The Penn State-Minnesota trophy nobody knows about: Origins of ...

One by one they dissected a video clip that brought them back to one of the most humorous moments of the 2013 Minnesota football season. In this snippet of time, they remember the clock expiring as they sprinted toward the Governor’s Victory Bell, the Gophers’ prize for beating Penn State.

Players jumped up and down with the trophy, hoisting what they thought was a solid wooden base and a sturdy brass bell. They found out the hard way this flimsy trophy wasn’t held together by much more than a couple of screws — if that.

“I saw a big, meaty hand go up there and that thing broke apart,” former Minnesota tight end Maxx Williams said between laughs.

Williams, who was at the trophy’s base that day, dissected the celebration clip as if it was a pivotal play from the Gophers’ 8-4 season. It was the first time Minnesota won the trophy since 2004. After a closer look, Williams remembered that former offensive lineman Tommy Olson always wore an armband above his taped wrists. Even with the last name on Olson’s jersey and his number obscured in the sea of players, teammates deduced that their starting center was the one who accidentally broke the trophy.

“You see his hand go up and immediately his hand lets go because he panics,” Williams says. “Whenever people talk about this rivalry we’re gonna be remembered as the Minnesota team that broke the damn trophy.”

The bell dangled as the on-field celebration continued. Olson kept jumping up and down with everyone else. After the game, many players assumed the trophy fell apart.

“I pulled the wooden thing just straight off,” Olson said this week with laughs. “I had a sheer panic attack and pretended like nothing happened. … What are you supposed to do in that situation? … It’s like the kind of wood when you’re doing an IKEA project, like particle board.”

The instability of this trophy is a detail for both teams to keep in mind this weekend as No. 4 Penn State (9-1, 6-1 Big Ten) heads to Minnesota (6-4, 4-3). The Nittany Lions can all but assure themselves a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff if they avoid the upset.

But why Penn State and Minnesota even play for a trophy is a detail that often garners stares from players, coaches and fans. This week, neither James Franklin nor P.J. Fleck mentioned this being a trophy game during their weekly news conferences. At the week’s midpoint, Franklin still hadn’t mentioned the trophy to his Penn State players.

“We played them my freshman year so I remember the trophy in our locker room after the game,” quarterback Drew Allar said Wednesday. “I couldn’t tell you what the trophy is named though, I’m not gonna lie (laughs). … It’s gonna be an extremely hard challenge for us this weekend so we can’t worry about the trophy, we just gotta worry about Minnesota.”

Yes, it’s even forgettable enough that Brad “Spider” Caldwell, Penn State’s former equipment manager, aims to remind Penn State’s current equipment staffers to take the trophy with them to Minnesota.

“Whenever we’d be packing for that game — Thursday was always our pack day — and some random person would talk about it’s that trophy game or whatever?” Caldwell recalled. “We’d be like, “Oh shoot, that’s right!” We’d have to go, get it and put it in the truck. We almost forgot it.”

As the trophy’s name would suggest, a pair of governors in Minnesota’s Arne Carlson and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey Sr. decided in 1993 to make this a trophy game. The intent was to remember Minnesota as Penn State’s first Big Ten opponent after the Nittany Lions joined the conference. Mark Singel, Pennsylvania’s acting governor at the time of the inaugural trophy presentation, filled in for Casey who wanted the trophy to be made but was recovering from a double organ transplant in June of 1993.

“Like many other items that were open and on the desk, this was one of them,” said Singel, a Penn State alum who previously served on the university’s board of trustees. “This was an enjoyable experience for me. It wasn’t a complicated, controversial, slugging it out with members of the legislature (laughs).”

Singel met Carlson in Beaver Stadium on Sept. 4, 1993. The two posed for pictures with the Governor’s Victory Bell trophy before the game and spoke about what they hoped would become a rivalry.

Much like Penn State’s other trophy game — against Michigan State for the Land Grant Trophy — there’s not much animosity between these two teams or fan bases. Penn State is 10-6 against Minnesota and while there have been significant moments in recent history, like Penn State’s overtime win in 2016 that helped put the Nittany Lions on a path to a Big Ten title and in 2019 when No. 17  Minnesota upset No. 4 Penn State, it’s really just another conference game. It’s understandable why the trophy isn’t top of mind — especially because the teams don’t play every year.

“Let’s just say that it’s probably not considered as heated of a rivalry as Penn State-Michigan or Penn State-Ohio State,” Singel said. “But, it is a legitimate trophy game in that it commemorates an important moment in Penn State’s history when they actually joined the Big Ten.”

The significance of any trophy game often has to be spelled out as rosters turn over more quickly than ever before. Each preseason during Jerry Kill’s tenure at Minnesota the staff would deliver a presentation to players about all the team’s trophy games. Minnesota has four. They’d outline the significance of playing Michigan for the Little Brown Jug, Iowa for Floyd of Rosedale and Wisconsin for Paul Bunyan’s axe. These are rivalries rooted in tradition with trophies that aren’t easy to break. Floyd of Rosedale is a 98-pound bronze pig. The axe is massive and has a 6-foot handle. Even the earthenware jug is one compact, sturdy item. The rivalry trophies would be displayed in Minnesota’s football facility and showcased at fan events in the offseason, including at the Minnesota State Fair.

Playing Penn State for a trophy wasn’t the craziest idea to Olson because he was born into a family steeped in Minnesota football tradition. His dad and his brother both played for the Gophers. They still plan tailgates weeks in advance and don’t miss home games. His family’s love affair with Minnesota extends to the inside of the family’s home where it’s painted maroon and gold — in a classy way — Olson says.

“Our other three trophy games are deeply rooted,” Olson said. “Growing up here I knew all about (the Governor’s Victory Bell), but my teammates had no idea. The best part is when you do win to go grab it from the other team was fun, but now they don’t do that anymore. They kind of go set it in the end zone or whatever. … You’re so excited. You’ve been working all week for it and then next thing you know, it’s broken.”

In fairness to Olson, Caldwell said the bell always looked like something bought in a hurry at a craft store. Why it’s even a bell isn’t fully understood either. Singel believes it’s because they needed a way to represent Pennsylvania, so they chose to go with something similar to the Liberty Bell.

Singel was proud to have a part in the creation of the trophy even if he hadn’t thought much about the trophy until he read a blurb in the newspaper after it was broken in 2013.

“I said ‘Hey! They broke my bell!'” Singel laughed. “I haven’t actually seen the trophy in a while, but next time I’m at Penn State I’ll have to see if I can wander through their trophy room and see if it’ll be on display.”

This past summer, as the second-floor lobby in Penn State’s football building was remodeled, the teams’ trophies were moved across the street to the Letterman’s Lounge in Beaver Stadium, Caldwell said. In between the better-looking and much shiner trophies were Penn State’s two rivalry trophies, both standing out and looking like they didn’t belong.

“They’re the only wooden trophies out of all of them,” Caldwell said. “Among all the other trophies they just looked like somebody made them in woodshop.”

While the Governor’s Victory Bell isn’t nearly as bizarre-looking or as cumbersome as the Land Grant Trophy, it is the only Penn State rivalry trophy that fans can purchase replicas of. Neither Penn State nor Michigan State has granted permission to a college sports trophy business that specializes in creating replicas to recreate the Land Grant Trophy. Despite it being the most-requested item, longtime Michigan State fans Brian McDonald and his business partner Pat Kelly who own RivalryTrophy.com were able to get permission to add the Governor’s Victory Bell to their growing list of replicas.

McDonald hopes Penn State and Minnesota fans will one day want to display the replica Governor’s Victory Bell in their homes and at tailgates like so many of their other customers do with more well-known rivalry trophies. If ever they can get permission from the schools to build Land Grant replicas they’ll jump at the opportunity, he said.

“We went with the big boys all the time, the trophies that everybody knows and now it’s like well, it’s Penn State and Minnesota, they don’t play very often,” McDonald said. “I don’t want to say it was like a runner-up to the Land Grant, but it was kind of the best that we could do.”

(Photo: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)

Audrey Snyder has covered Penn State since 2012 for various outlets, including The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Patriot-News and DKPittsburghSports. Snyder is an active member of the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) and is the professional adviser for Penn State’s student chapter. Follow Audrey on Twitter @audsnyder4