Floyd of Rosedale - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Floyd of Rosedale
Teams	Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa Hawkeyes football The Iowa Hawkeyes football team is the interscholastic football team at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have competed in the Big Ten Conference since 1900, and are currently a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association... Minnesota Golden Gophers Minnesota Golden Gophers football The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers are one of the oldest programs in college football history. They compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the Big Ten Conference. The Golden Gophers have claimed six national championships and have an all time record of 646–481–44 as...
Originated	1935
Trophy Series	Minnesota leads, 41-34-2
Current Holder	Minnesota

Floyd of Rosedale is the name of a bronze pig trophy that is awarded to the winner of the annual college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

game between the Universities of Iowa

Iowa Hawkeyes football

The Iowa Hawkeyes football team is the interscholastic football team at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have competed in the Big Ten Conference since 1900, and are currently a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association...

and Minnesota

Minnesota Golden Gophers football

The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers are one of the oldest programs in college football history. They compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the Big Ten Conference. The Golden Gophers have claimed six national championships and have an all time record of 646–481–44 as...

. It is one of several traveling trophies

Trophy

A trophy is a reward for a specific achievement, and serves as recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are most often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics...

in college football.

History

The 1934 football game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and Minnesota Golden Gophers had been filled with controversy over the treatment of Iowa star halfback Ozzie Simmons

Ozzie Simmons

Oze E. "Ozzie" Simmons was a college football player for the University of Iowa. Simmons, nicknamed the "Ebony Eel", was one of the first black All-American football players in the 1930s.-Background:...

. Simmons was also one of the few black football players of that era, and several rough hits by the Gophers on Simmons forced him to leave the game multiple times in Minnesota’s 48-12 victory. “What it amounted to was that they were piling on – late hits,” Simmons recalled. “I had bruised ribs...they came at me with knees high, and some of it was pretty obvious.”

The following year, Coach Bernie Bierman

Bernie Bierman

Bernard W. "Bernie" Bierman was an American football player and coach. He coached from 1919 to 1950 except for a span during World War II when he served in the U.S. armed forces...

’s Gophers were 5-0, and Coach Ossie Solem

Ossie Solem

Oscar Martin "Ossie" Solem was an American football player and coach of football and basketball in the United States...

’s Hawkeyes were 4-0-1. Before the 1935 Iowa-Minnesota contest in Iowa City, Bierman received a flood of threatening letters from Iowa fans. He requested and received special police protection for the team when it detrained in Iowa a couple days before the contest.

The day before the game, Iowa Governor Clyde Herring told reporters, "If the officials stand for any rough tactics like Minnesota used last year, I'm sure the crowd won't." Herring’s message was clear. “What he was saying was, ‘If you treat Ozzie like you treated him last year, we’re coming out of the stands,’” Simmons said.

The news quickly reached Minnesota. Coach Bierman threatened to break off athletic relations. Minnesota Attorney General Harry Peterson practically accused the Iowa governor of thuggery. "Your remark that the crowd at the Iowa-Minnesota game will not stand for any rough tactics is calculated to incite a riot," said Peterson. "It is a breach of your duty as governor, and evidences an unsportsmanlike, cowardly and contemptible frame of mind."

To lighten the mood, Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson sent a telegram to Governor Herring on game-day morning, which read, "Minnesota folks are excited about your statement about the Iowa crowd lynching the Minnesota football team. I have assured them that you are a law abiding gentleman only trying to get our goat...I will bet you a Minnesota prize hog against an Iowa prize hog that Minnesota wins."

The Iowa governor accepted, and word of the bet reached Iowa City as the crowd gathered at the stadium. Things calmed down and the game was untroubled. Minnesota won 13-6, and Iowa star Ozzie Simmons played an injury-free game. Afterwards, the Minnesota players went out of their way to compliment Simmons, and Simmons praised the Gophers for their clean, hard-fought play. Minnesota went on to win their second straight national championship.

Governor Herring obtained an award-winning prize pig which had been donated by Allen Loomis, the owner of Rosedale Farms near Fort Dodge, Iowa

Fort Dodge, Iowa

Fort Dodge is a city and county seat of Webster County, Iowa, United States, along the Des Moines River. The population was 25,206 in the 2010 census, an increase from 25,136 in the 2000 census. Fort Dodge is a major commercial center for North Central and Northwest Iowa. It is located on U.S...

. Dubbed Floyd after Minnesota Governor Olson, the pig was the brother of BlueBoy from Will Rogers'

Will Rogers

William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....

movie State Fair. A few days later, Governor Herring collected "Floyd of Rosedale" and personally walked him into Governor Olson’s carpeted office.

Iowa social crusader Virgil Case swore out a criminal warrant in Des Moines against Governor Herring, alleging that the bet violated Iowa gambling laws. Herring jokingly stated that he had retained Governor Olson as his attorney, who argued that it was not a true bet because Herring did not have a chance of winning it. However, an assistant Iowa attorney general convinced a judge to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds because the bet had been made in Minnesota and Iowa City, beyond the local court's jurisdiction. Case also argued that the governors were guilty of violating federal gambling laws because the pig had been placed into interstate commerce when Herring made good on the bet, but the U.S. Attorneys declined to prosecute. President Franklin Roosevelt's former son-in-law, Curtis Dall, who attended the 1935 game as a guest of the governors, suggested that they name the pig "New Deal

New Deal

The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

." Herring vetoed that proposal.

Aftermath

Governor Olson later offered Floyd up as the grand prize in a state-wide essay-writing contest, which was won by 14-year old Robert Jones. A few years later, Floyd of Rosedale caught cholera and died.

Since the two schools could not continue wagering a live pig, Governor Olson commissioned Saint Paul

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...

sculptor Charles Brioscho to capture Floyd's image. The result was a bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

pig trophy 53cm (21 inches) long and 38cm (15 inches) high. Iowa

Iowa Hawkeyes football

and Minnesota

Minnesota Golden Gophers football

have played for the Floyd of Rosedale trophy every year since then. The winner of the annual Iowa-Minnesota football game is entitled to keep the trophy until the following year's contest.

One of the most notable games in the rivalry was in the 1960 college football season

1960 college football season

The 1960 college football season marked the last time that the University of Minnesota was a national champion on the gridiron. Murray Warmath's Minnesota Gophers were not in the Top 20 in preseason polling, but received the AP Trophy at the end of the regular season...

when undefeated and number three-ranked Minnesota met undefeated and number-one ranked Iowa in Minneapolis. The game was for the Big Ten Conference championship, the 1961 Rose Bowl

1961 Rose Bowl

The 1961 Rose Bowl game, played on Monday, January 2, 1961, was the 47th Rose Bowl game. The #6 Washington Huskies defeated the top-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers, 17–7. Washington quarterback Bob Schloredt was named the Player Of The Game...

berth, and the #1 ranking. Minnesota won, 27-10.

In 2008, Rivals.com named Floyd of Rosedale the top rivalry trophy in college football.

Game results

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External links

Borzi, Pat. "Trophy Tells a Tale of Rivalry and Race," The New York Times, Friday, November 26, 2010.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Aftermath

Game results

See also

External links