The rivalry resumed in 1977 and they created this trophy.
The marketing geniuses came up with this because of sponsorship by the Corn Growers Assoc.
Wanna bet that none of the people that designed this have ever been to a football game?
"It's a nice-looking trophy. And the farmer, family and corn is all wonderful," said (former Iowa Coach Hayden) Fry, pausing, "but I don't really get the relationship to a football game."
"Gosh, you don't suppose it's advertising?" asked Bob Uetz, an Ames High School teacher who was part of the efforts to renew the football series in 1977 and create a trophy for it.
"My first reaction is this looks like a statue that ought to be on the Capitol grounds. I can't imagine it being for an Iowa-Iowa State football game," he said. "That thing is awful, my God."
It seems "a little weird for a sports trophy," said Mick Ellis, who makes sports trophies at American Awards in Des Moines and has even made a few for horseshoe competitions.
"Seems like something you'd see for a State Fair competition," he said.
"It looks more like something your grandmother would buy off a home shopping network," wrote Brian Bennett on ESPN.com's Big Ten blog.
Although some compared it to what a shopper might find at Isabel Bloom, the Iowa maker of concrete figurines, not all were horrified, including people at Isabel Bloom.
"I think it's beautiful," said Vicky Johnson, director of retail sales. "I'm not a football fan, but it's a beautiful sculpture."
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... -too-corny
