Why Iowa and Minnesota Play for a Giant Bronze Pig Called Floyd of Rosedale

You can search near and far across this great country, but you'll never find a better rivalry trophy in any sport than what Iowa and Minnesota play for on the gridiron each fall.

Of course I'm talking about 98-pounds of pure bronze bacon, none other than Floyd of Rosedale.

Yes, the Big Ten is stocked full of rivalry trophies, and really, besides the Land Grant Trophy (Michigan State and Penn State), they're all pretty special.

However, one is just a bit more special than all the others, and this weekend calls for an appreciation of Floyd of Rosedale.

The year is 1935 and tensions between Iowa and Minnesota are running hot.

Iowa star running back Ozzie Simmons took abuse from the Minnesota squad during the 1934 contest, being forced to the sideline three times for different injuries. That contested resulted in a 48-12 drubbing by the Golden Gophers.

Simmons was black at a time that much of college football was yet to be segregated, and was treated poorly by many opponents as a result.

Mad about the blowout loss and treatment of Simmons a year later, Iowa governor Clyde Herring gave a warning that any kind of repeat in behavior by Minnesota would not be tolerated.

That's when Minnesota governor Floyd B. Olson proposed a wager: the losing governor would deliver a prize hog to the winner. Herring quickly accepted and the bet was on, as it was made in hope of easing tensions between the rivals.

1935 was a much more competitive contest, but Minnesota still held on to win, 13-6. Herring then delivered Olson a prized hog that had been raised at Rosedale Farms in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and was named Floyd in honor of Governor Olson.

Floyd (the pig) eventually died but his legacy carried on. Olson commissioned a bronze statue of Floyd be built, and that created the 98-pounds of bronze that Iowa and Minnesota still battle for annually.

It's not a silver football, a brass spittoon, or a big bell.

Instead, its a 98-pound brass pig and its the perfect piece of metal for the state universities of Iowa and Minnesota to play for.

Not unless you could somehow work the Edmund Fitzgerald into it, could it be more Midwestern.

And that's what makes it fantastic.

Imagine a European soccer fan comes to the United States one fall and is introduced to college football with the Iowa vs. Minnesota matchup.

"Yes, the winner of this game gets to take home a nearly-100-pound bronze pig."

"Oh, so then they're the champions?"

"No, not champions, just winners of this game"

"And they get a pig?"

The fact this pig was originally played for as an effort to cool tensions between rival schools during a not-so-proud time in both college football and United States history only makes it better.

As the last 60-plus years have shown us - a national championship doesn't have to be on the line for Iowa vs. Minnesota to matter to Midwesterners.

Floyd is a fitting symbol between a pair of bordering states that share agricultural roots, proud communities and campuses, and a couple of football programs that are generally built on the "big uglies". It's essentially a metaphor for countless people who call both states home.

Floyd captures everything that is great about college football.

College football rivalries are more than what number a team is ranked or what each team's record is coming in.

They're about a shared history.

Regional pride.

And generations upon generations of traditions and tailgates.

So bring on all the axes, buckets, jugs, cannons, and whatever else you've got.

When the Hawkeyes beat the Golden Gophers, even a 98-pound brass pig feels light in Iowa City.

Those in Minneapolis will tell you the same, even if Kirk Ferentz has historically had PJ Fleck's number in the rivalry.

And when Floyd gets hoisted into the air, there are few sights as sweet in all of college football.

Add us as a preferred source on Google