A great deal of thought goes into making trophies - be it marquee sports, academic or professional events - noticeable and prestigious. Some just end up strange.
Competition in sports extends, beyond the competitors, to the tournaments themselves. Sometimes this over-zealousness of trying to stand-out impacts on the trophy-designs. Many become a talking point but perhaps not in its intended purpose. Some simply come with weird stories attached.
The Ashes Urn
Field: Sport - Cricket
Receivers: Winners of The Ashes tournament
Unequivocally, this is the greatest competition between two National teams in the cricketing world. When Australia defeated the British test-cricket team, an Aussie broadsheet took out a satirical obituary.
Subsequently, the term, Ashes, gained currency, fanned by mentions by the Brit cricketers in newspapers, canvassing its return, leading to the creation of an actual urn comprising burnt cricket-bails.
Paul Bunyan’s Axe
Field: Sports- American College Football
Receivers: Winners of Minnesota- Wisconsin Football tie
Introduced in 1948, this intimating axe, meant for the winners of the college football conference between Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Wisconsin Badgers, replaced its original offering which was no less outlandish, after it went missing. The previous winners could bring home the bacon - a replica of a slab of it, that is.
Its post-win story is no less bizarre - a rolling winner chops down the opponent's goalposts, while the fresh winner has to steal it from the opposition.
A Giant Clam
Field: Sports - Golf
Receivers: Winners of the Qatar Masters
The organizers of the Qatar Masters golf wanted to weave in their pre-oil economy-narrative, built on pearl-diving and trading into its award, whose official name is, ‘The Mother Of Pearl Throphy’. After all, a pearl can closely resemble a golf ball. Sadly, the sentiment did not translate well.
Ion Tiriac Madrid Open Trophy
Field: Sport - Tennis
Receivers: Winners of Madrid Open
These spiralling stack of 32 tennis-racquets, around a spine, crowned with a tennis ball, is odd in an endearing manner. The trophy, with names of the most Grand Slam winners engraved on its rackets, each being encrusted with a diamond, took its Swiss-designer, a whole year to forge.
Collier Trophy
Field: Aviation
Receivers: Innovators in efficiency & safety of air and spacecraft
Created in 1911, this annual Aviation award is presented to American Aeronautics and allied professionals.
The winners don’t get to take the award home - its remains displayed at the U.S National Air and Space Museum. That’s not the odd part - its peculiarity is in its irrelevance. Nothing in its design hints at anything about aviation!
