The Grudge Match is Alive!

For the first time since 2010, the football teams for the University of Iowa and the University of Wisconsin will take the field to determine whether Mr. Torvik (Wisconsin) or I (Iowa) is the superior blogger.  Or maybe they play for the Heartland Trophy.  According to Wikipedia, the teams have played 86 games.  Two of the 86 games ended in a tie and Iowa and Wisconsin have each won 42 of the other 84 games.  As a result, one team will leave having made their team a winner in this year's rivalry game and also in the all-time rivalry.  Whether either coach is using this tidbit as a motivational tool is unknown.

Trophies, college football, and clothes

Virtually the entire sports media world would have you believe that today's game between the University of Alabama and Texas A&M University is the most important college football game being played.  This may be true if one is only concerned about which school might be named college football's national champion in January.  True fans of the game know that the most important football game today is game between the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.  The winner of the game is awarded the Cy-Hawk Trophy.  Our previous coverage of the Cy-Hawk Trophy is here.

According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Iowa is slightly favored to win.  However, Iowa State is wearing throwback jerseys to honor Jack Trice. Mr. Trice, if you did not know, was the first African-American football player at Iowa State.  He played for the team in 1923 and died as a result of injuries sustained during Iowa State's game against the University of Minnesota.  The jerseys are not the first time that Iowa State has honored Mr. Trice's memory.  In fact, Iowa State s football stadium is named after him.

You can see the jerseys here.  As far as throwback jerseys go, these look pretty good. Some folks say that being a fan of a team is really rooting for laundry (this article says that Jerry Seinfeld made this observation).  If that is true, at least this week's Iowa State laundry stands for something more than just bragging rights for a year.

Is Saturday the most important day in the history of Western Civilization?

As everyone knows, tomorrow is the most important college football game of the season, if not the century.  Specifically, Iowa and Iowa State renew their fabled rivalry by playing for the Cy-Hawk trophy.  As we noted last year, the Iowa Corn Growers Association attempted to turn the Cy-Hawk Trophy into a sort of advertisement.  The attempt failed.