Old Oaken Bucket Trophy Football Game – Indiana University Hoosiers and Purdue University Boilermakers

There are a lot of weird traditions in college football and the kinds of things that make casual fans scratch their heads in bewilderment are, in many cases, the exact same things that make extremely enthusiastic fans love their favorite pastime even more. One of the strangest traditions in college football is that the annual state rivalry football game between Indiana University (located in Bloomington, IN) and Purdue University (located in West Lafayette, IN) has been played for decades for a rather unique trophy entitled the Old Oak Bucket.

To understand the rationale behind the unique title of this head-to-head matchup, one must first understand the historical origin of the term. The traveling trophy known as the Old Oaken Bucket actually dates back to the 1920s and is one of the oldest football trophies in existence. The concept of the trophy now being fought over by two Big Ten Conference rivals was first thought of at a 1925 alumni reunion in Chicago. Both Hoosiers and Boilermakers alumni met to discuss options on how to best commemorate the spirited rivalry between the two schools, which are located less than 115 miles apart.

The strange specific phrase oak bucket is jointly attributed to both Dr. Clarence Jones (an Indiana alumnus) and Russel Gray (a Purdue alumnus). The text of the resolution was passed at a subsequent joint alumni meeting in 1925 in Chicago and essentially stated that an “old oak bucket” (oak simply means made of oak wood) would be best because it was believed to be “the way more typical of trophy Hoosiers.” In this specific case, the word Hoosier did not refer specifically to Indiana University Hoosiers, but to all citizens of Indiana who are collectively known as Hoosiers. This, of course, would include Purdue students and alumni who also fell under the Hoosiers umbrella. In fact, the state nickname for Indiana is the Hoosier State.

The origin and inspiration of the phrase old oaken bucket actually predates the 1925 joint alumni reunions between Purdue and Indiana by about a hundred years. Dr. Jones and Mr. Gray chose the term Old Oak Bucket in part because it is the title of a now famous poem that the poet Samuel Woodworth wrote in 1817. Although Woodworth was an American from the East Coast (Massachusetts) and not Indiana, the eloquent words he wrote about the fond memories he had of where he grew up were sentiments many Indiana natives could relate to.

Interestingly, the first game of this epic series ended in a 0-0 tie in 1925. Since then, Purdue has led the Old Oaken Bucket Series with a 56-23-3 record against the Indiana University (IU) Hoosiers.