Notre Dame Football Rivalry Trophies: The Megaphone and Michigan State

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There are few things in the college football world that give me as much joy as the entire collection of rivalry trophies. College football is supposed to be weird, stupid, and full of things that don’t make sense — but yet full of emotion and nostalgia. Nothing makes that more clear than the rivalry trophies that exist in the sport.

Notre Dame is one of those schools that has a rivalry trophy game — hell, they have five of them. Some fans may not know much about them as the Irish used to try and keep them shrouded in mystery like some type of relic from the holy land hidden away in a chapel deep in the woods of medieval France.

So as the year goes on and Notre Dame plays for all of these trophies (except for one in particular), we’re going to talk about them. This week it’s The Megaphone Trophy and the Michigan State Spartans.

MEGAPHONE TROPHY

The megaphone trophy was introduced in 1949 by the alumni clubs of Notre Dame and Michigan State in Detroit. The series is on its third megaphone trophy due to it running out of space for the scores of each game.

This award became nationally known after the 2005 and 2006 games. In 2005 the Spartans were outraged that Notre Dame did not present them with the trophy on the field after they were victorious against the Irish inside Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame stated that it had been the custom all along to give the trophy to the opposing team after a defeat away from the field.

Most of the Notre Dame players and coaches, including head coach Charlie Weis, admitted to not even knowing the trophy existed.

Things changed quite a bit once Brian Kelly took over the program. The rivalry trophies got a little more push from the university, and Kelly even had a case built for them inside of the Gug.

BK famously danced like an old man and went wild in the locker room with the Megaphone after Notre Dame’s 2017 victory in East Lansing — which was the last time these two teams played.

What’s your favorite Notre Dame rivalry trophy?

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