The Bell

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Crosby

Crosby

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Not sure this is worthy of a new thread but... here goes. Is anyone else uninspired by the Victory Bell trophy? I am. And it's not just because we lost. The 2019 PSU game was one of my best memories as a Gopher fan and I didn't give a damn about the Bell. It feels to me like it's time to retire this thing. Traveling trophies are meant for true rivalry games. PSU-Minn is not one of those rivalries. We have had some good games between the schools but the idea of a rivalry is forced. The trophy only exists because we were PSUs first Big Ten opponent in the early 90s. That does not make a rivalry. The trophy itself even looks cheap and flimsy. The whole thing is just not anywhere near the Pig, the Ax, and the Jug. Let's retire the thing.
 

Agreed.

It was made up and forced, in order to try to assimilate Penn State into the Big Ten culture.
 

I feel like that's been the consensus for a long time. Probably not going to happen but I wish it was retired and just put in the College Football Hall of Fame or something. Make the Chair official instead, organically made and Minnesota has much more history with Nebraska.
 

They could/should retire the Bell as a traveling trophy because neither team gives a crap about it. The fact that we were Penn State's first official Big Ten opponent after they joined the conference is not a good reason to have a trophy game. I don't think they did that for Nebraska, Rutgers or Maryland when they joined.

They could remove the trophy from the game and nobody would even notice.
 

I forgot it even existed. Didn't watch the end of the game. Did Penn State parade it around the field? Or charge to get it?
 



tjgopher said:
I forgot it even existed. Didn't watch the end of the game. Did Penn State parade it around the field? Or charge to get it?
Click to expand...
I am sure someone picked it up eventually but there was no charge to the Bell or celebration the way there is with trophies that teams actually care about. Probably for the best since in addition to being a trophy that nobody cares about it is also really poorly made and would likely get destroyed if the players actually did celebrate with it.
 





Crosby said:
Not sure this is worthy of a new thread but... here goes. Is anyone else uninspired by the Victory Bell trophy? I am. And it's not just because we lost. The 2019 PSU game was one of my best memories as a Gopher fan and I didn't give a damn about the Bell. It feels to me like it's time to retire this thing. Traveling trophies are meant for true rivalry games. PSU-Minn is not one of those rivalries. We have had some good games between the schools but the idea of a rivalry is forced. The trophy only exists because we were PSUs first Big Ten opponent in the early 90s. That does not make a rivalry. The trophy itself even looks cheap and flimsy. The whole thing is just not anywhere near the Pig, the Ax, and the Jug. Let's retire the thing.
Click to expand...
I've said it a couple of times, Iowa-PSU seems to be a bigger rivalry. I'm more than okay with giving the winner the bell whenever they play!
 

I like that we have one trophy that absolutely no one cares about (and not very many people seem know or remember exists). A relic of the corporatized rivalry trophy era.

A few years after the bell, it became a thing for programs to find some artifact with some connection to a rivalry and claim it as a historic “trophy” with history in an attempt to mimic the LBJ. That became the favored way to manufacture a trophy-game.
 


Goldmember said:
I like that we have one trophy that absolutely no one cares about (and not very many people seem know or remember exists). A relic of the corporatized rivalry trophy era.

A few years after the bell, it became a thing for programs to find some artifact with some connection to a rivalry and claim it as a historic “trophy” with history in an attempt to mimic the LBJ. That became the favored way to manufacture a trophy-game.
Click to expand...
Another example is the new trophy between Michigan and Northwestern, the George Jewett Trophy. Wikipedia article linked.

Michigan leads the series 59-15-2, they're in two different divisions, plus the Wolverines already have two primary rivals in Michigan State and Ohio State, as well as an established trophy game with Minnesota. I think honoring the history of George Jewett is admirable, and should be done, but doing so could happen in a different way.

Have the two teams dedicate a game to his legacy and create a plaque that can go in the College Football Hall of Fame or something similar. It's not as unmemorable as some of the others, but still, it just feels forced.
 



I feel like The Governor's Bell is only a slight, slight notch above the overly contrived Civil Conflict Trophy.
Remember this photo?...

1666716404709.png
For more info., read here. Some funny stuff...
en.wikipedia.org

Civil Conflict - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 

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