MADISON, Wis. — The inaugural Big Ten Championship trophy, to be awarded to the winner of the conference’s title game next week, was on display Saturday outside of Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wis., prior to Wisconsin-Penn State football game.
Joe Paterno’s name, as promised by the Big Ten, has been removed.
The silver brush trophy, about three feet high with a tilted football on top, featured the engraved inscription “Amos Alonzo Stagg Championship Trophy.” It was the focal point of a Big Ten Conference booth, located steps from the stadium’s Gate 2 and near the Wisconsin football recruit entrance.
The winner of Saturday’s game in Madison will be champion of the conference’s Leaders division, and advance to the Big Ten championship game next Saturday in Indianapolis. Penn State is 9-2 overall and 6-1 in conference play, while Wisconsin is 9-2 and 5-2.
Michigan State (9-2, 6-1), the winner of the Legends division, has already secured a spot in that game. The winner will receive the conference’s championship trophy and a berth on the Rose Bowl game against the winner of the Pac-12 Conference.
Paterno’s son, Jay, is the Penn State quarterbacks coach. He has promised that if the Nittany Lions win their next two games and are awarded the championship trophy, he will put Joe Paterno’s name on a Post-It note and affix to the trophy.
Since he promised that on national TV, the younger Paterno said, “I’ve been getting Post-It notes by the dozens in my mailbox.”
With steady rain falling, an awning atop the Big Ten booth protected the trophy from getting wet. A small sign asked visitors to not touch the trophy. A half-dozen young Big Ten staffers, clad in black, were huddled around the trophy. Visitors were offered the chance to have their photo taken with the trophy, and then have that picture emailed to them.
When asked why Paterno’s name was not on the trophy, a Big Ten staffer said, “The trophy is about celebration, not controversy.”
Two weeks ago, in light of the child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, the conference announced that Paterno’s name would be removed from the trophy – which was to have featured the names of both Paterno and Stagg.
‘We believe that it would be inappropriate to keep Joe Paterno’s name on the trophy at this time,’ Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said at the time. ‘The trophy and its namesake are intended to be celebratory and aspirational, not controversial. We believe that it’s important to keep the focus on the players and the teams that will be competing in the inaugural championship game.’
Stagg won 319 games in 57 years as a college football coach, many of them at the University of Chicago. Paterno was the head coach for nearly 46 seasons (1966-2011) at Penn State, finishing with a major college record 409 victories. He was fired by Penn State on Nov. 9, 11 days after his final game at Penn State, a 10-7 victory over Illinois on Oct. 29 in Beaver Stadium.
