BleedGopher
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per Scott:
Floyd of Rosedale, the pig that saved the Iowa-Minnesota football rivalry in 1935, once again will call north-central Iowa home, this time on a permanent basis.
The original 200-pound Hampshire hog is buried next to a clump of spruce trees outside of Mabel, Minn., located just six miles north of the Iowa border. The 98-pound bronze trophy currently resides in Iowa City as a result of the Hawkeyes beating the Gophers 35-7 last November. This newest and much larger replica of college football’s favorite pig will stop traffic only a few feet from where the original took his first breath and where he fulfilled a bet between two governors.
On the east side of Fort Dodge once sat Rosedale Farms, from where the iconic porker and his older brother Blue Boy — the star of the 1933 classic “State Fair” — scurried and weaned. It was where owner Allen Loomis offered the pig for free to Iowa Governor Clyde Herring to pay off a bet with Minnesota counterpart Floyd Olson. Now, nearly 90 years later, the area is transformed into a community attraction. Tuesday afternoon, workers will place the 14-foot Cor-Ten steel structure designed by Mount Vernon, Iowa sculptor Dale Merrill of Liberty Iron Works and unveil the attraction.
“It’s a story that could fade away,” said Dave Flattery, a Fort Dodge city councilman who spearheaded the effort to bring a lasting Floyd of Rosedale tribute. “This will be a permanent marker that will retain the legacy, the story about the Loomis family and all the characters involved and the proud fact that, ‘Hey, that pig came from Fort Dodge.’ You watch that Iowa-Minnesota game, and it’s a big deal whoever wins that game. You see that trophy being lifted up, and it originates out of Fort Dodge.”
theathletic.com
Go Gophers!!
Floyd of Rosedale, the pig that saved the Iowa-Minnesota football rivalry in 1935, once again will call north-central Iowa home, this time on a permanent basis.
The original 200-pound Hampshire hog is buried next to a clump of spruce trees outside of Mabel, Minn., located just six miles north of the Iowa border. The 98-pound bronze trophy currently resides in Iowa City as a result of the Hawkeyes beating the Gophers 35-7 last November. This newest and much larger replica of college football’s favorite pig will stop traffic only a few feet from where the original took his first breath and where he fulfilled a bet between two governors.
On the east side of Fort Dodge once sat Rosedale Farms, from where the iconic porker and his older brother Blue Boy — the star of the 1933 classic “State Fair” — scurried and weaned. It was where owner Allen Loomis offered the pig for free to Iowa Governor Clyde Herring to pay off a bet with Minnesota counterpart Floyd Olson. Now, nearly 90 years later, the area is transformed into a community attraction. Tuesday afternoon, workers will place the 14-foot Cor-Ten steel structure designed by Mount Vernon, Iowa sculptor Dale Merrill of Liberty Iron Works and unveil the attraction.
“It’s a story that could fade away,” said Dave Flattery, a Fort Dodge city councilman who spearheaded the effort to bring a lasting Floyd of Rosedale tribute. “This will be a permanent marker that will retain the legacy, the story about the Loomis family and all the characters involved and the proud fact that, ‘Hey, that pig came from Fort Dodge.’ You watch that Iowa-Minnesota game, and it’s a big deal whoever wins that game. You see that trophy being lifted up, and it originates out of Fort Dodge.”
Hog Heaven: How an Iowa community is memorializing the home of the original Floyd of Rosedale
Fort Dodge, Iowa, birthplace of the original Floyd of Rosedale in 1935, is now home to a monument celebrating the legacy of the famed hog.
theathletic.com
Go Gophers!!
