MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) — For younger alumni, the rivalry between Middle Tennessee State University and Tennessee Tech University may not mean much. But for graduates of a certain era, they know how bitter things got between the two mid-state schools.
"I never understood why they call it Tech because it’s officially Putnam County Trade School," joked Mike Williams, an MTSU alumnus.
"We called them the high school in Murfreesboro," retorted Randy Wilmore, a TTU alumnus.
Conference realignment has chilled the once red-hot rift, but if you ask Mike and Randy, the divisions are still deep. That may be best exemplified by the fact the schools can't agree on what to call their longstanding traveling trophy.
"We call it its name. It’s Harvey," said Williams.
"It’s Shinny Ninny," said Wilmore.
Blue Raiders call it Harvey because the hand-carved Alaskan totem pole was a gift from Mr. Harvey of Harvey Department Stores in Nashville. Golden Eagles call it Shinny Ninny after an end zone dance one of their star players did long ago.
Whatever you want to call it, technically, the trophy is supposed to stay at the winning school for the year. But to the victor hasn't always gone the spoils.
Wilmore recalls a time he and other Tennessee Tech collaborators kept the trophy instead of turning it over to Middle at the end of a close game.
"I told Kim, I think I can get it out of here. She goes, 'I’m not looking.' So we left with the totem pole," he said. "They held the band’s buses for like three hours while they searched it. And we’re back in Cookeville with Shinny Ninny."
"Thieving Techsters," Williams fired back.
But Mike didn't get mad, he got even.
"A group of well-meaning and responsible students from MTSU went to Tennessee Tech and turned some chickens and pigs loose in the cafeteria in Derryberry Hall," said Williams.
He and his collaborators were able to use the diversion to steal back Harvey.
On that same trip, they also took Tech's mascot hostage.
"We took him down to the fraternity house and they were taking really good care of him. His name was Gilligan apparently, the guy who was in the suit. He had a really good time apparently, I heard he transferred the next year," said Williams with a big grin.
Both Mike and Randy even took their divide to the skies.
"We got in a small plane and flew to Cookeville and dropped 56,000 really small pieces of paper with a message to Tech," recalled Williams. "Uh, it said Go to Hell Tech."
Two weeks later, Tech got their revenge.
"We flew over their homecoming, returned their leaflets with our message: Dear MTHS, thank you for the invitation to come," he said.
Jim Simpson is MTSU's unofficial historian. He says the trophy has been well traveled, especially for a stretch of time when Tennessee Tech students stole the totem and refused to bring it back.
"We were getting pictures around Thanksgiving every year of the totem pole on the beach in Florida or at the White House," said Simpson.
Simpson has a Harvey story of his own.
"I was working one Saturday morning at the bookstore, and we had a student run in that a man had passed out in the bathroom," said Simpson. "All of a sudden he felt better. So he got up and said 'I think I’m OK.'"
I think you know where this is going.
"In the meantime, they had ripped Harvey off to the wall and headed out to their car. When the police and I got out there, we noticed it had Cookeville license tags," said Simpson.
Harvey didn't leave campus, at least that time.
Finally, in 1998 came the final official Totem Bowl. MTSU was moving conferences and Tech was no longer going to be on their schedule.
"Coach Ragland brought the totem pole over and gave it to Coach Donnely," said Simpson.
Harvey, or Shinny Ninny, has been in Murfreesboro ever since.
"It’s in our trophy case and it’s going to stay there for a while," declared Simpson.
I asked him if they would return Harvey/Shinny to Cookeville if Tennessee Tech was able to pull off the upset.
"We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it, but I’m confident," said Simpson.
At least, that's what Blue Raider fans are hoping for this weekend. The two teams are playing again for the first time in nearly 20 years. No one is more excited about that match up than these two, somewhat friendly rivals.
"My son will hear these stories and will go like -- did y’all really do that? I think we did," said Wilmore.
"My children don’t know about it until now," said Williams.
"Are you coming to our tailgate tomorrow?" asked the Blue Raider.
"As long as I’m not kidnapped I’ll be glad to show up," replied the Golden Eagle.
"I can’t promise anything," said Williams with a laugh.
Do you have a Harvey/Shinny Ninny story of your own? You can email me at Chris.Davis@newschannel5.com.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
