The Battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy is an American college football rivalry between the Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans. The teams have met 118 times since 1898, including in every year since 1945.
The winner of each year's game receives the Paul Bunyan – Governor of Michigan Trophy, a four-foot wooden statue of a lumberjack. It was first presented in 1953, when Michigan State football began competing as a member of the Big Ten Conference.
Michigan leads the series with an overall record of 75–38–5, in part because Michigan State won only two games (in 1913 and 1915, under head coach John Macklin) and tied three others in the first 28 years of the rivalry. Since 1968, the series is 39-19 in favor of Michigan.
Forty-four of the first 50 games were played on Michigan's home field; the teams began alternating home fields in 1958. The game has never been contested anywhere besides Ann Arbor or East Lansing.
The Spartans won four consecutive games from 1934 to 1937 under head coach Charlie Bachman, then lost 12 in a row after the arrival of Fritz Crisler as Michigan's head coach in 1938. The Spartans' longest run of success against the Wolverines was in the 1950s and 1960s, when they went 14–4–2 under head coaches Biggie Munn and Duffy Daugherty.
The pendulum shifted back to the Wolverines under Bo Schembechler and his successors: Michigan won 30 of 38 contests from 1970 to 2007. After Mike Hart said in 2007 that the Spartans were the Wolverines' "little brother", Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio led his team to victory in seven of eight games from 2008 to 2015. From 2016 to 2019, Michigan won three out of four, but the Spartans won the 2020 and 2021 games under new head coach Mel Tucker, and Michigan won the next four games from 2022 to 2025.
The Big Ten Conference removed the divisional format in 2024, but designated the Michigan-Michigan State game one of the 11 rivalry games guaranteed to continue under the conference's "Flex Protect Model". Because the Big Ten Championship Game features the top two teams in the conference, the schools could theoretically meet twice in a season.
Paul Bunyan Trophy
In 1953, the "Paul Bunyan – Governor of Michigan Trophy", or simply the Paul Bunyan Trophy, was introduced into the rivalry. It is a four-foot tall wooden statue of Paul Bunyan, the giant lumberjack of American folklore, mounted on a five-foot base. It reflects Michigan's history as a major lumber-producing state. The trophy was first presented by Michigan governor G. Mennen Williams to commemorate Michigan State's first year of football competition in the Big Ten.
Prior to awarding the first trophy in 1953, Michigan enjoyed an overwhelming 33–9–3 series advantage, leading athletic director Fritz Crisler to reportedly plan to refuse the trophy if Michigan had won. Crisler's protests turned out to be irrelevant, as Michigan State won the first trophy game afterwards displaying it in Jenison Fieldhouse.
The following year in 1954, the trophy was left on the field for half an hour after Michigan defeated the Spartans. "We'll find a place for the trophy," Crisler told The Michigan Daily after the game. The Paul Bunyan Trophy was then stored in an equipment locker at Michigan Stadium.Trophy has a history as big as its namesake , Retrieved June 15, 2014.
Despite winning in 1954 and 1955, Michigan did not engrave their scores onto the neglected trophy. When the Spartans won in 1956, they engraved the Wolverine victories onto the trophy. The Spartans possessed the trophy for the next eight years, tied for the longest the trophy has remained at one school, and part of a streak during which the Paul Bunyan Trophy was in East Lansing for 11 of 12 years.
The 1958 game ended in a 12–12 tie. The favored Spartans were so embarrassed that they didn't win, they originally refused to keep the trophy while Michigan also refused. Michigan State eventually relented and kept the trophy.
In 1999, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr called it "the ugliest trophy in college football", but added: "When you don't have him, you miss him."
Notable games 1898: The first game The first game in the rivalry was played in Ann Arbor on October 12, 1898, with Michigan University defeating the nascent Michigan Agricultural College (MAC, with 405 total students enrolled), 39–0. The Detroit Free Press wrote that the contest was "essentially a practice game," as Michigan played 25 different players during the game. Charles Widman scored two touchdowns, and Leo J. Keena kicked a field goal from a place-kick, "the first time a Michigan eleven has ever scored in that fashion."("The feature of the game was a place kick for goal made by Keena from the 23-yard line.") After the 1898 shutout, Michigan sent its freshman team against State Agricultural College for the next three years.
1908: First game in East Lansing and first tie In 1908, the game was played for the first time in East Lansing, before 6,000 spectators at East Lansing's College Field. When the game ended in a scoreless tie, the Aggies' fans "went wild with delight". In Ann Arbor, the result was met with disbelief among Michigan fans who had expected an easy win. The Detroit Free Press called it "the greatest game of football ever seen in this part of the state."
1910: M.A.C.'s undefeated season spoiled
On October 15, 1910, Michigan beat Michigan Agricultural 6–3 at Ferry Field. In games against other opponents, the 1910 Michigan Agricultural team compiled a record of 6–0 and outscored opponents 165 to 2 (including a 17–0 victory over Notre Dame). Prior to the Michigan game, the M. A. C. student body adopted the slogan, "On to Michigan." After a scoreless first half, the Aggies blocked two punts in the third quarter. On the second occasion, the punt was blocked and rolled to Michigan's 12-yard line where the Aggies recovered the ball. Leon Hill kicked a field goal from the 21-yard line, and the Aggies' maintained a 3–0 lead into the fourth quarter. With less than five minutes left in the game, Michigan quarterback Shorty McMillan completed a pass to Stanley Borleske who ran 50 yards to the Aggies' 15-yard line. Due to a penalty, the Wolverines had five unsuccessful chances to score the touchdown after advancing to the three-yard line. Michigan then lined up for a field goal, but the play was a fake. Don Green took the snap from center and ran for the touchdown.
1913 and 1915: M.A.C.'s first victories
On October 18, 1913, Michigan Agricultural secured its first victory over Michigan, 12–7. The Aggies' fullback, George E. Julian, scored two touchdowns, and Blake Miller returned a Michigan fumble 45 yards for a touchdown. Miller suffered a blow to the head during the game and was hospitalized in serious condition. After the game, The Michigan Alumnus made note of the Aggies' potential as an athletic threat: "This victory with the football tie in 1908, and the Farmers' clean sweep in baseball in 1912, point to the fact that M.A.C. will bear watching by Michigan."
In 1915, the Aggies again defeated Michigan, 24–0. Neno DaPrato scored two touchdowns and kicked a field goal for the Aggies. In the Detroit Free Press, E. A. Batchelor summed up the game: "Twenty-four to nothing sounds like a horrible beating but it doesn't even begin to express how completely the M.A.C. team outplayed and outfought Michigan's. It wasn't merely a defeat for the Maize and Blue but a massacre, a rout, an annihilation. . . . Michigan was beaten in everything. In music, cheering, fighting and playing football, the Aggies just naturally outclassed their foemen so badly that the Maize and Blue crowd could find no single straw at which to clutch as it drowned in a sea of tears." The victory was the second in three years against the Wolverines under head coach John Macklin.
1934: MSC snaps Michigan's 22-game unbeaten streak In 1934, Michigan State College (The Spartans as of 1925) coach Charlie Bachman led the Spartans to a 16–0 victory in Ann Arbor. Michigan State dominated the game statistically with 182 yards from scrimmage to 72 for Michigan, and with 15 first downs to three for Michigan. The loss broke Michigan's 22-game unbeaten streak dating back to October 1931, though it contained multiple ties. After the game, a group of Michigan State supporters rushed the field and attempted to tear down the goal posts at the north end of the field. Michigan fans then charged the field to protect the goal posts. Fist fights ensued, and the "rioting" continued for 20 minutes. Bachman's Spartans continued to dominate with a 25–6 victory in 1935, a 21–7 victory in 1936, and a 19–14 victory in 1937.
1940: The Tom Harmon game In 1940, Michigan defeated Michigan State College by a 21 to 14 score. Michigan halfback Tom Harmon scored all 21 points for Michigan, running for three touchdowns and kicking the extra points as well. Harmon went on to win the 1940 Heisman Trophy.
1947: Crisler's "Mad Magicians" spoil Biggie Munn's debut In 1947, Biggie Munn took over as Michigan State College's head coach. Munn had been an assistant coach at Michigan under Fritz Crisler from 1938 to 1945. On September 27, 1947, Munn made his debut as the Spartans' head coach, playing his former mentor in Ann Arbor. In one of the first televised football games in the State of Michigan (broadcast on WWJ-TV), Michigan won by a 55–0 score, outgaining the Spartans by 504 yards to 56.1948 Michiganensian, Michigan State game summary, p. 92. The 1947 Michigan team, regarded as one of the best in school history, became known as the "Mad Magicians". Michigan went on to complete back-to-back undefeated seasons in 1947 and 1948.
1950 to 1953: Munn's Spartans win four in a row For the second time in series history, Michigan State College won four consecutive games against Michigan from 1950 to 1953. In these peak years of the "Biggie" Munn era, the Spartans lost only two games in four years. The 1950 team was ranked No. 8 and defeated Michigan, 14–7. The 1951 team was ranked No. 2 and defeated Michigan, 25–0. The undefeated 1952 team won the national championship and defeated Michigan, 27–13. And the 1953 team was ranked No. 3, won the Big Ten championship in its first year of conference play, and defeated Michigan, 14–6.
1956: No. 2 vs. No. 5 In 1956, the teams met with the Spartans ranked No. 2 and the Wolverines ranked No. 5 – the highest combined ranking in series history. After a scoreless first half in which Michigan dominated statistically, turnovers led to two Michigan State scores. In the third quarter, the Spartans intercepted a pass at Michigan's 38-yard line, setting up a 20-yard field goal, and in the fourth quarter, the Spartans recovered a fumble at Michigan's 21-yard line, leading to a Spartan touchdown and the final margin of victory, 9–0.
1969: Daugherty defeats Schembechler in his first season In 1969, Bo Schembechler made his debut as Michigan's head coach. The Wolverines were ranked No. 13 in the AP Poll when they played Duffy Daugherty's Spartans. Led by halfback Don Highsmith (134 rushing yards and two touchdowns on a Big Ten record 30 carries) and quarterback Bill Triplett (143 rushing yards and a touchdown on 18 carries), the Spartans beat Michigan and outgained the Wolverines on the ground by a total of 348 yards to 176. The game was Michigan's only conference loss in 1969.
1978: Ed Smith to Kirk Gibson In 1978, Michigan was ranked No. 5 when the unranked Spartans visited Ann Arbor. Michigan had won the previous eight series meetings, but quarterback Ed Smith led the Spartans to a 24–15 upset win. Smith passed for 248 yards, including five completions to flanker Kirk Gibson for 82 yards. Michigan State's total of 496 yards (307 in the first half) was the most allowed by a Michigan team since 1961. Michigan quarterback Rick Leach, who had only one interception in Michigan's first four games, threw three in the first half.
1990: "No. One vs. No One"