College football rivalry
The Governor's Victory Bell is an American college rivalry trophy contested between the Minnesota Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota, and the Penn State Nittany Lions of the Pennsylvania State University.
Both teams are members of the Big Ten Conference. Minnesota is a founding member, since 1896, while long-independent Penn State joined in 1993. The Governor's Victory Bell trophy was created to commemorate Penn States' first Big Ten conference game, vs. Minnesota, on September 4, 1993.
The Governor's Victory Bell, alongside the Land Grant Trophy, is one of Penn State's two traveling rivalry trophies. It is Minnesota's fourth official trophy, behind the Little Brown Jug, Floyd of Rosedale, and Paul Bunyan's Axe, and ranks the Golden Gophers first in the Big Ten for number of in-conference rivalry trophies.
Locations of Minnesota and Penn State
History.
Minnesota and Penn State had never played a game prior to the later team's entrance into the Big Ten in 1993. The long-independent Nittany Lions were matched with the Golden Gophers for their first-ever in-conference game, and their first game of the 1993 season, on September 4 at Beaver Stadium.
A trophy to mark the occasion was established by Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson and Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey, represented at the time by acting Governor Mark Singel. Singel presented an artist's conception of the prospective Governor's Victory Bell prior to the game.
In 2013 Minnesota reclaimed the trophy after an interrupted four-game, nine-year losing streak, having last won vs. Penn State in 2004. The team accidentally broke the trophy in the ensuing celebration.
In 2019, both teams were undefeated with Penn State ranked #4 and Minnesota #17. This was the first matchup in which both teams were ranked. The game went down to the wire and ended with a dramatic interception by the Gophers in their own end zone to win 31–26. Later that month the Associated Press listed the matchup as a "Forced Rivalry" in their evaluation of the Big Ten's rivalries and 17 trophy games.
The Big Ten conference expanded in 2024, adding four teams from the Pac-12 conference. Tom Fornelli for CBS Sports listed the Minnesota-Penn State game last in a new ranking of the league's 21 football rivalries, stating "This game has a trophy, so I included it in the rankings, but I don't know how many Minnesota or Penn State students are even aware that this is considered a rivalry."
Game results.
Rankings are from the AP Poll.
References.
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