Yankee In Exile

Introduction 

Last week, we took a look at the rivalry between the two largest schools from the state of Michigan, and the unique trophy they play for. Well, as it turns out, the University of Michigan and Michigan State isn’t the only matchup that has been influenced by the mythical large lumberjack of North America. In fact, one does not even have to leave the Big Ten conference to find a college football prize that is very similar. Each year, the University of Minnesota football team squares off against the University of Wisconsin gridiron gang. Minnesota and Wisconsin have actually met 135 times at the time of writing. That’s enough to earn them the title of the most played rivalry in the bowl subdivision. The award? Paul Bunyan’s Axe. Not a trophy, not a cup, not a medal. The winner of this annual contest receives a gigantic axe. However, this incredible laurel may not even be the most eccentric prize in the history of their matchups, and this rivalry’s overall past has been chaotic to say the least. Let’s delve a little bit deeper……

The Tale of the Tape 

But, first, some general statistics………

First Meeting: November 15, 1890 

All-Time Series: Minnesota leads 64-63-8 (extremely close)

Trophy: Paul Bunyan’s Axe

Formerly the “Slab of Bacon” 

From Rambunctious Beginnings 

 This rivalry has played witness to some extremely heated moments over the years and some players, students, and coaches have gotten carried away in their passion. Legend has it that President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt cancelled the 1906 meeting between these schools because of violence that had taken place in previous installments of this game. An alternate theory is that, because of the threat of more aggression, it was the Wisconsin faculty who were the ones to call it off. At one point, there was a serious question raised as to whether these two schools should ever meet each other again. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the many tense moments that plagued the 1900s meetings did not carry forth into the future. As the first half of the 20th century progressed, there was a greater focus placed on the overall importance of the universities’ relationship. To further demonstrate their mutual significance, both teams held their very first homecoming games with each other as the opponent. The controversy had cooled down, but the prizes were just about to heat up…..

The Slab of Bacon 

In 1930, it was decided that this already storied rivalry needed a prize that the winner could take home each year. So, Dr. R.B. Fouch, a resident of Minnesota, fashioned a fake bacon slab out of walnut and carved a football at the center. Thus the “Slab of Bacon Trophy” was born. The implication was that whichever school won the annual game would get to “bring home the bacon” that year. Get it? Get it?? However the efforts of Mr. Fouch, as well as the popularity of this trophy, went to nought after only a little over a decade. Following the 1943 game, which Minnesota won, representatives from the University of Wisconsin failed to hand it over and it became lost to history. The “Slab of Bacon” went missing for over 50 years until it was finally found inside a storage closet in Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium in 1994. Suspiciously enough, all game scores until 1970 were recorded. This means that some secret employee of the University of Wisconsin not only had no intention of turning the slab over, but kept the trophy for themselves and recorded results on it for 27 years after it went missing! 

Enter the Axe 

However, a rivalry of this magnitude surely still deserved a trophy, right? That’s what officials at both universities decided after the 1948 game. The new trophy, which first debuted at a January 1949 basketball game between the two schools, was a 6-foot long axe named after Paul Bunyan himself. This “Paul Bunyan’s Axe” trophy was incorporated by the Wisconsin W Club. Ever since then, this prize has become one of the most recognizable throughout all of college football. From SportsCenter to College GameDay, “The Axe” is routinely shown in highlights and video packages previewing or recapping this contest. You can even buy mini versions of it for sale online (unlike the Paul Bunyan Trophy I, sadly, have yet to obtain one). 

The Rivalry in Modern Times 

Wisconsin and Minnesota have now met so many times that both schools have had to get creative by reducing the font size and writing on the narrow end of Paul’s giant axe just to fit the scores in all their games. In 2000, with the original 1949 axe falling apart, a new one was commissioned again by the Wisconsin W Club, and the original one donated to the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, where it still is today. Even though the Big Ten eliminated its divisions in 2024, this is an example of yet another rivalry that the conference has allowed to continue each year. The winning team gets the opportunity to “chop down” the losing team’s goal post with the axe at the conclusion of each year’s contest. Wisconsin enjoyed a very long 14-year winning streak from 2004-2017 but, at the time of writing, Minnesota has won the past two matchups. Over the decades, the timing of this annual game has rotated between different dates in October and November. However, since 2014 it has served as the regular season finale for both schools. Even though the violence off the field has subsided in modernity, this rivalry still has shown itself to be very intense, especially seeing as the all-time series numbers are very close and could swing in either school’s favor in any given year.