Minnesota–Nebraska football rivalry
| Sport | Football |
|---|---|
| First meeting | November 29, 1900 Minnesota, 20–12 |
| Latest meeting | August 31, 2023 Minnesota, 13–10 |
| Next meeting | October 18, 2025 |
| Trophy | $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 64 |
| All-time series | Minnesota leads, 37–25–2 (.594)[1] |
| Trophy series | Minnesota leads, 7–3–0 (.700) |
| Largest victory | Nebraska, 84–13 (1983) |
| Longest win streak | Nebraska, 16 (1963–2012) |
| Current win streak | Minnesota, 5 (2019–present) |
The Minnesota–Nebraska football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Nebraska Cornhuskers. The teams met regularly in the sport's early years and began an annual series when Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference in 2011.
History
Non-conference series
The early years of the rivalry can be separated into two distinct eras, Minnesota's dominance in the formative years of the sport and Nebraska's dominance under Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne from the 1960s through the 1990s.
Minnesota and Nebraska first met in 1900, a 20–12 Gophers victory in Lincoln in the first year of Henry L. Williams's tenure as head coach. The teams began an annual series; aside from a 6–0 Nebraska victory as part of an undefeated 1902 season, the series was controlled by Minnesota.[2]
In 1911 and 1912, Minnesota gave Nebraska head coach Ewald O. Stiehm his only two losses across five years in Lincoln. Stiehm became enamored with the Minnesota shift, a precursor to modern pre-snap motion, and had an assistant document the technique during the teams' 1912 meeting.[3] Stiehm implemented the shift and used it during a 7–0 victory over Minnesota in 1913, prompting Williams to discontinue the series, which was not regularly renewed until the year after his death in 1931.[3]
Minnesota continued its success in the series through the 1950s, claiming national championships under Bernie Bierman and Murray Warmath and losing just four times to Nebraska.
The teams stopped playing annually in 1952, but still met regularly until 1990. Nebraska took control of the series in the early 1960s as Bob Devaney established the Cornhuskers as a national power. Devaney and his successor Tom Osborne faced the Gophers fourteen times, winning each game with an average margin of victory of over thirty points. This included an 84–13 victory in Minneapolis during a record-setting 1983 season, the most lopsided loss in Minnesota history.[4]
Conference series
Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference in 2011 and began an annual series with Minnesota as members of the Legends Division, and later the West Division.[5] NU won the first two meetings as conference opponents, stretching its win streak over Minnesota to sixteen.
In November 2014, a Twitter exchange between Minnesota mascot Goldy Gopher and a parody account of Nebraska head Bo Pelini ("Faux Pelini") led to the creation of the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy.[6] After a friendly wager involving a smashed chair, a crowdsourcing campaign began to design a rivalry trophy.[7] The final design depicted a broken chair with images of Goldy Gopher and Pelini, and was presented to Minnesota at Memorial Stadium after their first victory in Lincoln since 1960.[8]
The $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy changed hands in 2015, making subsequent appearances with Nebraska players and coaches on social media.[8] However, the university later distanced itself from the trophy, which disappeared after NU's victory over the Gophers in 2016; fan-led inquiries into its whereabouts were unsuccessful.[9] The trophy was revived by fans in 2017 as a fundraiser for the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital and the Team Jack Foundation.[10]
Minnesota won the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy in the first year after it was reestablished and has retained it for five consecutive meetings.
Game results
| Minnesota victories | Nebraska victories | Tie games |
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See also
References
- ^ a b "Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers football series history". Winsipedia.
- ^ Walt Sehnert (September 13, 2010). "Bummy Booth and the first Cornhuskers". McCook Gazette. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
- ^ a b Ken Bikoff (November 24, 2022). "Jumbo... and what might have been". 247Sports. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
- ^ Chip Scoggins (October 22, 2011). "Gophers-Nebraska series goes from rivalry to rout-fest". Minnesota Star Tribune. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
- ^ Luke Feuerherm (June 16, 2010). "Nebraska joins Big Ten; U expects to renew rivalry". Minnesota Daily. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
- ^ Chris Hachfield (November 21, 2014). "Nebraska vs. Minnesota: Faux Pelini and Goldy Gopher Create A Trophy". The Daily Gopher. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
- ^ Patrick Vint (November 23, 2014). "The Internet made a Minnesota-Nebraska rivalry trophy actually worth caring about". SB Nation. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
- ^ a b Brandon Vogel (September 19, 2017). "The New Bits of Broken Chair Trophy is Designed to Never Die". Hail Varsity. Archived from the original on October 13, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
- ^ Adam Furley (November 18, 2016). "What happened to the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy?". 93.7 FM The Ticket. Archived from the original on December 12, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
- ^ Luke Mullin (October 12, 2017). "$5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy is officially back in action". The Daily Nebraskan. Retrieved October 13, 2017.