| Sport | Football |
|---|---|
| First meeting | November 29, 1900 Minnesota, 20–12 |
| Latest meeting | October 17, 2025 Minnesota, 24–6 |
| Next meeting | 2027 |
| Trophy | $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 65 |
| All-time series | Minnesota leads, 38–25–2 (.600)[1] |
| Trophy series | Minnesota leads, 8–3–0 (.727) |
| Largest victory | Nebraska, 84–13 (1983) |
| Longest win streak | Nebraska, 16 (1963–2012) |
| Current win streak | Minnesota, 6 (2019–present) |
TheMinnesota–Nebraska football rivalry is an Americancollege footballrivalry between theMinnesota Golden Gophers andNebraska Cornhuskers. The teams met regularly in the sport's early years and began an annual series when Nebraska joined theBig Ten Conference in 2011.
The early years of the rivalry can be separated into two distinct eras, Minnesota's dominance in the formative years of the sport and Nebraska's dominance underBob Devaney andTom Osborne from the 1960s through the 1990s.
Minnesota and Nebraska first met in 1900, a 20–12 Gophers victory inLincoln in the first year ofHenry L. Williams's tenure as head coach. The teams began an annual series; aside from a 6–0 Nebraska victory as part of an undefeated 1902 season, the series was controlled by Minnesota.[2]
In 1911 and 1912, Minnesota gave Nebraska head coachEwald O. Stiehm his only two losses across five years in Lincoln. Stiehm became enamored with theMinnesota shift, a precursor to modernpre-snap motion, and had an assistant document the technique during the teams' 1912 meeting.[3] Stiehm implemented the shift and used it during a 7–0 victory over Minnesota in 1913, prompting Williams to discontinue the series, which was not regularly renewed until the year after his death in 1931.[3]
Minnesota continued its success in the series through the 1950s, claiming national championships underBernie Bierman andMurray Warmath and losing just four times to Nebraska.
The teams stopped playing annually in 1952, but still met regularly until 1990. Nebraska took control of the series in the early 1960s asBob Devaney established the Cornhuskers as a national power. Devaney and his successorTom Osborne faced the Gophers fourteen times, winning each game with an average margin of victory of over thirty points. This included an 84–13 victory in Minneapolis during a record-setting 1983 season, the most lopsided loss in Minnesota history.[4]
Nebraska joined theBig Ten Conference in 2011 and began an annual series with Minnesota as members of the Legends Division, and later the West Division.[5] NU won the first two meetings as conference opponents, stretching its win streak over Minnesota to sixteen.
In November 2014, aTwitter exchange between Minnesota mascotGoldy Gopher and a parody account of Nebraska head coachBo Pelini ("Faux Pelini") led to the creation of the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy.[6] After a friendly wager involving a smashed chair, acrowdsourcing campaign began to design a rivalry trophy.[7] The final design depicted a broken chair with images of Goldy Gopher and Pelini, and was presented to Minnesota atMemorial Stadium after their first victory inLincoln since 1960.[8]
The $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy changed hands in 2015, making subsequent appearances with Nebraska players and coaches on social media.[8] However, the university later distanced itself from the trophy, which disappeared after NU's victory over the Gophers in 2016; fan-led inquiries into its whereabouts were unsuccessful.[9] The trophy was revived by fans in 2017 as a fundraiser for theUniversity of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital and theTeam Jack Foundation.[10]
Minnesota won the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy in the first year after it was reestablished and has retained it for six consecutive meetings.
| Minnesota victories | Nebraska victories | Tie games |
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