Not North Dakota State University, but the state of North Dakota.  The Nickel is now officially all of ours!

Ah, those were the days my friends..

It was before there were Fighting "Hawks"...

North Dakota v Washington
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Fighting "Hawks"? sigh...

It was before Carson Wentz.

NFL Draft
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Carson Wentz performance in 2020?  sigh...

It was way before all that.  It was a rivalry dating back to 1894!

Lets hit the highlights in Wikipedia...

Both teams have had long winning streaks in the series. The most recent streaks of significant length were in 1981–1992, where the Bison won 12 straight games in the series, including two shutout wins (1985 and 1989)- and in 1993–1996, where the then-Fighting Sioux snapped the losing streak by winning four straight regular-season games. (As mentioned, the two teams did play playoff games in 1994 and 1995 respectively—the Sioux winning in 1994 and the Bison in 1995). Of more historical relevance, UND had won 12 straight from 1953-1964 before the Bison snapped that streak with a 6-3 victory at Fargo in 1965.

So this Nickel Trophy actually didn't start flipping between NDSU and UND until 1938 with each school's student body thinking they had a chance to win the next year. Final tally though- NDSU 39 wins vs UND 26 wins. Back to Wikipedia..

The Nickel Trophy is presented to the winner of the currently annual football game between the rival University of North Dakota (UND) Fighting Hawks and the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Bison. The two universities are approximately 76 miles apart on the eastern border of North Dakota. The two schools suspended play in 2003 and resumed play in 2015.

The Nickel Trophy was retired to the Heritage Center in January of 2019.

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But this didn't happen until Thursday..

The North Dakota Board of Higher Education on Thursday signed over the traveling trophy to the North Dakota Historical Society

So no take backs.

We all win.


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