Trophy case built in locker room for Paul & Jug
Harbaugh had this built in the offseason.
It's in the Schembechler Hall locker room.
Far cry from how we used to treat it.
The following year in 1954, the trophy was left on the field for half an hour after Michigan defeated the Spartans 33–7. "We'll find a place for the trophy," Crisler told The Michigan Daily after game. The Paul Bunyan Trophy was stored in the Michigan Stadium locker room in one of the equipment closets.Despite winning in 1954 and 1955, Michigan did not engrave their scores onto the neglected trophy. When the Spartans won in 1956, they engraved the Wolverine victories onto the trophy.The 1958 game was a 12–12 tie. The favored Spartans were so embarrassed that they didn't win, they originally refused to keep the trophy while Michigan refused to take the trophy. Michigan State eventually relented and kept the trophy.
October 31st, 2016 at 10:39 AM ^
October 31st, 2016 at 10:41 AM ^
It's a locker room trophy. They choose not to respect that.
We've never paraded it around.
October 31st, 2016 at 10:45 AM ^
Of the validity of this statement about never parading Paul around, but I recall a couple of players (Jabrill? and...?) saying they wanted to parade it around for the visiting fans. Sadly for them, it was delivered in the locker room. I have no issue with taking pride in a trophy, and that includes parading Paul around to be enjoyed by fans that aren't Axe-doused heathens.
October 31st, 2016 at 10:50 AM ^
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October 31st, 2016 at 1:09 PM ^
It is my understanding that the "Little Brown Jug" is ceremoniously "taken" after each game, because it was originally understood that we had to "come and take it back" after leaving it.
October 31st, 2016 at 10:51 AM ^
A few Michigan players ran across the field looking for the Paul Bunyan Trophy, but it ain't there, boys. Always in the locker room.
— John U. Bacon (@Johnubacon) October 29, 2016
Historically, Paul Bunyan is a locker room trophy. MSU doesn't respect that. You won't see Paul paraded on the field by UM players. #respect
— Elliott Mealer (@el_mealer) October 29, 2016
October 31st, 2016 at 12:51 PM ^
Thanks, WD. Guess if anyone should know it's some of Meeechigan's finest, Elliott and John Falk retrieving it from the Green locker room at the closing moments of the game. Sounds like the final answer for me.
October 31st, 2016 at 11:07 AM ^
No official confirmation if it's never been paraded by us, by I highly doubt it and have a lot of evidence to think that.
We were disgusted with the idea of the trophy from the very beginning. University President Harlan Hatcher hated it and we wouldn't have accepted the trophy if we had won the game in 1953.
Bo (as shown above) didn't care about it in 1978. I have video of every win over them from 1979 and onward and I have not seen it once in any of them.
The trophy was a fabrication. Reading Freep articles from the 50s, a lot people criticized it as a cheap vote-getting attempt by Gov. G. Mennen Williams (U-M grad).
In fact, the official name of the trophy is the Paul Bunyan -- Governor of Michigan Trophy.
October 31st, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^
If Michigan ever paraded the trophy on the field, it would've only ever happened in 2012. Jon Falk stated that in 2008, MSU requested to have it brought on the field, so they could shove it in everyone's face in Ann Arbor. (Last sentence mine, not Falk's.) Up til then, according to him, it had always been a locker room thing no matter who won. And there's no way Falk would've messed with tradition at any point prior to that.
October 31st, 2016 at 11:41 AM ^
I disagree. It was clearly the players' intent to parade it around the field this year. The main reason being that MSU has made a habit recently of doing it, so I personally would have enjoyed shoving it back in their face in their house.
October 31st, 2016 at 3:08 PM ^
I don't think any of them know about it being a locker room thing. I recall reading them admitting as much. Honestly, I didn't know it either.
October 31st, 2016 at 12:23 PM ^
It's always been a lockerroom thing with Michigan, as opposed to the Little Brown Jug, which DOES get paraded on the field by the team captains.
Bo went 17-4 against MSU during his 21 years. I've never seen a single photo or video clip of him or any of his players holding Paul Bunyan. With Lloyd, who was 10-3 against MSU (with 2 of those 3 losses being screw jobs) likewise, there isn't any footage I know of him holding the tophy. There was a couple behind the scenes shots on Michigan Replay in the lockerroom but that' it. Whenever Lloyd was asked about the trophy, the only thing he ever said was that it's the ugliest in college football.
MSU does parade the trophy on the field like it's the Super Bowl. And this is not just a Dantonio thing. I remember the shots of Jeff Smoker holding it up in the student end zone during the Spartan Savings Time game in 2001.
October 31st, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^
It may have started as a "locker room trophy," but it's as public as any other trophy we have now. Traditions are cool and all, but they can change. The players enjoy parading a trophy around for the fans. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.
October 31st, 2016 at 10:48 AM ^
At least that's what I read. The players ran to the MSU sideline for the trophy and it wasn't there. It was already waiting for them in the locker room.
Sparty knew they were going to lose so they didn't want that on-field celebration.
October 31st, 2016 at 2:57 PM ^
Jon Falk, who knows a bit about Michigan football and its traditions, went to the Spartan locker room and retrieved it.
October 31st, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^
and glad Harbaugh did that. Those trophies have a lot of history and they should have a special place in Schembechler and they should never leave except to be carried around after a victory by Michigan players.
October 31st, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^
October 31st, 2016 at 10:43 AM ^
Throw away the key cuz MN and MSU are never touching those again as long as Harbaugh is the coach.
October 31st, 2016 at 10:44 AM ^
We play Minnesota next year and then we will not play them again for at least 3 years unless Minnesota wins the B1G West Division.
Rivalry trophies aren't on the line in non-regular season meetings, though.
October 31st, 2016 at 11:20 AM ^
We play Minnesota next year and then we will not play them again for at least 3 yearsOne of the more prominent reasons why Maryland and Rutgers can go fuck themselves.
October 31st, 2016 at 10:43 AM ^
"oh a trophy? how quaint, throw it in the closet with the others"
October 31st, 2016 at 10:44 AM ^
October 31st, 2016 at 10:53 AM ^
I'd like to say we are giving this "rivalry" too much respek and it's time to start treating MSU like the stepping stone in the season that they have historically been.
On the other hand, since Paul we'll be spending so much time in Ann Arbor in the years coming, he might as well be treated with comfy lodging.
October 31st, 2016 at 3:07 PM ^
I take it you're not from Michigan. Those of us who have friends and relatives who went to MSU have always seen it as a rivalry - even when Michigan was winning 13 out of 15 games from 1969 to 1983. Bo lost to MSU his first year and got an earful about the importance of the game.
October 31st, 2016 at 11:06 AM ^
October 31st, 2016 at 11:10 AM ^
The Land Grant trophy forever will be my favorite. It looks like my 6th grade wood shop project. An amalgamation of gaudy shit flung together with no purpose.
October 31st, 2016 at 11:20 AM ^
the worst is the original Cy-Hawk "Stranger-Danger-Children of The Corn" trophy.
October 31st, 2016 at 11:33 AM ^
Oregon - Oregon St Trophy
And the UAB - Memphis tropy
October 31st, 2016 at 11:55 AM ^
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October 31st, 2016 at 12:15 PM ^
the qwuirkiness of college football is one of the things I like best about it.
I'd actually be ok with taking some kids bad art & turning it into a trophy . . . if it was genuine.
It's the corporate Brandon-esque bullshit that rubs my rhubarb.
October 31st, 2016 at 3:13 PM ^
That would be the $5 Bits of Broken Chair trophy.
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/11/23/7269933/nebraska-mi…
October 31st, 2016 at 12:30 PM ^
October 31st, 2016 at 12:13 PM ^
trophy dedicated to ribs.
October 31st, 2016 at 12:41 PM ^
I want my baby back, baby back, baby back.... Chili's baby back ribs...
October 31st, 2016 at 12:24 PM ^
I kind of like those actually. Weird is good.
October 31st, 2016 at 11:21 AM ^
opinion agreeable and correct, for UM anyways.
Other schools can play for their weird trophies. Though most are stupid, a few have history like the LBJ. Other "good one" include:
Commander-in-Chief (AF-Army-Navy)
Golden Egg (Ole Miss - Miss St)
Iron Skillet (TCU - SMU)
Old Oaken Bucket (IU - Purdue)
Stanford Axe (CAL - Stanfurd)
Victory Bell (Miami [NNTM] - Cincinatti)
October 31st, 2016 at 11:27 AM ^
ignored the Civil ConFLiCT trophy nonsense after beating UConn this year was pretty fun, though. Just left it on the bench.
October 31st, 2016 at 12:31 PM ^
The Bits of Wooden Chair Trophy, which is amazing.
October 31st, 2016 at 12:52 PM ^
I see your comment and think, "Haha real funny that's the dumbest thing I've heard".
Then I see the picture, now I'm torn between whether it's real or you're an amazing troll with photoshop skills.
October 31st, 2016 at 1:20 PM ^
It's real and it's amazing.
November 1st, 2016 at 11:05 PM ^
The Territorial Cup has a pretty cool backstory, too, especially the part where it was lost for over 80 years and rediscovered in the basement of a church on ASU's campus.
October 31st, 2016 at 11:08 AM ^
October 31st, 2016 at 11:15 AM ^
Where did this go down? And was the guy super-pumped about the job and its significance--like did he take some pride in it?
October 31st, 2016 at 12:31 PM ^
October 31st, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^
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October 31st, 2016 at 11:11 AM ^
FYI the old display case at the Margaret Dow Towsley sports museum
October 31st, 2016 at 11:14 AM ^
October 31st, 2016 at 11:27 AM ^
October 31st, 2016 at 11:22 AM ^
ALL YOUR TROPHY ARE BELONG TO US
October 31st, 2016 at 11:26 AM ^
It's good to know the trophies are in front of the players every day so they are reminded that there's something that is supposed to be in there. They earned it, and they can also be responsible for it not being there.