Ranking the top 10 Big Ten football rivalry trophies

The late Bill Walton famously referred to his beloved Pac-12 as the “conference of champions,” a nod to the fact the league had more NCAA national championships in team sports than any other conference.

In the world of college football, the Big Ten could be considered the “conference of trophies.”

What’s now a coast-to-coast, 18-team behemoth was, for much of its existence, a Midwestern league made up of large state schools that shared borders and had played one another for generations. Over those many on-field meetings, the bitter feelings that familiarity can breed developed and, from those, rivalries were born.

And with those rivalries came trophies, prizes of various sizes and shapes that teams could hoist triumphantly on the field after notching a hard-fought victory.

The conference has close to 20 rivalry trophies, each with its own quirks and lore. Some go back more than a century while one particularly notable one was the brainchild of a social media back-and-forth a decade ago. It makes the league unique, the kind of place where what would otherwise be nondescript matchups like Minnesota-Nebraska, Indiana-Michigan State and Michigan-Northwestern games come with a coveted piece of hardware.

Interesting as they all are, the trophies aren’t created equally. How do they measure up against one another?

With Iowa-Wisconsin and Ohio State-Illinois set to kickoff this weekend during Week 7, here’s USA TODAY’s ranking of the top 10 Big Ten rivalry trophies:

Top 10 Big Ten rivalry trophies

10. Old Oaken Bucket (Indiana vs. Purdue)

Presented annually to the winner of the Indiana-Purdue game since 1925, the Old Oaken Bucket was taken from a well at a southern Indiana farm, as such a bucket was deemed to be the “most typical Hoosier form of trophy.” Each year, the chain on the bucket has either an I or a P added to it, depending on which side emerges victorious. There are three “I-P” links on the chain for ties in the series, including the 1925 game when the two in-state rivals first competed for the bucket.

9. Land of Lincoln Trophy (Illinois vs. Northwestern)

Until 2008, Illinois and Northwestern competed for the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk. When the trophy was retired as part of Illinois’ broader effort to remove Native American imagery from its athletic programs, the two sides, after an online fan vote, settled on the most famous item associated with their home state’s favorite son.

Since 2009, the winner of the game between the Fighting Illini and Wildcats receives a bronze replica of a stovepipe hat worn by Abraham Lincoln. The trophy was designed by Dick Locher, the Chicago-based cartoonist behind the Dick Tracy comic strip.

8. Illibuck (Ohio State vs. Illinois)

In 1925, the same year the Old Oaken Bucket was birthed, Illinois and Ohio State gave out a live turtle to the winner of their annual football game, with the shelled reptile, known for its long lifespan, serving the same purpose as a trophy. That turtle, however, died in 1927, with the stress of living in fraternity houses and campus buildings contributing to its early demise. Since then, a wooden replica of the turtle has been given out, with the scores of each game carved on its back.

7. Old Brass Spittoon (Indiana vs. Michigan State)

The idea for Indiana and Michigan State having a rivalry trophy came from Gene McDermott, a Michigan State student attending the school on the GI Bill in 1950. After discussing it with Spartans coach Biggie Munn, who enthusiastically endorsed it, McDermott found a brass spittoon in an antique shop, took it with him to the game and showed it to each team in the locker room before kickoff.

6. Land Grant Trophy (Penn State vs. Michigan State)

The keepsake for the winner of the Penn State-Michigan State game is, without question, the ugliest and most unwieldy item on this list. The trophy’s effectively a giant block of wood with a pair of shelves, photos of campus landmarks, Nittany Lion and Spartan statues, and a generic gold topper that looks like something that would be given out to kids at the end of a rec league season.

It was conceived by coaches Joe Paterno and George Perles when Penn State joined Michigan State in the Big Ten in 1993, with the two designated rivals meeting late in the season. Due in part to its lack of aesthetic grace, the Land Grant Trophy has developed something of a cult following among fans of both schools.

5. $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy (Nebraska vs. Minnesota)

The newest Big Ten rivalry trophy has a strong claim to being the most distinct. Its roots go back to a Twitter exchange in 2014 between Faux Pelini, a popular parody account of then-Nebraska coach Bo Pelini, and Minnesota mascot Goldy Gopher that led to a friendly wager in which Pelini said he would get $5 with a Nebraska win while a Minnesota win would mean he’d get to smash a wooden chair over Goldy’s back.

Fans ran with it, helping design a trophy with a broken chair that was handed out after the Cornhuskers’ win over the Golden Gophers in 2015. The trophy disappeared after the 2016 game, but was revived the following year as part of a charity fundraiser (or, as it was branded, a “Chair-ity Fundraiser”).

4. Little Brown Jug (Michigan vs. Minnesota)

One of the oldest rivalry trophies in college football, the Little Brown Jug dates all the way back to 1903, when Michigan coach Fielding Yost, fearing the team’s water would be tampered with for a road game against Minnesota, sent a student manager to purchase a jug of water for the Wolverines at a local shop.

After a 6-6 tie, the jug was left behind in Minneapolis, where a Golden Gophers equipment manager found it and helped paint it with the game’s result, making Minnesota’s 6 larger than Michigan’s. When the two sides met again in 1909, they agreed to play for the jug and the rest, as they say, is history.

3. Paul Bunyan Trophy (Michigan vs. Michigan State)

Though it’s often overshadowed by “The Game” between Michigan and Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State share one of the most intense rivalries in the sport — and one of its coolest rivalry trophies. Since 1953, the Wolverines and Spartans have competed for a 4-foot-tall wooden statue of mythical lumberjack Paul Bunyan, a nod to the state’s logging history.

2. Paul Bunyan’s Axe (Wisconsin vs. Minnesota)

You read that right — the Big Ten has not only one, but two Paul Bunyan-related trophies. Minnesota and Wisconsin, the most-played rivalry at the FBS level, have played since 1948 for Paul Bunyan’s Axe, which has a 6-foot-long handle inscribed with the results of each game between the two.

Previously, the Badgers and Golden Gophers competed for an even more distinct trinket — the Slab of Bacon Trophy, a piece of black walnut wood with a football at the center that either read as a W or M, depending on which way it was hung, and the word BACON carved on both ends. Sadly, the trophy was lost after a 1943 game, with the axe replacing it five years later.

1. Floyd of Rosedale (Iowa vs. Minnesota)

The giant bronze pig given to the winner of the Iowa-Minnesota football game has an origin story unlike any in the sport. Heading into the Hawkeyes and Golden Gophers’ matchup in 1935, and following a contentious 1934 game in which Iowa alleged that star running back Ozzie Simmons (who was Black) was intentionally injured, Iowa Gov. Clyde Herring issued something of a warning to Minnesota, claiming “If the officials stand for any rough tactics like Minnesota used last year, I’m sure the crowd won’t.”

In an attempt to tone down the heated rhetoric, Minnesota Gov. Floyd B. Olson sent a telegram to Herring suggesting the winner of the game receive a prize hog from the loser’s state. The Gophers won 13-6 and received a black Hampshire boar bred at Rosedale Farms in Webster County, Iowa that was named Floyd (in honor of the Minnesota governor).

Floyd (the pig) died in 1936, prompting Olson to commission a sculptor in nearby St. Paul to design a trophy in the recently deceased Floyd’s likeness. What it produced was a 98-pound bronze trophy of a 15 1/2-inch-tall, 21-inch-long pig that Minnesota and Iowa still compete for today.

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