The Little Brown Jug

It's time for a story. Well, I'm not promising you a good story, but here goes. This is a story about the Little Brown Jug rivalry between Minnesota and Michigan. You can read about it yourself on Wikipedia (it's a credible source, right?), but I'll give you the abridged version. The football rivalry started in 1903, when Michigan came to Minnesota. Fearing that the Gopher fans would contaminate the water supply, Michigan Coach Yost sent his student manager out to purchase a water jug. Anyway, of course Michigan was on a 28 game winning streak, and Minnesota somehow managed to tie the game. The game was called (I don't know what this means, but this is what Wikipedia said), Minnesota fans rushed the field, and the Wolverines left behind their water jug. Minnesota repainted the jug and commemorated the game by writing the score on it. Later, Yost wrote to Minnesota, requesting the jug. The response? Coach Cooke wrote "We have your little brown jug; if you want it, you'll have to win it." And of course, Michigan won it back when the two teams met up again in 1909. And Michigan continues to win it, over and over again.

On my first night in Ann Arbor, I passed the Brown Jug Restaurant. Michigan is really proud of their football program, and rightly so. According to Wikipedia, Michigan leads the rivalry 65-22-3. I'm no statistician (not yet, anyway), but that's about a 3 to 1 lead over Minnesota.

This story isn't over yet. On Wikipedia, there is a picture from the 2003 matchup. Apparently, this game is so important because it is considered to be the biggest comeback in Michigan football history. That was the year that I was in the marching band (colorguard), and if you look closely, you can see the band in the photo. Anyway, Minnesota built up this huge lead against Michigan and it seemed that we would finally win the Little Brown Jug for the first time since 1986. I, along with thousands of other frustrated and disgruntled Gopher fans, watched Michigan score touchdown after touchdown in the 4th quarter to win the game.