http://www.indiana.edu/~athlweb/graphic/sports/football.html
Those of you braving the elements for tomorrow's (Nov. 22) Purdue Indiana football game at IU's Memorial Stadium in Bloomington may like a detail or two about that Old Oaken Bucket. That old bucket was first presented exactly 72 years ago today (Nov. 21) at the dedication of the first Memorial Stadium on Tenth Street. IU and Purdue drew an inglorious 0-0 tie, for which the bucket received both a gold "P" and a gold "I." The stadium had been built for a sum of $250,000, contributed by 14,000 people.
The "trophy" itself, covered with moss and mold, was retrieved in 1925 from the old Bruner farm between Kent and Hanover, and was said to be a relic of Gen. John Morgan's jaunt through the state during the Civil War.
At that first Indiana-Purdue bucket game, Hoosier humorist George Ade, representing Purdue, and Harry Kurrie, who was president of the Monon Railroad and represented IU, awarded the mossy trophy at center field following the game in 1925. Since that first double link was attached, there have been 45 "P"s, 23 "I"s and two more tie-score double links added to the bucket's chain.
| Then soon with the emblem of truth overflowing, And dripping with coolness, it rose from the well. Samuel Woodworth,
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Was the new trophy a spin on poet Samuel Woodworth's famous poem The Old Oaken Bucket, written in 1817? Perhaps, or maybe it was simply a symbolic token of an agricultural state.
Still, Woodworth's poem rings true for gridiron fans who are fierce on the side of one or the other of the famous competitors:
http://www.indiana.edu/~athlweb/graphic/sports/football.html
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