To Start a Rivalry: The $5 Bits of Broken Chair

Some rivalries are better off just observed for their beauty, and in the case of this midwestern showdown between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Minnesota Golden Gophers, that is more than just the case. Ever since the Cornhuskers left the Big 12 to join the Big Ten, their only rivalries have been made up of old out-of-conference foes and throwbacks inside of the Quadrangle of Hate. That left just one more team: the previously dominant Minnesota Golden Gophers. But, oddly enough, Minnesota and Nebraska's history stretches further back than just 2013. And the history of the trophy itself, and its purpose, scratch a particular itch in college football history. It isn't just a modern rivalry; it's perhaps THE modern rivalry, in that it was created as a joke and exists today to perpetuate it. But even jokes can have punchlines that create smiles, and that's exactly what the $5 Bits of Broken Chair aims to do---both on and off the field.