Let’s explore some of the most iconic rivalry trophies throughout college football history and when those games are happening.
RIVALRY TROPHIES HAVE been a part of college football lore for more than a hundred years. And we’ve reached the part of the season (Week 14) when rivals go head-to-head for the opportunity to hoist a trophy high and secure bragging rights for the year. Intense matchups such as the Egg Bowl and Stanford-Cal can take on greater significance when historical trophies such as the Victory Bell, Territorial Cup and a 24-karat-plated 200-pound boot are at stake. These celebrated traditions will take center stage as the college football regular season enters its final week.
In 1899, five Stanford students bought the original axe from a store in San Francisco. Stanford Yell leaders wanted a physical axe to accompany the “axe yell,” created three years earlier. The axe debuted on April 13, 1899, at a campus rally for the Stanford baseball team, which was in the middle of a series against Cal. Two days later in San Francisco, the axe was stolen by Cal students after the baseball game. A chase unfolded and the axe handle was cut off during the pursuit. The Cal students successfully escaped with the axe blade and kept it for 31 years. In 1930, a group known as the Immortal 21 pulled off an elaborate plan and recovered the axe and returned it back to Stanford. In 1933, both schools agreed to play for the axe. The trophy features an axe head mounted on a large wooden plaque that lists all the outcomes from the previous games. When Stanford possesses the axe after a win, it modifies the score from the infamous 1982 game known as “The Play.” The score on the trophy gets adjusted in Stanford’s favor to reflect a 20-19 win. Whenever Cal wins, it changes the score back to the true outcome 25-20. Cal and Stanford have gone on to play each other 128 times since 1892, making it the sixth-longest active rivalry in FBS history.
The Victory Bell has a storied past filled with vandalism and an elaborate heist. In 1939, the UCLA Alumni Association gifted the Bruins a 295-pound Bell that was originally mounted atop a Southern Pacific freight locomotive. UCLA rang the Bell after every point the Bruins scored during football games. The Victory Bell was stolen by six USC fraternity members after the Bruins’ 1941 season-opening victory over Washington State. Disguised as UCLA supporters, the frat members loaded the Bell into the bed of a truck postgame. The USC students successfully drove off with their booty. Search efforts continued for more than a year but went unsuccessful. The feud was reignited when a USC magazine published a photo of the Bell, which led to a series of retaliations and pranks between the crosstown rivals. School banners were stolen, Tommy Trojan was vandalized, and USC students branded their school letters across lawns at UCLA. School officials threatened to cancel the game if things continued to escalate. Ultimately, both student body presidents agreed to make the Victory Bell the prize for the rivalry. The winner keeps possession of the Bell until the following year. An agreement was signed in front of the Tommy Trojan statue on November 12, 1942. The USC Alumni Association also agreed to pay $150 to help cover their share of the Bell. UCLA captured the Victory Bell that year with a 14-7 win over USC.
Michigan Gov. G. Mennen Williams commissioned a rivalry trophy for the annual Michigan-Michigan State game in 1953. A Chicago-based artist crafted the 4-foot-tall Paul Bunyan figure, which stands atop a 5-foot wooden base with a $1,400 price tag, or $17,000 in 2025. The finished trophy featured a wooden lumberjack looming over an axe, his feet planted on a map of the state of Michigan. Two flags representing each school flank Bunyan. It is known as the Paul Bunyan — Governor of Michigan Trophy. Michigan State earned the inaugural honor in 1953 after defeating Michigan 14-6 in their first matchup as Big Ten opponents. Although the trophy held little prestige in the early years, things gradually changed. In 1999, the trophy drew praise from former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr, calling it “the ugliest trophy in college football,” but added, “when you don’t have him you miss him.” In 2008, Michigan State snapped a six-game losing streak to Michigan. Following the win, Spartan players picked up the trophy from its base and hoisted it around the field in celebration. Previously, the trophy was presented in the locker room. Today, the winning teams continue to embrace this tradition.
Notre Dame and USC began playing for the coveted Jeweled Shillelagh in 1952. According to both universities, a Shillelagh is a Gaelic war club made of oak or blackthorn saplings from Ireland. During halftime of the 1952 game, the Notre Dame Alumni Club of Los Angeles unveiled the Shillelagh to the athletic directors of both schools. Notre Dame upset USC 9-0. There are two versions of it: Shillelagh I and Shillelagh II. The original features medallions showing series results dating to the beginning of the rivalry in 1926. USC and Notre Dame currently play for Shillelagh II, a handcrafted Irish shillelagh crafted in County Leitrim — a county in Ireland — in 1997 and inscribed with the phrase “From the Emerald Isle.” After each matchup, a new medallion is added to the trophy. An emerald-studded shamrock represents a Notre Dame victory and a Trojan head with a ruby represents every USC win. If the result is a tie, then a half shamrock, half Trojan head is used in its place. The bronze medallions are made by Images Jewelers in Elkhart, Indiana, using a 3D printer. All the gems on the medallions are lab-grown.
The Old Brass Spittoon was introduced in 1950. Entering Week 7 of that season, Michigan State had a 5-1 record and was preparing for Indiana. Following a 36-33 victory over Notre Dame the previous week, the Spartan fan base wanted to avoid a letdown against the Hoosiers. A rivalry trophy was suggested to add extra motivation. MSU junior class president Gene McDermott purchased a spittoon for $25 from an antique shop in East Lansing, using money from a class prom fund. A note found inside the spittoon claims it to be from a trading post in the 1800s. Indiana accepted Michigan State’s proposal by telegram and initiated the college football tradition. The engraving on the spittoon reads: “The Old Brass Spittoon Inaugurated by the students of Michigan State College and Indiana University November 4, 1950.”
The historic rivalry between Ole Miss and Mississippi State goes back to 1901 but the Golden Egg trophy was not awarded until Thanksgiving Day in 1927. After Ole Miss snapped a 13-game losing streak to Mississippi State in the 1926 game, several of their fans rushed the field and attempted to pull down the goalposts. This led to numerous fights between the fan bases on the field in Starkville. Mississippi State fans attempted to defend the goalposts from Ole Miss fans by using chairs as weapons. The postgame scene was described as a “chair brigade” by The Mississippian. Following these events, members of Sigma Iota, an honorary society from Ole Miss suggested the trophy to help calm things around the game. Just two weeks before the 1927 game, both schools agreed to play for the Golden Egg. The regulation-sized gold-plated football cost $250 and was split between the schools. The game was known as the Battle for the Golden Egg until 1978 after Tom Patterson of The Clarion-Ledger referred to it as the Egg Bowl.
Texas and Oklahoma played for the first time in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 10, 1900. Nearly three decades after their first meeting, the two schools began playing annually at Fair Park in Dallas during the State Fair of Texas. No trophy was associated with the annual matchup until 1941, when the State Fair Association donated a 10-gallon bronze cowboy hat to serve as the official trophy for the rivalry. Days before the trophy was unveiled, the hat was rushed to New York by plane for a final bronze coating. The trophy, originally called the Bronze Hat, was displayed atop a wooden base. It was first awarded to Texas in 1941 following its 40-7 win over Oklahoma. Reports over the years suggested that the bronze hat got “ugly with age.” In an effort to improve its condition, the bronze hat was sent for restoration and later emerged as a gold hat. One reporter joked that the jeweler in charge of restoring the hat had painted it the wrong color. The finished product prompted the name change to the Golden Hat. After a win, the victorious players often take turns putting on the symbolic hat while parading around the field. Former Oklahoma quarterback Jason White once recalled wearing the Golden Hat after a win, noting: “It’s a small hat, and hard as a rock.”
Grambling and Southern University first played in 1932, but the two HBCU football programs first met in the Bayou Classic on Nov. 23, 1974, in New Orleans. Grambling sports information director Collie J. Nicholson was instrumental in relocating the rivalry game to New Orleans. The contest was first played at Tulane Stadium but moved to the newly built Superdome after construction wrapped the following year. For more than 25 years, the winning team was awarded the Waterford Crystal trophy. After the 2014 Bayou Classic, the traveling trophy was retired. In 2015, the trophy was donated to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The Bayou Classic Trophy, designed by Ryan Rivas, was introduced just four days before the 2015 game during an awards ceremony at the Superdome. Grambling State secured a 34-23 comeback win in the first meeting for the trophy. The design features a silver-plated football that sits on top of a geometric platform. A Bayou Classic medallion highlights the black wooden base.
First trophy meeting: Nov. 14,1953, Michigan State 14-6
First trophy meeting: Nov. 29, 1952, Notre Dame 9-0
First trophy meeting: Nov. 4, 1950, Michigan State 35-0
