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Ye Olde Skull back with Witt coaches
Trophy from rivalry with Ohio Wesleyan goes back to 1929.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
SPRINGFIELD — They won't be handing out candy at HPER Center this weekend, but there's a sign of Halloween in the lobby outside the football coaches' offices.
On one of the end tables in that lobby, lost amid all the North Coast Athletic Conference championship plaques, is Ye Olde Skull, the trophy given to the annual winner of the Wittenberg-Ohio Wesleyan game.
Extras
The Tigers beat the Battling Bishops 21-16 Saturday, and one of college football's strangest trophies — an ESPN.com columnist even voted it college football's most bizarre rivalry trophy — returned to Springfield.
Ye Olde Skull trophy dates to 1929 when it was called Ye Olde Indian Skull. Wittenberg's rivalry with Wesleyan goes back to 1894, the first recorded season of Wittenberg football, and the teams have played 82 times since.
"Legend has it that the skull was unearthed when our stadium was being constructed," Ohio Wesleyan coach Mike Hollway said.
In 1987, Hollway's first season, the skull returned to Delaware for the first time since 1971.
"I didn't understand the true nature of the rivalry until the skull was handed to me," Hollway said.
The original trophy lasted until 1989.
"When I arrived, there was a heightened sensitivity from the American Indian movement," Hollway said, "so they took the trophy and gave it an appropriate burial."
In 2004, an Ohio Wesleyan alum had the idea of bringing the skull back without the Indian connection. Now it is just Ye Olde Skull, and the skull isn't a real skull, though there's some question as to whether the original was actually an Indian skull.
The plaque, however, is original. They even died the skull, which was purchased through a medical warehouse, to make it look older.
Minus five
Wittenberg had nine penalties for 55 yards in Saturday's game. Eight of those were 5-yard penalties.
The Tigers had been averaging just under four penalties per game through the first six games.
Some of that had to do with players getting used to new formations, Wittenberg coach Joe Fincham said.
"We don't want to turn the thing over and we don't want to have 5-yard penalties," Fincham said. "Those are things that get you off schedule. Those are self-inflicted things."
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351 or djablonski@coxohio.com.
