Spotlight on A Sleeper Game-Meet Paul Bunyan's Axe

*Adapted from the University of Minnesota Athetics Site [commentary in red by Razorpod]*

The Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry is one of the most prestigious and anticipated series in the history of athletics. [ok, a bit of hyperbole there....just a bit] It’s the most-played rivalry in college football history [really??? Someone call the Elias Sports Bureau on that], and the annual winner takes home Paul Bunyan’s Axe.

At 117 games and counting, the series between Minnesota and Wisconsin ranks as the longest in Division 1-A football; and "Paul Bunyan’s Axe" has the history of one of college football’s fiercest rivalries emblazoned on its six-foot long handle. The first game in the series, a 63-0 Gopher victory in 1890, is printed on the handle near the axe’s head. The results of every successive game line the handle in red ink. There have been so many games that the scores scroll up and down the width of both sides of the handle, and school officials have now resorted to writing scores on the narrow edges of the six-foot shaft. By 1930, "Paul Bunyan’s Axe" wasn’t even created, although the rivalry had already reached feverish levels. The 1906 game was canceled by President Theodore Roosevelt, who had decided to cool off heated college football rivalries, because of injuries and deaths on the field. [That's TR for you, a cool headed guy if there ever was one...sheesh.] In 1914, Minnesota faced the Badgers for the Gophers’ first Homecoming game; likewise, Wisconsin hosted Minnesota for the Badgers’ first in 1919. Between the years 1923 and 1925, the teams battled to three straight ties. To symbolically capture the amazing atmosphere of the annual match-up, Dr. R.B. Fouch of Minneapolis fashioned a bacon slab out of black walnut to serve as the traveling trophy that he hoped would compare to the well-known "Little Brown Jug," which Minnesota and Michigan played for every year. The "Slab of Bacon," first played for in 1930, had a football carved on top inscribed with an "M" or "W", depending on how you held it. The idea was that the winning team would "bring home the bacon." [Oh, how I wish the "Slab of Bacon" still existed. Best. Trophy. Ever.] But in the early ’40s, the Slab of Bacon became the "Missing Slab of Bacon." Peg Watrous, who was the president of Wisconsin women students at the time, relates that she and her counterpart from Minnesota were to have a symbolic exchange after the game, whereby the trophy would be awarded to the winning team. Minnesota won, but in characteristic fashion, a postgame melee broke out on the field, with students and spectators running crazy over the field. Watrous couldn’t find her counterpart, and was left "holding the bacon," as it were. "I have no memory of what happened after that…The whole thing was a dud, as I feared it would be," Watrous remembered good-humoredly, "and someone in charge probably hid the bacon." But the two teams had to play for something [Big 10 bylaws apparently require it], so in 1948 the Wisconsin W Club instituted "Paul Bunyan’s Axe" as a trophy more befitting the grand rivalry between the two schools. The annual battles have survived so long that in the ’60s the teams started to print the games’ final scores smaller and smaller, scrunching the letters in order to avoid reaching the end of the axe’s shaft. [Will there ever be a replacement axe? Blasphemy!] But the series continued to roll, and the last game to be painted on the broad face of the handle was in 1980. The 25 subsequent games appear on the narrow side of the handle. The Slab of Bacon was back in the news in the summer of 1994, when the long-lost trophy was found after a Camp Randall Stadium storage room was cleaned out. Wisconsin officials estimated that it had been missing since 1945; yet the scores of every Wisconsin-Minnesota game from 1930-70 were printed on the back of the slab. It is one of those Twilight Zone-esque [Twilight Zone-esque? Is the only way to explain the missing Slab of Bacon to resort to the supernatural?] mysteries that remains unexplained, and contributes to the legend of Minnesota’s and Wisconsin’s "Border Battle" rivalry.

The Anatomy of a Backup Team

This time of year, as bowl hopes and dreams are made or destroyed, let's turn to a topic I think most college football fans can identify with. This is the concept of having a 'backup team' to root for when all hope is lost for your main, or primary, rooting interest.


I think most true college football fans-those of us who appreciate and love the sport as a whole-also have a backup or secondary team that they pull for. This is a team that you want to see win whenever possible. There's a ton of teams in college football, and its fun to have a rooting interest in more than one team on a particular college football Saturday.

Therefore, in honor of Iowa's victory of Penn State this past weekend, here are Patrick Williams' proposed rules for true backup teams:

1. It cannot be a team in the same conference as your primary team. You can't put yourself in the position to be compromised once a year when your primary and secondary teams play. Just don't do it.

2. You must have some connection with the backup team. Acceptable connections are:

(a) The pseudo-Alma Mater Rule. You personally attended that institution for some length of time (need not be a graduate). See e.g., JimmyG and Oklahoma.


(b) the Family Alma Mater Rule. An immediate family member (mother, father, sibling, child) is a graduate. Nothing more extended is allowed. See, e.g., Tom Logan and Florida, but also see violation of same conference as primary team rule.

(c) The Alma Mater state. Your backup school is the main (or one of the main) D-IA schools in the state in which you were born/currently reside. See, e.g., Patrick Williams and Iowa.

(d) The Game Attendance Rule (questionable). You attended, in person, a non-bowl game upon the campus of the backup institution and had a fan-frickin'-tastic time. This must be proven by written testimony and cool pictures, preferably supported by blood alcohol level reports taken at or immediately after gametime.

(e) The Hate Rule (also questionable). Your backup school may be the main rival of a school you hate.



3. Other connections will be considered on a case-by-case basis, but the following are NEVER acceptable under any circumstances:

(a) backup team based upon coolness of uniform;

(b) backup team based upon how good/awesome/buttkicking they have been historically or recently;

(c) backup team based upon coaching personality. Coaches change, now more than ever. Where will you be when your coach leaves for a better job or is canned?



If you have listened to Razorpod, you'll know some of our backup teams. These are pretty clear:

JimmyG=Oklahoma
Patrick Williams=Iowa
Tom Logan=Florida, but also see violation of the "team in same conference" rule
Johnny Fayetteville=???? Potentially T-Tech under 2.b. above
Buford Tannen=Notre Dame, but not sure if it qualifies under any of the rules above.



Guest Analysts:
Uncle Rico=????
Born Red=Arkansas, under the current resident rule (primary team=Nebraska)

Stat Boy=Tennessee, clear violation of same conference rule.


Give us your thoughts...something to pass the time during the off week!

Oh, and before I forget, suck it, PSU!

Wally solved the Mystery-Who Invented the Wildcat

Wally Hall, in between bites of delicious Mexican food in Austin, also solved the mystery of who invented the Wildcat formation. With some intense sleuthing, and apparently some help from the tubes, Wally has pinpointed it as Pop Warner in 1917.


Pop Warner, Inventor of the Wildcat

So suck it, Gus Malzahn, Danny Nutt, and David Lee!

P.S. The internets actually back him up on this.