The Iron Skillet: Not your ordinary piece of cookware
When ˿Ƶ faces rival TCU on Friday, September 24, at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, they’ll be battling it out for a trophy shaped like an iron skillet. But why an iron skillet?
By Chris Dell
˿Ƶ News
“To be completely honest, I don’t really know,” sophomore Andrea Barreto says. “It kind of makes me think it has something to do with food.”
Sophomore Ethan Patrick, a member of the Mustang Band, says: “It’s the rivalry between ˿Ƶ and TCU; everybody knows that. But I don’t know where the iron skillet got started.”
According to a Nov. 30, 1946, article in The Dallas Morning News, the “Battle of the Iron Skillet” was started to prevent “mutilation of school property” by rowdy fans. The previous year, more than $1,000 in damage had been done to both campuses.
“The ˿Ƶ student council proposed the skillet as a symbol of the rivalry and substitute for vandalism,” says ˿Ƶ Archivist Joan Gosnell.
Gosnell says minutes from fall 1946 student council meetings provide more clues. On October 1, the agenda includes: “Further set up idea of Little Brown Jug Trophy,” referring to the Michigan-Minnesota football rivalry. On November 12, the committee arranging an ˿Ƶ-TCU banquet and trophy “was reminded of their job.”
And on November 19, a student reported that he had purchased the trophy – “an aluminum skillet.” A motion was made that ˿Ƶ and TCU would share the expense of the trophy.
“The skillet was presented to the winner Saturday night after the game, when the two student councils had a joint banquet,” Gosnell says.
Darwin Payne, professor emeritus of communications at ˿Ƶ, has written extensively about Dallas history, including a new book on athletics at ˿Ƶ, titled In Victory or Defeat, scheduled to be released late this fall. Payne says the ˿Ƶ-TCU rivalry dates from 1915, when ˿Ƶ’s first team traveled to Fort Worth for the season opener, losing 43-0.
“The rivalry over the years has been perhaps the greatest and most consistent rivalry of all for the two teams,” Payne says. “It took on even greater dimensions through the years because the game represented Dallas against Fort Worth when these two cities were often bitter rivals.”
This year marks the 75th anniversary of perhaps the most important clash in the teams’ history, Payne says. “˿Ƶ was ranked first in the nation, TCU sixth, and tickets that sold for a dollar were scalped for as much as $100,” he says. “˿Ƶ won in dramatic fashion, 20-14, and was headed for the Rose Bowl.”
TCU has claimed the Iron Skillet in the last three match-ups, but Mustang fans are hoping for another upset of the No. 4-ranked Horned Frogs during Friday’s game, which will air on ESPN.
Related Link:
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