Iowa Football boasts some of the longest-running rivalry games in college football, with some dating back to the late 1800s.
Every college football season, the Hawkeyes participate in four rivalry games with trophies and extended history attached to all of them. With conferences constantly changing and shifting, multiple rivalry games have disappeared or happen a lot less often, but luckily for the Hawkeyes, they maintained most of their biggest rivalry games throughout the years. Of the four trophies, there is a clear order of 1 to 4 based on aesthetics and history, and we ranked all four.
No. 1: The Floyd of Rosedale (Iowa vs. Minnesota)
The Iowa Hawkeyes and Minnesota Golden Gophers first played against each other in 1891, with Minnesota winning 41-1. The two programs have met regularly on the gridiron since 1901 and have one of the best rivalry trophies in college football. Even though Iowa has dominated the rivalry over the past decade, winning nine of the past 10 games, Minnesota holds a 63-56-2 overall advantage, with Iowa holding a 46-43 advantage since the trophy was introduced in 1936. While Minnesota isn't Iowa's "biggest" rivalry for Hawkeye fans, the history and aesthetics of the trophy make it the best to play for.
There was massive controversy surrounding the 1934 game over how Minnesota treated Iowa running back Ozzie Simmons, one of the few black players in college football. Simmons was knocked out of the game early after multiple hard and late hits as Minnesota won 48-12 in a lopsided game in Iowa City. In 1935, Minnesota was 5-0, and Iowa was 4-0, and fans of both teams were extremely riled up before the game. To ease tensions, Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson made a friendly wager with Iowa Governor Clyde L. Herring that centered around a prized pig going to the victor. Minnesota won 13-6, and a pig from Rosedale Farms in Fort Dodge was presented to Minnesota.
After that season, it was determined that wagering a live pig every year wasn't a great idea, so the Floyd of Rosedale trophy was born. Iowa won last year's matchup by a commanding 41-3 final score, and game No. 120 in the series takes place next season in Iowa City.
No. 2: The Heartland Trophy (Iowa vs. Wisconsin)
In another game with a massive bronze trophy, the Battle for the Heartland Trophy has become an annual tradition like none other. In another long-standing matchup on the gridiron, Iowa and Wisconsin have been playing each other since 1894. The rivalry is well over 100 years old with multiple gaps, but the coveted Heartland Trophy was first introduced in 2004, with Iowa being the first recipient after a 30-7 victory. Wisconsin holds a slim 49-48-2 overall record in the series, and the two programs are tied at 10 wins apiece since the trophy was introduced.
Both programs have been members of the Big Ten Conference since 1900 (Wisconsin since 1896), making it one of the longest-standing rivalry games in college football. Wisconsin dominated early on, but Iowa won every game between 1977 and 1996, with one tie occurring in 1984, narrowing the gap. Not only does this game have a ton of history, but the sheer size and look of the trophy is also something to behold. The trophy is a 72-pound brass bull, and it often takes multiple players to lift it and carry it off the field.
The matchup in 2026 is going to be massive for both sides because the Hawkeyes can tie up the all-time series at 49 wins apiece and take the lead in the trophy series with 11 wins to Wisconsin's 10. Iowa absolutely manhandled the Badgers 37-0 in Madison last season and would like nothing more than to win the 100th overall game in the series at home next season.
No. 3: The Cy-Hawk Trophy (Iowa vs. Iowa State)
Easily the biggest rivalry on either team's schedule, the battle for state supremacy between Iowa and Iowa State has occurred since 1894. To say the two schools hate each other might be the biggest understatement of all-time, and if we ranked the games instead of the trophies, this would be far and away the No. 1 choice. Iowa has dominated the all-time series with a commanding 46-25 overall record, but Iowa State has won the previous three games after Iowa's 2023 victory was vacated.
The two programs played each other 24 times from 1894 to 1934 before a 23-year hiatus threatened the game. In 1977, the two programs finally agreed to play once again, and the Cy-Hawk Trophy was established. The trophy hasn't changed much since, with the initial design featuring a running player and a football, to the current design that began in 2010. The current design features a replica of Iowa's mascot, Herky, and Iowa State's mascot, Cy, with a big football in the middle.
The name is very to the point, as is the trophy, but it isn't as aesthetically pleasing as the first two, which is why it comes in at No. 3 overall.
No. 4: The Heroes Trophy (Iowa vs. Nebraska)
The Iowa-Nebraska rivalry has been around for over 100 years, but it has ramped up over the past 15 years, coinciding with Nebraska's move to the Big Ten Conference. Iowa and Nebraska first met on the gridiron in 1891, Iowa's first-ever football game played outside of the state of Iowa. The two programs have played 56 total games, with Nebraska leading the all-time series 30-23-3, but Iowa has dominated the in-conference battle for the Heroes Trophy with an 11-4 record.
The Cornhuskers had the upper hand early in the in-conference series, winning three of the first four matchups, but then Nebraska AD Shawn Eickhorst fired Bo Pelini and stated that the program had to evaluate where Iowa was and where they were, ushering in an era of Iowa dominance in the rivalry. Iowa won seven in a row after that, and has won 10 of the last 11 games in the series. Eickhorst found his way back to the Big Ten after Wisconsin recently hired him, and all Iowa fans hope he brought the curse back with him.
Excluding the sheer size of the trophy, the Heroes Trophy is fairly plain overall, even though it does represent a good cause. The trophy was named the Heroes Trophy to recognize heroes from both communities and has been played annually on Black Friday for over a decade. The story behind it is great, but the actual trophy itself is not so great.
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