Better than a broken chair???

The Albuquerque Journal carried a story this week about a plan floated by University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University students to establish some kind of traveling trophy to be awarded to the winner of the annual football game between the two rivals.

Their idea was to mount a table-top chile roaster on a wooden platform, with the logos of each school literally burned into the wood that holds the metal contraption.

I own one of these devices myself, and find it’s rather unruly to move out of my garage and set it up on an outdoor table during chile roasting season. But for some strong young men who have massive doses of testosterone and adrenalin pumped into them after winning the rivalry game, it should be no problem to hoist the roaster into the air to seal the victory.

There was an earlier trophy used to commemorate the winner of the annual UNM-NMSU game. It was the idea of the late New Mexico businessman George Maloof, who wanted a rifle reportedly owned by famous New Mexico frontiersman Kit Carson to be awarded to the winner of the UNM-NMSU game. Everyone assumed it was to be a traveling trophy.

UNM won the trophy the last time it was presented and the story goes that then Lobo coach Rocky Long simply decided to keep it permanently for the school or maybe in his personal collection of sports memorabilia.

College football rivalries have many unusual trophies presented to winners of the annual matchup. For example, there is the “Little Brown Jug” awarded to the winner of the Michigan-Minnesota football game. Minnesota also vies for winning the “Paul Bunyan’s Axe” when they play Wisconsin.

Oregon and Oregon State just competed for the platypus trophy, a wood carving of an animal that appears to capture the features of both a duck and a beaver — those schools’ mascots.

There’s also the “Keg of Nails” trophy between Cincinnati and Louisville, the “Old Brass Spittoon” between Michigan State and Indiana and the Jeweled Shillelagh for the USC-NotreDame game.

My favorite is “The $5 Bits of Broken Chair” trophy presented to the winner of the Minnesota-Nebraska football game. The award didn’t exist until Nebraska joined the Big 10 Conference several years ago and fans wanted a trophy of some kind to commemorate the event. The trophy was established in 2014 prior to the November Big 10 football match-up between the two schools. In an exchange on Twitter, accounts for Minnesota’s mascot Goldy Gopher and a parody account of then Nebraska football coach called Fake Bo Pelini (@FauxPelini) made a wager. With a good amount of humor and teasing between the two schools, “The $5 Bits of Broken Chair” was created.

The unusual trophy has continued in use and has also become a focal point to raise funds for charitable purposes in both Minnesota and Nebraska.

Here’s a link to most of the rivalry trophies in college football:

https://www.picksixpreviews.com/trophy-case.html

As I researched this, it occurred to me that there might be more iconic things to represent the essence of New Mexico in the UNM-NMSU football rivalry.

How about the “Plastic Wal-Mart Bag tangled in a Tumbleweed or Mesquite Bush” trophy? We seem to have those everywhere in the Land of Enchantment.

Or how about the “Green Chile Cheeseburger” trophy? We have contests at the New Mexico State Fair for our favorite burger in New Mexico. Why not preserve one in plastic on top of a Coors beer place mat?

Then there’s the “Rubber Tire Roof Protector” trophy idea. How many times when we’ve driven around New Mexico do we see car tires spread across the roof of mobile homes to protect them from the howling springtime winds that we tolerate in our state.

Or how about a “Book of Espanola Jokes” trophy? Nothing says New Mexico like a rude joke about that city.

Or we could dig up a piece of greenish glass Trinitite from the first atomic bomb test site near Socorro. Of course, it still might be radioactive, so it would probably need to be encased in a large lead box — maybe a little awkward to carry on the football field after the rivalry game.

Since New Mexico is one of only a few states that has a state insect, we could create the “Tarantula Hawk Wasp” trophy. The wasp is known for paralyzing tarantula spiders, then laying eggs in the arachnid’s body. The eggs hatch and then devour what’s left of the spider. The idea for the state insect was promoted by some ghoulish school children several years ago.

And what’s even more traditional in New Mexico than people not using their car’s turn signals. How about the “Never Been Used Turn Signal Assembly” trophy. There are lots of pristine examples out there

The list could go on forever. Send me your suggestions and I’ll post them in a follow-up. In the meantime, let’s all cheer for the chile roaster trophy to be brought to Las Cruces this weekend.