[NU Sports] Iowa-Northwestern Rivalry?

[Joe Thiegs]

I have to disagree with you here, Stephen.

There is no way that NU-Illinois is more of a rivalry or a bigger one than
the Floyd of Rosedale game, Sweet Sioux/Land of Lincoln notwithstanding.  I
would challenge you to try to find one Hawkeye or Gopher fan to agree that
it's not a huge deal to both sides no matter how lopsided.  Having
personally witnessed many games for Floyd, Paul Bunyan's Axe, the Little
Brown Jug, and the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk, I will attest that the now-Land of
Lincoln Trophy game falls a distant fourth to those other three in terms of
rivalries, as bad as Minnesota has been lately and much as I love to see the
'Cats beat the Illini.  I also agree that Illinois is NU's biggest rival,
though I take even greater pleasure in wins over several other teams--Iowa
and Wisconsin because of my other affiliation, and Michigan and tOSU
because, well, it's such a relative rarity.  (Is that too much of a
contradiction?)

The Little Brown Jug remains very important to Minnesota fans (though it's a
bit depressing when you don't feel like you have much chance to win it) and
the last time the Gophers won it a few years ago, don't think that it didn't
bother Michigan fans a whole lot to lose it.  (Side note: I remember that
day well--we were in Evanston and were back in Norris after that wild 51-48
win over the Badgers in 2005, and I was glued to a tiny handheld set with a
2-inch screen and poor, fuzzy reception, almost in hysterics leading up to
the win with a last-second FG for the Gophers.)  You're closer to
MSU-Michigan but, from my outsider point of view, it seems to me that
Michigan fans hate to lose to MSU to a degree eclipsed only by hating to
lose to the Buckeyes.  Maybe Jeff B. or someone else would want to comment
on that.

I think that NU simply doesn't have a second true rival after Illinois even
though games with schools like Wisconsin and Iowa typically are heated.
That's another reason why I wish Notre Dame had joined the Big Ten:  the
Fighting Irish are a natural rival for the Wildcats.

-Joe

On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 2:00 PM, SjT (Stephen J. Truog)
<sjtruog at yahoo.com>wrote:

>
>
> NU-Illinois is more of a rivalry than Floyd of Rosedale and Iowa-NU or
> NU-Wisky is more contentious than that Little Brown Jug.
>
> > A true rivalry requires that the fans of BOTH schools buy
> > in to the concept,
>
> Perhaps - but not always. MSU-Michigan is a rivalry even though only MSU
> takes it as one. The in-state, "upper crust vs. low class" themes are there.
> Sometimes rivalries can be one sided both in the records and with the fans'
> feelings.
>
>