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The Blue and Gold Wagon Wheel, now known simply as the Wagon Wheel, is awarded to the winner of the annual college football game between the Zips of the University of Akron and the Golden Flashes of Kent State University. The trophy is, as the name implies, the wheel from a horse-drawn wagon that is painted blue and gold, the school colors for both universities. It was first contested in 1946 when the rivalry resumed after World War II. Although the two schools are in neighboring Northeast Ohio counties and are only approximately apart, they only played each other in football periodically since the first meeting in 1923. The rivalry was contested annually over several periods of time, but none lasted longer than nine consecutive years prior to the current run. Akron joined the Mid-American Conference in 1992, and since then, the rivalry has been played every year. Through the 2015 game, Kent State leads the Wagon Wheel series 23–21–1 while Akron leads the overall series 32–24–2. ==History== The University of Akron and Kent State University, located approximately apart, first played football against each other in 1923, a 32–0 win for Akron. The two schools did not meet again until 1928 and played annually from 1928 through the 1936 game. From 1932–1935, both teams were members of the Ohio Athletic Conference, which Akron had joined in 1915 and Kent had joined in 1932. During that time period, all of the games were Akron wins except a scoreless tie in 1932. After Akron left the OAC in 1936, the series was interrupted again after the 1936 meeting and resumed in 1940 with Akron wins in 1940 and 1941 before Kent State recorded their first win in the series with a 23–6 win in 1942. World War II halted the series again as neither school fielded a team for the 1943, 1944, and 1945 seasons. Akron rejoined the OAC in 1944 and the Wagon Wheel trophy was introduced when the series resumed in 1946. It was the idea of Raymond Manchester, the dean of men at Kent State. Manchester donated the wheel, claiming it had been discovered in Kent in 1902 during construction of a pipeline or building near the eventual site of Kent State University. He connected the wheel to both schools by creating a legend that the wheel had been part of the carriage of Akron industrialist John R. Buchtel, the main benefactor and original namesake of what is now The University of Akron (known as Buchtel College from 1872–1913). Manchester's story was that Buchtel had been near the future site of Kent State in 1870 while scouting for a site to locate a new college. Buchtel's carriage became stuck in the mud and his horses pulled it apart, with one of the wheels becoming embedded in the mud. That incident, Manchester claimed, caused Buchtel to ultimately choose Akron as the site of the new college, which opened in 1872 and eventually became the University of Akron. While Akron went 10–0–1 in the rivalry's beginning, Kent State proceeded to win the next 10 games, including the first 9 of the Wagon Wheel series. Several of the wins were by large margins, including a 47–0 win in 1949 that stands as the largest margin of victory for either team. After Kent State's 58–18 win in 1954, the series was discontinued as being noncompetitive.〔〔 In the 1970s, the rivalry was revived, but the teams only met occasionally as they played in different conferences and different NCAA levels. The first meeting was in 1972, which resulted in a 13–13 tie, and they met again two years later in 1974. Kent State's 51–14 win in the 1974 game capped a stretch where the Golden Flashes went 11–0–1 against the Zips and tied the overall series. Akron finally recorded their first Wagon Wheel win five years later with a 15–13 win at the Rubber Bowl and the Zips' first win over KSU since 1941. The two teams next played in 1981 and again from 1983–1990. 1991 was the last interruption in the rivalry before Akron began MAC competition the following year. Since 1992, the game has been played every year.〔〔 Beginning with the 1997 meeting, the Zips won six in a row and 11 of 13. Kent State's only wins in that span came in 2003 with a 41–38 victory at the Rubber Bowl led by Joshua Cribbs, and a 37–15 win at Dix Stadium in 2006. The 2009 game in Akron, the teams' first meeting at InfoCision Stadium – Summa Field, resulted in a 28–20 Akron win, which tied the Wagon Wheel series at 19 wins each. Since then, Kent State won three in a row through the 2012 game with Akron taking the 2013 meeting.〔〔 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「Wagon Wheel (trophy)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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