Telephone Trophy adds incentive for Iowa State, MU

AMES, Iowa -- Dan McCarney has a telephone that doesn't ring. He can't call anyone on it; no one can call him.

Yet the Iowa State football coach is doing everything he can this week to keep it.

It's the Telephone Trophy, which goes to the winner of the Iowa State-Missouri game each year. Missouri plays at No. 22 Iowa State today and McCarney has displayed the trophy at every team gathering.

He may not haul it around like a running back carrying a football, but he does make sure it's visible.

"It's very important to us," McCarney said. "That trophy is with us at practice, at every meeting. Every time I talk to the team, it's right beside me.

"It will travel with us to the hotel on Friday night, it will be back here on Saturday and hopefully, we can hang on to it."

Corny? Maybe a little. But beating nearby rivals has become important in McCarney's rebuilding effort at Iowa State (6-3, 3-2 Big 12).

Iowa State and Iowa play for the Cy-Hawk Trophy and Iowa State has five straight victories in that series. The Cyclones have a three-game winning streak against Missouri (4-4, 1-3).

"It symbolizes winning," McCarney said. "You get to walk past it 365 days a year if you win it. If not, you show them the picture out of the press guide."

His players have gotten the message.

"It's in the weight room every time we lift," wide receiver Jack Whitver said. "These trophies are important to him. That's part of the tradition around here. We've taken pride in keeping those around here the last few years."

The trophy is an old-fashioned rotary telephone on a pedestal. Half the phone is painted in Missouri black and gold, the other in Iowa State cardinal and gold.

It dates back to the 1959 game, when the two coaching staffs found that their wires literally were crossed and they could hear each other on the field phones. This, of course, produced much consternation before the game. So much for sending plays down from the press box.

But the problem was solved by kickoff and it prompted Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. of Ames to have the trophy made.

"It's very important, the tradition behind it," safety JaMaine Billups said. "That's why we have to bring that trophy with us, to know what we're playing for. When he says the trophy is following us, it's really following us."

Even without a trophy, there's plenty at stake for both teams.

Despite its early success, Iowa State still needs one more victory to become eligible for bowl consideration. The Cyclones also are hungry to win again after consecutive losses at No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 7 Texas.

Missouri still has bowl hopes and needs two wins in its final four games to become eligible. The Tigers are getting outstanding play from redshirt freshman quarterback Brad Smith, who's seventh nationally in total offense. Is it time to pull out all the stops and ask Smith to do even more?

"I don't think we'll do anything bizarre," coach Gary Pinkel said. "I think you just do what you do and try to win. I just think we're going to have to play better and coach better."