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The Friends of Coal Bowl was an American college football rivalry game played by the Marshall Thundering Herd football team of Marshall University and the West Virginia Mountaineers football team of the West Virginia University. The game was sponsored by the Friends of Coal, a coal industry trade group. Planned to be a seven-year series, the Friends of Coal Bowl was organized by the West Virginia Coal Association at the urging of West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin. West Virginia has never lost to Marshall. The first game of the most recent series was played in Morgantown, West Virginia at Mountaineer Field on September 2, 2006, a 42–10 victory for the Mountaineers. The Governor's Trophy is awarded to the winner of the game. It is presented by the West Virginia Governor and housed at the university which wins the annual matchup. Made entirely from within West Virginia and with in-state materials, the trophy consists of a carbon base, a glass pedestal, and football-shaped piece of coal enclosed within the glass pedestal. It was designed by Rick Mogielski. The final contracted game in the series was played on September 1, 2012 and there are no current plans for a continuation. ==Series history== Despite both teams being from the state of West Virginia, hard feelings and politics kept the teams from playing on a regular basis before the Friends of Coal Bowl was started. Teams from West Virginia University and Marshall University had only played five times in the ninety-five years before 2006. The 1997 match-up is often thought of as the start of "hard feelings" between the two schools. When Marshall moved to Division 1A in 1997, their first game was against WVU. WVU jumped out to a 28–3 lead in the first half. Marshall led that game 31–28 going to the fourth quarter with Randy Moss leading the show. However, two touchdowns in the final quarter gave WVU the victory. At that point, bad blood arose between the two administrations. WVU claims Marshall backed out of 3 future games. Marshall claims they were never scheduled. The schools couldn't come to an agreement to play again. Former Marshall head coach Bob Pruett tried to get the WVU administration to agree to a series, but WVU stood by their stance of wanting 3 out of 4 games to be played in Morgantown, while Marshall demanded 1 out of every 3 be played in Huntington. Governor Manchin brought the schools together and hashed out the current format, which includes four games in Morgantown, two in Huntington, and the remaining game will be decided by who wins two out of the first three games. The settlement finally got the only two Division 1A schools in the state to play each other. In 2006 West Virginia hosted the first match-up of the new series and won 42–10. The 2007 game, played in Huntington, featured West Virginia's first game at Marshall in 92 years. Although Marshall went in with a slim halftime lead, WVU pulled away in the second half winning the game 48–23. West Virginia hosted the next two meetings, defeating Marshall 27–3 in 2008, and 24–7 in 2009. In 2010, WVU and Marshall faced off again in Huntington. Facing a 21–6 fourth-quarter deficit, WVU outscored Marshall 15–0 on drives of 96 and 98 yards in the final 8:28 of the game. In overtime WVU took the lead with a field goal and won 24–21 when Marshall's kicker Tyler Warner missed a 39-yard field goal attempt. The 2011 game, won by West Virginia 34–13, was unique because it featured an over 4 hour weather delay and was called with much of the 4th quarter still to be played. The 2012 game played in Morgantown, the final game in the current series, was won in dominating fashion by the Mountaineers 69–34. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Friends of Coal Bowl」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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