One Thing That Minnesota, Wisconsin, Carleton, & St Olaf Have In Common Is?

Maybe I am the last one to the table on this one, but before the Gophers won the ax this weekend, Patrick Ruesse of the Star Tribune had an article that talked about the trophy before the ax, the wooden slab of bacon, that was created in 1930 and was in use as the trophy until 1943, when it mysteriously disappeared. The creator of that slab of wooden bacon, Ranthus B. Fouch, also is alleged to have created the wooden goat trophy that gets passed off to the winning football team between St. Olaf and Carleton each year.

In doing some research on the accuracy of this, Fouch, is credited with creating the wooden slab of bacon in the Library of Congress, but other than one author, Susan Hvistendahl, little is known about who created the 2nd goat trophy.

I reached out to Dave Pape, the Sports Information Director at Carleton, as to whom is credited with the second goat trophy, as the first was created by "Endre Anderson, a St. Olaf student (and later Oles coach from 1920-27) fashioned a makeshift goat out of a chair and hung it from the rafters of the St. Olaf gymnasium back in 1914, trying to “get the goat” of the Carleton players. Carleton won that contest and claimed the Goat as a symbol of the victory. The two schools have traded the “Goat” ever since." according to the MIAC website devoted to the various trophy games played each year.

If indeed Fouch is credited with creating the second goat trophy, it would be a fun link that binds the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin, Carleton College, and St. Olaf College together.