With the regular season coming to a close, the Badgers will either have both a winning season and eligibility for a bowl game or a second losing season in a row. With so much riding on the final game, it is only fitting that there be a tangible reward to the victor as well. That reward is the Paul Bunyan Axe, and it is the reward that goes to the victor of the most intense rivalry in NCAA Division I-A football.

The Wisconsin and Minnesota border rivalry dates back to Nov. 15, 1890.

The origin of the rivalry, 112 years ago, was that the two schools wanted a way to show their bragging rights off in the form of a trophy. Originally the reward was the Slab of Bacon Trophy, which was awarded to the winning team by a sorority from the losing school. The Slab of Bacon Trophy was phased out in the 1940s, and the legend of the Paul Bunyan Axe was born.

Prestige, bragging rights, border-rivalry dominance and a just plain warm, fuzzy feeling inside at the end of the season are all factors of what it means to win the annual rivalry game between Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1948, the National W Club began to present to the winner of the annual game the legendary axe that was wielded by Paul Bunyan; and so began the legend. From that point on, the winner of the game has won the famous trophy and the right to paint the winning score on the handle.

“Being a border rivalry is a big thing — neighboring states and that type of thing, especially when you are playing for something like the axe — and having the tradition that’s there,” UW senior Jake Sprague said. “This is the longest ongoing rivalry in all of college football. It’s been going on for over 100 years. It’s tradition and history that makes this game just so much more. We’re fighting for that axe.”

With so much emphasis put on what the axe symbolizes here in Wisconsin, some wonder what the view on the game is for Minnesota.

Assistant head coach and defensive line coach John Palermo has coached for Wisconsin for 12 years now, but prior to his current job, he was a coach at Minnesota from 1984-87.

“It means a lot to the players in Minnesota, but it means a lot to us here too,” Palermo said. “This is the only trophy game that we play in. It is a border war, and regardless of what kind of season you have, you can really kind of put the icing on the cake at the end of the season if you can win the axe back. People in the state can also have bragging rights. The tradition, more so than anything else, is important.”

The overall historical record between the two schools favors Minnesota as the Gophers hold the edge 58-45-8. However, the Badgers have won the trophy six out of the last seven years and are 8-4 since Barry Alvarez took over coaching the team in 1990. Coaches and players are not the only ones who place special importance on the game; fans over the years have also grown attached to the matchup.

“Knowing it’s the longest-running rivalry in all of college football,” said Palermo. “If you’ve been at Minnesota and you’ve been at Wisconsin, you know about some of the legends that have played [for either team]. I know my dad growing up was a big football fan, and the guys who played in it made it an important game.”

With the loss of the axe last year, the Badger trophy case sports an empty space. For the first time in his three years playing for Wisconsin, senior quarterback Brooks Bollinger had to watch Minnesota celebrate winning the axe.

“That was tough,” Bollinger said. “That’s something rivalries are all about — them running across the field and grabbing the axe. That’s the great thing about college football and the great thing about playing in a rivalry like this: it can go either way.”

With last year’s loss, the Badgers ended their six-year streak of winning the axe, a streak that was matched by the Badgers only once before, from 1978-83.

This Saturday, a new chapter behind the tradition and history of the fabled axe will be written as the Badgers play to bring it back to Madison.

“There’s a lot riding on this game,” UW senior B.J. Tucker said. “We’ve got to end up with a win to get to a bowl — that’ll build momentum for next season for the underclassmen — and then we’ve got to get that axe back. We’ve had it for the last four or five years; I’ve had it ever since I’ve been here, except for this year. We’ve just got to fight and get that axe back, and this game will have a lot of effect on how this team is going to go to the next season.”