The Old Oaken Bucket is a traveling trophy awarded in American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

as part of the

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

between the

Indiana Hoosiers football The Indiana Hoosiers football program represents Indiana University Bloomington in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football and in the Big Ten Conference. The Hoosiers have played their home games at Memorial Stadium since 1 ...

team of

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

and

Purdue Boilermakers football The Purdue Boilermakers football team represents Purdue University in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. Purdue plays its home games at Ross–Ade Stadium on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana ...

team of

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

. It was first awarded in 1925. Indiana and Purdue first met on the gridiron in 1891. The rivalry has been renewed annually in peacetime with some exceptions. Purdue leads the overall series 76–42–6.

History of the Trophy

The concept of a trophy for football games played annually between Purdue University and Indiana University was first proposed during a joint meeting of the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

chapters of the Indiana and Purdue

alumni Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

organizations in 1925: :"discuss the possibility of undertaking worthy joint enterprises in behalf of the two schools." During that meeting Indiana alumnus Dr. Clarence Jones and Purdue alumnus Russel Gray were appointed to propose a suitable trophy. At a subsequent meeting in Chicago Jones and Gray recommended some oaken bucket be that trophy and the chapters drafted the resolution that: :"an old oaken bucket as the most typical Hoosier form of trophy, that the bucket should be taken from some

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

in Indiana, and that a

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. ...

to be made of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...

block "I" and "P" letters should be provided for the bucket. The school winning the traditional football game each year should have possession of the "Old Oaken Bucket" until the next game and should attach the block letter representing the winning school to the bail with the score engraved on the latter link." Purdue alumnus Fritz Ernst and Indiana alumnus Whiley J. Huddle were appointed to find a suitable oak bucket. They found such a bucket at the then Bruner family farm between

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

in southern Indiana. Although the bucket might have been used at an open well on the Bruner family farm that had been settled during the 1840s, the Bruner family lore indicates that the bucket might have been used by General

John Hunt Morgan John Hunt Morgan (June 1, 1825 – September 4, 1864) was an American soldier who served as a Confederate general in the American Civil War of 1861–1865. In April 1862, Morgan raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment (CSA) and fought in ...

and his "Raiders" during their jaunt through southeastern Indiana during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

. In accordance with the Chicago alumni organization's resolution, the winner of the bucket gets a "P" or "I" link added to the chain of the bucket with the score, date and the city where the game was played engraved on the link. In case of a tie, an "I–P" link was added. The inaugural Old Oaken Bucket Game ended in a 0–0 deadlock on November 21, 1925, in Bloomington resulting in the very first and most visible link, an "I–P" link, being added to the handle of the bucket. When Indiana and Purdue moved to separate divisions for the 2014 season—Indiana to the East and Purdue to the West—the Old Oaken Bucket was the only inter-divisional rivalry protected under the new alignment.

The poem "The Old Oaken Bucket"

The name of the trophy refers to a sentimental poem written in 1817 by a successful printer and publisher,

Samuel Woodworth Samuel Woodworth (January 13, 1784 – December 9, 1842) was an American author, literary journalist, playwright, librettist, and poet. Life Woodworth was born in Scituate, Massachusetts, to Revolutionary War veteran Benjamin Woodworth and hi ...

(1784–1842) which begins: :"How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, :When fond recollection presents them to view! :The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wild-wood, :And every loved spot which my infancy knew! :...And e'en the rude bucket that hung in the well— :The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, :The moss-covered bucket which hung in the well. Although Samuel Woodworth was not from Indiana, the poem exemplifies the sentiment felt by the people of Indiana towards their home state. The poem was set to music in 1826 by G. F. Kiallmark (1804–1887) and memorized or sung by generations of American schoolchildren; it made the poet's unpretentious childhood home in

Scituate, Massachusetts Scituate () is a seacoast town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on the South Shore, midway between Boston and Plymouth. The population was 19,063 at the 2020 census. History The Wampanoag and their neighbors have inhabited ...

the goal of sentimental tourists in the late 19th century.

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

recorded a musical version of the poem on a

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in We ...

record on June 14, 1941 with John Scott Trotter and His Orchestra.

Series statistics

Game results

The 1903 contest, scheduled to be played on October 31 at Washington Park in Indianapolis, Indiana, was canceled after one of the trains carrying the Purdue football team collided with a coal train near 18th Street on the north side of Indianapolis. In all, 17 Purdue football players, coaches, alumni, and team supporters were killed in the

Purdue Wreck The Purdue Wreck was a railroad train collision in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Saturday, October 31, 1903, between two special trains that killed 17 people, including 14 players of the Purdue University football team. Team captain and future Indiana ...

. The 2020 contest was canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

: Indiana was ranked #12 at the time, Purdue was unranked, and the Hoosiers were the favorites coming into the game.

References

External links