lwjr wrote:Mitch McConnell wrote:Yep. I was there for that game last month.
Who or what is Floyd?
In the picture, you can see the Minnesota players holding the Bronze Pig -- that's Floyd.
The trophy became a part of the Minnesota-Iowa game in about the mid 1930s. In a game around 1935, the Iowa fans were pretty upset at the Minnesota players because they felt that the Gopher player were hitting their star player too hard -- after the whistle -- and accused Minnesota of cheap shotting their player.
The talk between the states became pretty intense and finally the two state governors felt the best way to calm this was to play for a trophy. Since agriculture and farming were the way of life back then, they agreed on something of this nature. Odd as it sounds -- and maybe not for those times back then -- they settled for a live pig. They went to the Rosedale Farms in Iowa to get the prized pig. I think they just named it Floyd to give it a name.
Now, this part I'm fuzzy on -- I think they played for the live pig for several years before they decided to make it an actual trophy.
So while it sounds a little a bizarre in these parts about playing for something like that, this trophy -- now entering its ninth decade -- carries impact on it.
When the game finished up there, the students rushed the field to celebrate. The players carried that thing all over the field in triumph.
People may mock the Big 10 for all of its trophies between the schools, but the trophies reveal the history between these schools and a sense of pride. I have a lot of respect for this conference because it embraces and advances its traditions.
