November 9, 1935: The Floyd of Rosedale Trophy

November 9, 1935: One of college football's greatest rivalry trophies has its origin.

Ask longtime fans of the University of Iowa, and they'll say the Hawkeyes' real arch-rival isn't Iowa State, or the University of Nebraska. It's the University of Minnesota. And ask longtime fans of the University of Minnesota, and they'll say the Golden Gophers' real arch-rival isn't the University of Wisconsin, or the University of Michigan. It's the University of Iowa.

The neighboring States' State universities had been playing each other since 1891, and in 1934, things turned nasty over the rough treatment of Ozzie Simmons, a black halfback for Iowa.

The rhetoric got really threatening for the 1935 game, and even the Governors got in on it, with Clyde Herring of Iowa saying the Iowa City crowd wouldn't stand for any rough stuff by the Minnesota players. He got accused of inciting a riot by Minnesota's Attorney General, Harry Peterson. Peterson's boss, Governor Floyd Olson, decided to lighten the mood, with what is, as far as I can tell, the first friendly bet between politicians representing opposing teams: A Minnesota "prize hog" against one from Iowa. Herring took the bet.

The game was played in Iowa City, at Iowa Stadium, renamed Kinnick Stadium in 1972, in memory of Nile Kinnick, Iowa's 1939 Heisman Trophy winner who was killed in a World War II flight training accident in 1943.

There was no incident at the game, either on the field or in the stands. Both teams played cleanly. Simmons walked off the field, receiving handshakes rather than injuries from the Minnesota players. Minnesota won, 13-6, and won their 3rd straight Big Ten Conference Championship, and their 2nd of 3 straight National Championships.

Herring contacted Rosedale Farms outside Fort Dodge, Iowa, and sent the pig to Olson, naming it Floyd of Rosedale, for Olson and the farm. (Had Iowa won, there could have been a trophy named Clyde of Minnetonka.) Olson then commissioned a trophy to be given annually to the winner of the game, because a 98-pound trophy is easier to move than a several-hundred-pound live pig.

Governor Clyde Herring of Iowa (left)

and Governor Floyd Olson of Minnesota,

with the original Floyd of Rosedale, 1935

Herring, a Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1936, but lost in 1942, and died in 1945. Olson, a member of the Farmer-Labor Party, a kind of Socialist party that Hubert Humphrey later merged with the State Democratic Party, wasn't so lucky: He was already dying of cancer at the time of the bet, and passed away 9 months later.

Going into their meeting on November 19, 2022, Minnesota lead Iowa, 62-51-2, despite Iowa having won the last 7 games, and 17 of the last 21. Minnesota's lead is partly due to having won the 1st 12 games, from 1891 to 1916. Since the trophy (counting the original pig) was first awarded in 1935, Iowa lead, 43-42.

Iowa also play Iowa State for the Cy-Hawk Trophy (Cyclones vs. Hawkeyes), and Nebraska for the Heroes Trophy. Minnesota also play Wisconsin for Paul Bunyan's Axe, and Michigan for the Little Brown Jug. But both teams would rather win The Pig: Floyd of Rosedale.

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November 9, 1935 was a Saturday. Among the other college football games played that day were these:

* A doubleheader was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Stanford beat Southern California, 3-0. And Southern Methodist beat UCLA. Stanford won the Pacific Coast Conference title, and SMU the Southwest Conference title. They were on a collision course, and Stanford upset heavily favored SMU in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day 1936, 7-0. However, Minnesota were awarded the National Championship.

* Tennessee beat Mississippi, 14-13 at Crump Stadium in Memphis. Although the game was in Tennessee's State, the game was much closer to the campus of Ole Miss, 84 miles to 392. This didn't help Ole Miss, though, and the loss cost them the Southeastern Conference title. They did, however, get invited to the Orange Bowl.

* The Catholic University of America, based in Washington, D.C., beat West Virginia Wesleyan, 19-6 at Brookland Stadium in Washington. CUA then beat Ole Miss in the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day. CUA suspended its football program for World War II, and didn't restart it until 1977, at the NCAA Division III level. The 1936 Orange Bowl remains their sports program's greatest moment. West Virginia Wesleyan now compete in NCAA Division II.

* Louisiana State beat Mississippi State, 28-13 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU won the Southeastern Conference title.

* The night before, Texas Christian University beat Loyola University, 14-0 at Loyola University Stadium in New Orleans. TCU, of Forth Worth, led by quarterback Sammy Baugh, were on a collision course with Dallas arch-rivals SMU for the Southwest Conference title. SMU won, the only loss inflicted upon TCU all season. TCU were invited to the Sugar Bowl, and beat LSU. (The Cotton Bowl didn't start until the next season.)

* Among the service academies, Navy beat Penn, 13-0 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia; but Army lost to the University of Pittsburgh, 29-6 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* New York University beat their arch-rivals, City College of New York, 45-0 at Yankee Stadium. NYU's team included running back Ed Smith, who made money on the side as a male model. He modeled for sculptor Frank Eliscu. It was only when a film crew, making a documentary about the Heisman Trophy for its 50th Anniversary, contacted him that Smith realized that he had been the model for the trophy. He thought he was just posing in his football uniform for a friend who happened to be an artist. The Downtown Athletic Club, caretakers of the Trophy, gave him a copy. He did play in the pros, for the Boston Redskins in 1936 and the Green Bay Packers in 1937.

* Across the Harlem River, at the Polo Grounds, a New York vs. California matchup took place. Fordham and St. Mary's, of Moraga in the East Bay region, played to a 7-7 tie. This game attracted 55,000 fans, while, at Yankee Stadium, NYU vs. CCNY attracted only 6,000.

* And among New Jersey teams, Rutgers beat Boston University, 12-6 at Fenway Park in Boston; and Princeton beat Harvard, 35-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton. Princeton went 9-0, but the days when a team in what had recently been unofficially dubbed "the Ivy League" could be awarded the National Championship were over. (It became an official league in 1954.)

Baseball season was over. And the NBA hadn't been founded yet. One NHL game were played that day: The New York Americans and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a 5-5 tie at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

And in English soccer, Arsenal and East Midlands side Derby County played to a 1-1 draw at Highbury in North London.

Also, Bob Gibson, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, was born on this day.