Kill says Gophers and Badgers need to discuss protocol for future Axe celebrations

Donate To GopherHole
badgergopher said:
Here is what I hope Kill and Anderson agree to:
- If the either team wins the Axe back, they can raid the opponents bench to retrieve it, without regard for life or limb.
- If the visiting team wins or retains the axe, they can chop down both goal posts but they should wait until the home team has left the field which they should do with expediency.
- The 'Slab of Bacon' should be returned to the University of Minnesota with the go-forward understanding that the Axe will be possessed by the winner of last year's game, and the Slab will be possessed by the leader of the all time series (you must take the lead to get it back). I think this would be a nice wrinke now that the series is so close.
Click to expand...

This is fantastic. I love it all.
 

upnorthkid said:
i agree. at least get something established. as much as i hate wisky, i would rather not see a brawl take place on the field
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind seeing a brawl. Erect a WWE ring at the 50 yard line and have Duck Dynasty look-alike Beau Allen and Rashede Hageman have an over-the-top-rope "Brawl to End it All."

I just don't see why a victory lap in and of itself isn't sufficient.
 

Either way, this will be put to bed. Both coaches seem to like/respect each other and while I undoubtedly think they view it as a significant rivalry I don't think either of them has it in them to develop animosity with one another.
 

TAW said:
I give up. If 40 years of watching games means less than someone's recollection from the current year when they were "walking down the stairs" while I was still in the stadium, so be it. But whoever said the situation being overstated as a confrontation was correct; the Badgers most laughed at the post-game defense of the end zone (v. in-game) and moved on with their celebration...

If you win next year in Camp Randall, I would hope we are better hosts.
Click to expand...

So in one sentence you say it is overstated as a confrontation, then at the end you say the Gophers were terrible hosts because of it.

You keep contradicting yourself. Earlier you said the losing teams shouldn't have a say in changing tradition, even though historically Wisconsin has very much done that with the slab trophy (and it continues to this day). Then you say this thing at the end of the game was not a big deal at all, but because of it we are bad hosts? That's like if a buddy of mine punches me in the arm and I just laugh it off because I know we were just joking around. And then a short time later I tell him I'm going to call the police on him for assault. If it is not a big deal, why would I call the police?
 

Goldmember said:
A Badger fan farts and the whole lot of them consider it a time-honored tradition.

Hail Minnesota is an actual tradition.

Not surprisingly, the program with no significant history prior to 1993 would claim some classless taunting of the opposing team (that purposefully interferes with a REAL, and known, tradition) to be "a tradition".
Click to expand...

While I truly understand where the "no significant history prior to 1993" thing comes from, do you all realize that the argument is starting to lose steam now that 1993 is before incoming freshmen were born? At what point is 1993 long enough in the past to just say acknowledge that it's not a flash in the pan?
 


Radio Badger said:
While I truly understand where the "no significant history prior to 1993" thing comes from, do you all realize that the argument is starting to lose steam now that 1993 is before incoming freshmen were born? At what point is 1993 long enough in the past to just say acknowledge that it's not a flash in the pan?
Click to expand...

When you win a National Championship junior.
 


Tom Dienhart weighs in. He basically says Kill is bringing this up because Minnesota is sick of losing the axe. Really Tom? You're probably right, it's not like he's trying to prevent an annual brawl or anything.

I'm sure fans and apparently media members want it to be a spontaneous thing, but the administration and coaches can't allow that for safety reasons. I bet Gary Andersen feels the same way.

http://btn.com/2013/11/27/dienhart-axe-protocol-forget-about-it/
 

50PoundHead said:
I wouldn't mind seeing a brawl. Erect a WWE ring at the 50 yard line and have Duck Dynasty look-alike Beau Allen and Rashede Hageman have an over-the-top-rope "Brawl to End it All."

I just don't see why a victory lap in and of itself isn't sufficient.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I don't mind one bit about a brawl or fight. This is what having a REAL rivalry is about. This is where HATE comes into play. This is what makes college football better than NFL.
 



Formo said:
Honestly, I don't mind one bit about a brawl or fight. This is what having a REAL rivalry is about. This is where HATE comes into play. This is what makes college football better than NFL.
Click to expand...

THIS. YES. I AGREE. +1.
 

Formo said:
Honestly, I don't mind one bit about a brawl or fight. This is what having a REAL rivalry is about. This is where HATE comes into play. This is what makes college football better than NFL.
Click to expand...

Reasons why a brawl or a fight would be a bad idea:
1. Possiblty of injury - want a key starter to get hurt in a fight over a post-game celebration?
2. Possibility of suspensions
3. Near-certain possibility that the U would be ripped by local and nat'l media
 

TAW said:
If you win next year in Camp Randall, I would hope we are better hosts.
Click to expand...

I doubt it. Wisconsin is the place where you can't take your family to a game if you're on the visiting team for fear of being harassed, attacked, or at the very least puked on by a drunken Badger fan. I've seen all of the above first-hand.
 

jaymil said:
Tom Dienhart weighs in. He basically says Kill is bringing this up because Minnesota is sick of losing the axe. Really Tom? You're probably right, it's not like he's trying to prevent an annual brawl or anything.

I'm sure fans and apparently media members want it to be a spontaneous thing, but the administration and coaches can't allow that for safety reasons. I bet Gary Andersen feels the same way.

http://btn.com/2013/11/27/dienhart-axe-protocol-forget-about-it/
Click to expand...

This would make sense if Kill was a part of most of the 10 losses in a row.
 



Sorry, but this was a great celebration. Wisconsin is our biggest rival and if they beat us we deserve to be humiliated during the celebration. If we had beaten them I'd have no problem if the Gophers did something similar.
 

Former Goofer said:
Sorry, but this was a great celebration. Wisconsin is our biggest rival and if they beat us we deserve to be humiliated during the celebration. If we had beaten them I'd have no problem if the Gophers did something similar.
Click to expand...

We will see how the badger players and fans take losing the axe eventually. The damn hole we dug ourselves is our own fault and has blunted their hate in this rivalry, but their arrogance and entitlement is borderline scary.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind whatsoever that when the gophers do reclaim the axe, there will be issues. More likely from their fans, who are the most spoiled in the B1G.
I also don't care and am glad the team isn't going to simply take for granted any crap they perceive from sconnie. It's a blood rivalry to the rawest hate bone, neither team should ever want to back down.
 

Ole said:
Whatever. Blame Bert and and his poor sportsmanship, he let the 2011 team barge through while the players were singing their school song. That's where it started, it probably ends now with 2 new coaches. Wasn't the slab of bacon supposedly lost during an on field brawl? I find it hard to believe it's just always been love and peace after all 100 some brutal rivalry games. Quit whining our guys didn't bow down, we'll quit pretending it meant anything but that some seniors are still pissed about the assclown coach you had last year being about as classless as you can get.
Click to expand...

I remember watching that, it was four years ago. Since then, there have been confrontations after each game. I remember telling my wife there was going to be a fight if they didn't get out of there.
Just have the coaches agree the winning team can chop both goal posts, after any songs are sung and the team has left the field.
 


I don't remember this chopping down the goal post thing as a tradition until recently

TAW said:
Kill needs to research the history of the axe. He may not know it - although one would think someone in the AD would remember - but when the axe actually changes hands, the winning team charges the other team's bench and grabs the axe, prior to chopping down both posts. One might imagine that charging the other bench has the potential for mayhem, but it has never done so, at least since 1971 when I started watching these annual jousts. The teams knew what the procedure was and, when losing (and Wisconsin had its share of losing since 1971), accepted the rituals of the rivalry. That is what makes winning the axe special. Perhaps the Gopher team (and staff, if video is to be believed) need a refresher course in the finer points of the axe rivalry. (BTW, the UW staff actually does have someone come in before the game, explain the history of the rivalry, get the players fired up, and tell them how the axe celebration works. It is usually a long-time coach, so maybe Kill doesn't have someone like that on staff, but it isn't like the procedure is secret.)

I simply don't remember the Gophers chopping down the goalpost in 1993 in the CAMP, maybe that is a Badger thing, I just don't really remember us doing it but I have only followed Gopher football since 1991 or so. Rush the bench to grab it yes but not chopping down goalposts. To be honest I used to sit near the visitors goalpost in the Metrodome and all of those years I don't remember the Badgers players chopping down the goals posts in the Dome. Parading around the stadium and celebrating with their fans but not chopping down the posts, and I used to always stay to hear the band play and sing Hail, because you could not hear them during games where I sat.
I just don't remember seeing them the Badgers do it until 2009 in TCF. Seems like this chopping thing is a recent celebration occurence.
Maybe this is just something I have missed in the past.
Click to expand...
 

TAW said:
I give up. If 40 years of watching games means less than someone's recollection from the current year when they were "walking down the stairs" while I was still in the stadium, so be it. But whoever said the situation being overstated as a confrontation was correct; the Badgers most laughed at the post-game defense of the end zone (v. in-game) and moved on with their celebration...

If you win next year in Camp Randall, I would hope we are better hosts.
Click to expand...

Do you promise to give up?
 

Wow most of you are just plain blind. Anyone who watched saw rude behavior by wisky fans and players. I now consider wisky football fans cbb's. Classless badger baboons. Enjoy your win but don't shout insults at 10000 fans walking out by chanting suck on that gopher fans. I also saw the players chastising the staff by the gopher bench when walking around the stadium. There is no defense for thinking it was wrong for the gophers to defend the goal post. One post is plenty and I hope that is the new tradition. This attitude by the fadgers and there fans will come around. Enjoy your win lift the axe and leave the field.
 

huntster17 said:
Wow most of you are just plain blind. Anyone who watched saw rude behavior by wisky fans and players. I now consider wisky football fans cbb's. Classless badger baboons. Enjoy your win but don't shout insults at 10000 fans walking out by chanting suck on that gopher fans. I also saw the players chastising the staff by the gopher bench when walking around the stadium. There is no defense for thinking it was wrong for the gophers to defend the goal post. One post is plenty and I hope that is the new tradition. This attitude by the fadgers and there fans will come around. Enjoy your win lift the axe and leave the field.
Click to expand...

IF the Coaches don't nip this need for simulated pillaging and out of control mock destruction act in the bud they will be a couple of damn sorry coaches trying to make excuses for just WHY an outrageous brawl broke out following a Big Ten Football Game in either Madison or Minneapolis. Some day, a band member...or a spirit squad person or even a player or two will be seriously injured by these displays of HORRIBLE sportsmanship, following the game. Perhaps Teddy Roosevelt was right in calling Ivy League Prexys on the carpet back in 1905. New rules were instated to ban things such as the "flying tackle..." (a play in which the tackler left his feet...sound familiar?) Prexy R threatened that he would in essence ban college football with a presidential orderl. (He had even played football and was a fan. But, things were getting out of hand with flying wedges, and other smash-mouth formations of the day. ". NOBODY benefits from tempting fate. These players have just spent the last hour beating on each other. There are bound to be some grudges built up over the course of the game. You put them together, under a goal post, face to face, acting tough...if the wrong things are said...all hell is going to break loose and people are going to get hurt. And the bad publicity will hurt the programs involved for a LONG time.

Coach Kill and Coach Andersen NEED to be wise. And, they DO need to come to some sort of agreement about a civilized way to end a bitter rivalry game and to deal with the possession of the axe. It is NOT satisfactory to have two squads confronting each face to face AFTER the game is concluded. Hell, they need all those guys in striped shirts out there to keep the peace while the game is being played. How do the coaches DARE allow these players to confront each other in such disrespectful ways AFTER the completion of the game with NO authority figure in control?

Come on Coach Kill and Coach Andersen: put some discipline back in this game. You will BOTH be really sorry if...and WHEN this whole thing blows up into a very nasty incident in which players and/or innocent bystanders are injured once the game has been concluded. When the game is over: the violence NEEDS to end. You are playing with fire Coach Kill and Coach Andersen. You need to take this very seriously...I will NEVER forget the TOSU/Minnesota basketball brawl. It was one UGLY sight and a tragic event. Get it together Coach Kill and Coach Andersen. You two didn't start this thing...but...it is up to you two to insure that something tragic does NOT ever happen at the end of a Minnesota/Wisconsin Border Battle. Preserve the honor and the dignity of Big Ten Football!
 

Formo said:
Honestly, I don't mind one bit about a brawl or fight. This is what having a REAL rivalry is about. This is where HATE comes into play.
Click to expand...

That's absolutely ridiculous. A REAL rivalry is based on mutual respect.
 

Sitting in Badger Territory on Thanksgiving

I think a class act would be to go over to the Badger team and sing On Wisconsin with them and then sing Hail, Minnesota. After the game the rivalry is over. The teams should be shoulder to shoulder. If you have any honor in you, you must be able to show it to others. I think defending the goal is so far over the top that it becomes detrimental to good character. Honor is something you give whether you win or lose.
 

wren, nice to see you posting. Do you remember who we were playing during the Jim Carter years when a big brawl broke out at Memorial? I just remember seeing the pictures of it in the old "Sports Peach."
 

50PoundHead said:
wren, nice to see you posting. Do you remember who we were playing during the Jim Carter years when a big brawl broke out at Memorial? I just remember seeing the pictures of it in the old "Sports Peach."
Click to expand...

I was at the 1967 Minnesota vs Indiana game, and I am pretty sure the "crutch-breaking" shot came during that game. The Gophers DESTROYED Indiana..feelings and emotions got a little out of hand towards the end of that game and there was a bit of a brawl. That set the stage for the final game of that 1967 season and the biggest brawl for the AXE that has ever occurred, I am quite certain. Earlier that year, the Gophers had been blown out by Leroy Keyes and the Purdue Boilermakers down in W. L. So, with the Gopher win over Indiana, Minnesota and Indiana had one loss each. If I recall correctly, Purdue had been at the Rosebowl the year before and would not be able to repeat at that bowl game. That set the stage for the season ending game between the Badgers and the Gophers and the Hoosiers and the Boilers. All the Gophers needed was a win over the Badgers and a Purdue win over Indiana for the Gophers to get the Rosebowl Invitation. Since Purdue had been at the Rosebowl more recently than the Gophers...a trip to Pasadena looked like the most likely outcome. Minnesota had been thrashed by Purdue and Minnesota had thrashed Indiana. The "smart money" just knew that Purdue would obviously thrash Indiana and Minnesota would be going to California for New Years Day.

The Gophers were doing their part. They were leading the Badgers when they announced on the Loudspeaker that Purdue had just been upset by Indiana in the battle for the OLD OAKEN BUCKET. (I learned later that late in the game, Purdue was driving for what would have been the game winning TD and that their TOUGH fullback...a guy named Perry Smith had fumbled the ball on Indiana's one yard line. The Brick House Crowd was stunned. Something must have been said out on the field, and the next thing I knew, a couple of Gopher Players got into it with about four Badger Players.

It had snowed the night before, and there was a lot of snow on or around the bench seats. Both benches cleared. there was a heck of a scrum out there on the field and so many snow balls were thrown from the bleechers in the Brick House. Fans were taking the field, It seemed to go on for a LONG time. Murray Warmath was shown on camera in the Peach appearing to be trying to restrain his players. He later...MUCH later...admitted to some that he told some of the players to "get out there and kick the Badger's ass...With Murray, you never quite did know if some of his old stories really ever did happen...Murray could tell a story with his soft southern drawl.

They eventually cleared the field and the game was completed. The Gophers won. I don't recall any kind of a big deal about the axe at the end of the game. The day had been too eventful already. That was in late November of 1967. It was the last Gopher Game I attended before spending the next four years in the Service. How could I have ever guessed that in the year 2013 I would still be looking for my Golden Gopher Football Team to win their NEXT Big Ten Championship. I am pretty sure that the Carter picture, in which a crutch was broken over a Gopher's shoulder Pads/helmet happened at the end of that Indiana game earlier that season though. That 1967 Season was really quite a season for my Golden Gopher Football Team! That's for sure...

I've seen the REAL DEAL as far as a "spur of the moment" football brawl goes between the Gophers and the Badgers. I don't want to see some foolish and needless brawl break out after the game is officially over.
 

Dean S said:
I think a class act would be to go over to the Badger team and sing On Wisconsin with them and then sing Hail, Minnesota. After the game the rivalry is over. The teams should be shoulder to shoulder. If you have any honor in you, you must be able to show it to others. I think defending the goal is so far over the top that it becomes detrimental to good character. Honor is something you give whether you win or lose.
Click to expand...

Well stated and a good suggestion for post-game festivities. Reminds one of the annual Army-Navy rivalry/respect drama.
 

Hey, at least DetlefWithTheEssenHaus didn't get his frikking Stein back!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Dean S said:
I think a class act would be to go over to the Badger team and sing On Wisconsin with them and then sing Hail, Minnesota. After the game the rivalry is over. The teams should be shoulder to shoulder. If you have any honor in you, you must be able to show it to others. I think defending the goal is so far over the top that it becomes detrimental to good character. Honor is something you give whether you win or lose.
Click to expand...

Then some milk and cookies and the ceremonial spooning.
 

How about an actual tree be brought out onto the field? The winners could chop it down and distribute the branches amongst the teammates. They could whittle them into shoehorns or shillelaghs on the bus ride home.
 

Thanks walrus. I think that's the game I was recalling. I'm a tad younger than you and the games weren't broadcast then, so all I got to see was what was in the Sports Peach (and I am old enough to remember that).
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom