it might have been used by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. Indiana and Michigan State have competed since 1950 for the Old Brass Spittoon, a relic from the trading post era purchased at an antique shop by an MSU student to add incentive to the game.
Darron Cummings
FILE – Indiana’s Mike Katic celebrates with the Old Oaken Bucket after defeating Purdue in an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Bloomington, Ind.
Illinois and Ohio State have played for a century for the Illibuck Trophy, now a wooden turtle after an ill-fated attempt to award the real thing — a 16-pound snapper — to a student society on the campus of the winning team. Michigan and Michigan State have fought since 1953 for annual ownership of the Paul Bunyan Trophy, a four-foot wooden statue of the mythical lumberjack donated by the state’s governor to mark MSU’s entry into the conference.
As football became the front-of-the-brochure image of a college campus, the power of visuals has helped make these trophies lasting legends.
“It’s a tangible representation that we beat our rivals,” Anderson said. “Maybe we only keep it for a year because it’s a traveling trophy, but next time we’re going back to get it if we didn’t win it.”
The NCAA certified the Territorial Cup played for by Arizona and Arizona State as the oldest known rivalry trophy, awarded after their first meeting in 1899. But there’s a gap in the history of the small, silver-plated pitcher. It was missing for decades until its rediscovery in a storage area of a church near the ASU campus in 1983. Traveling-trophy formality was finally reinstated in 2001.
If there’s one recurring theme among rivalry trophies, it is relics from the pre-industrial age. Nevada and UNLV play for the Fremont Cannon, a 545-pound replica of the cannon the explorer of the same name abandoned in a snowstorm during his trek through the state in 1844.
Notre Dame and USC have the Jewelled Shillelagh, a wooden symbol of a traditional Gaelic war club that was first presented in 1952. Oh, and there are all kinds of bells waiting to be rung by a winning team out there. Lots of bells.
California and Stanford play for an axe, too, except theirs is just the head mounted on a plaque, an oft-stolen trophy annually awarded since 1933. Kentucky and Tennessee battle for a beer barrel.
When Mississippi fans stormed Mississippi State’s field after a Rebels win in 1926, MSU supporters balked and brawls broke out. To help restore dignity to the rivalry the following year, the student bodies from both schools introduced the Golden Egg, a gold-plated football mounted on a pedestal.
David Becker
FILE – UNLV pulls the Fremont Cannon trophy, awarded to the winner of the annual Battle of Nevada game, on the field after defeating Nevada in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Las Vegas.
Fortunately, the egg never gets too close to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas, where SMU and TCU have played for the Iron Skillet since 1946. The rivals from the defunct Southwest Conference have met 104 times in 110 years, but no future games have been scheduled.
The Slab of Bacon is safely away from the skillet, too.
That was the first version of the Minnesota-Wisconsin hardware, a wooden slab that went missing in 1943 after the planned exchange following a Gophers victory never took place, for reasons that depend on which school is telling the story.
A summer storage cleanout project in Madison in 1994 turned up the trophy, which Wisconsin has since kept on display. Somehow, all the game scores through 1970 are inscribed on it even though it was supposedly unable to be found for all those years.
