Floyd of Rosedale Gets Slighted

Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman newspaper in Oklahoma City does a very good job and is on the Hlog's list of favorite sports columnists around the Midwest and Great Plains. But please allow us to "poke" fun at Berry for overlooking a favorite pig in Iowa and Minnesota.

At the Oklahoman's Web site today - http://newsok.com/berry-tramel-ranks-the-best-trophies-in-college-football/article/3309442 - Berry lists his picks for the 15 best traveling trophies in college football. Five of them are Big Ten trophies. None of them are Floyd of Rosedale, the bronzed pig that has gone back and forth between Iowa and Minnesota since 1935, when an actual porker was used.

Tramel says the No. 1 trophy of them all is the Little Brown Jug, to the winner of the Michigan-Minnesota game. That one dates to 1903. But in the last 40 years, the trophy has rarely left Ann Arbor.

His No. 3 is legit, the Old Oaken Bucket. That goes to the Indiana-Purdue in-state scrap. But after that, it gets questionable.

Tramel's No. 6 is Paul Bunyan's Axe, to the Minnesota-Wisconsin winner. So Floyd is only the third-best trophy involving the Gophers? We think not.

No. 7 is Illy Illibuck. Have you even heard of this one? As you can guess by the name, it's Illinois and Ohio State. OK, but what is the actual trophy? Take a few moments to guess . . .  it's a wooden turtle.

No. 11 is the Old Brown Spittoon, with the winner of the Michigan State-Indiana game the recipient. This only dates to 1950.

The Iowa State-Missouri game each year is for the Telephone Trophy. It is Tramel's No. 15.

Floyd's got to be in the top five, let alone the top 15. It's a pig, for crying out loud. It has history. It has gone back and forth and back and forth. It's on the line every single year, unlike for Illy Whatchamacallit or the Spittoon.

Look, if I made such a list it would look wrong as wrong can be in Oklahoma or Louisiana or anywhere else. We're all biased about our regions. But it's Floyd, Berry. Floyd!