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University of Minnesota Athletics
Blog - Operation: Takin' Bacon
10/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Preparations for the search and recovery effort began at 9 a.m. this morning. Director of Athletic Communications Garry Bowman and I mounted up and headed east in search of our objective - The Slab of Bacon.
As Golden Gopher fans, you all realize that the Slab of Bacon was the precursor to Paul Bunyan's Axe, right? Most of you? Some of you? OK ... for the younger fans or maybe even some of the more casual fans, let's recap a bit before we get into more detail about our invasion of enemy territory.
The Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry was just as hotly-contested in the early part of the last century as it is today. Back in 1930, a bacon slab was fashioned out of black walnut to serve as a traveling trophy. The idea was that the winning team would "bring home the bacon."
But in the early '40s, the Slab of Bacon became the "Missing Slab of Bacon." Peg Watrous, who was the president of Wisconsin women students at the time, and her counterpart from Minnesota were to have a symbolic exchange after the game, whereby the trophy would be awarded to the winning team. Minnesota won, but in characteristic fashion, a post-game melee broke out on the field, with students and spectators running crazy over the field. Watrous was left "holding the bacon," as it were.
From there, the Slab of Bacon mysteriously disappeared and was all-but-forgotten after Paul Bunyan's Axe came into existence in 1948. But the Slab of Bacon was back in the news in the summer of 1994, when the long-lost trophy was found after a Camp Randall Stadium storage room was cleaned out. Wisconsin officials estimated that it had been missing since 1945; yet mysteriously the scores of every Wisconsin-Minnesota game from 1930-70 were printed on the back of the slab. Missing, indeed ...
But I digress. Back to today's mission ... we were heading into enemy territory to seek out and retrieve the Slab of Bacon. But we quickly began to wonder if maybe the details of our mission had leaked out to the powers-that-be in Madison.
About an hour into our drive and less than 30 miles into the State of Wisconsin, we were stopped for speeding. But the Wisconsin State Trooper was kind enough to give us a warning. Seeing our maroon and gold Block M shirts, the trooper said "I don't usually give warnings to Gophers, but I'll make an exception today." He wished us luck and we were back on the road. We dodged a bullet and all systems were go.
After arriving in the heart of enemy territory - Madison - we quickly did some reconnaissance. Despite it being on record that Minnesota had won the last Battle for the Bacon, the Badger officials we interrogated brazenly and openly stated that they knew exactly where the Slab of Bacon was. The old traveling trophy was in a display case in the Wisconsin Football Offices.
We marched right into the enemy's lair, where we encountered a glowering gatekeeper. We steeled our resolve and informed this sentinel of sorts in no uncertain terms who we were and what we had come for. She coldly and cruelly began to rebuff our attempts to reclaim the Bacon. That's when a number of rather large men appeared from down the hall and asked just what it was we were doing there.
Quickly, we had been out-flanked and out-numbered. We soon realized that maybe we weren't going to be bringing home the Bacon.
But we did find it. The rumors of its existence have now been verified. After some serious negotiation with the menacing gate keeper, she did allow us to photograph the trophy before we were unceremoniously escorted from the premises. The photos and video are above and serve as proof of our nearly successful mission.
The above account is true, all of it ... honest. OK ... I may have exaggerated just a bit.
To come clean just a little ...
The gate-keeper was anything but cold, cruel or menacing. In fact, she was a very charming young receptionist who was more than willing to let us see the Slab of Bacon. She even opened the display case (which is under lock and key) and let us have a better look at the Bacon. I even held it to turn it over and photograph both sides.
I did - in fact - ask her if we could take the Slab, since the U of M does have a claim on the trophy. The request was mostly tongue-in-cheek, as I was reasonably certain what her answer would be. She politely and good-naturedly declined to transfer the Slab of Bacon's ownership to us.
More clarification ... a number of large men did appear from a back hallway in the football offices. Two is a number, right? And when you include the receptionist, they did out-number us.
But these gentlemen were also rather pleasant and asked if they could help us in any way. They even wished us good luck in tomorrow's Border Battle contest before we left.
The story was way more fun the way I wrote it to begin with, right? Kinda like when you see a movie that's "based on a true story" and then you read the book or find out what parts of the movie were tweaked a little bit by Hollywood, right?
Anyway ... we did accomplish our primary objective for the day. We got some footage and photos of the Slab of Bacon for you, since few Minnesota fans have seen the trophy since it was hidden away by the nefarious, evil ... oops, there I go again.
-By Associate Director of Athletic Communications Andy Seeley
