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MARK STEIL: It's late afternoon, Saturday, October 27, 1934. A sportswriter from The Des Moines Register is hard at work, while a cold North wind howls outside.

SPEAKER: Iowa Stadium, Iowa City, Iowa.

MARK STEIL: His story is that day's Iowa Minnesota football game. Minnesota bound for the school's first ever national championship, trampled Iowa 48 to 12.

SPEAKER: Lashed by human fury, even greater than the roaring gale which swept the field, Iowa's football team crumbled before the cyclonic drives of Minnesota's power brigade.

MARK STEIL: The writer's intensity reflects the role of college football in the nation's culture in the 1930s. It was much more popular than its professional counterpart. The rising Minnesota football dynasty was national news. 93-year-old Herman Schneidman was on the Iowa team that year. He'd hurt his shoulder in an earlier game. While his teammates lost ground against Minnesota, he watched from the sidelines.

HERMAN SCNEIDMAN: We hated to play them. They were the toughest. They were national champs, I think. Four years are close to it.

SPEAKER: The wild attack of the rampaging Norsemen struck without Warning in the opening minutes of the battle. The vicious Vikings ran amok, leaving destruction in their wake.

MARK STEIL: One Iowa player took the brunt of the Minnesota attack. Ozzie Simmons was a rarity in that era, a Black player on a major college football team. Simmons was a distinctive runner. He liked to grip the ball palm down, waving it hypnotically at the end of his outstretched arm like a magician's wand. High above the field, a young broadcaster described the action to his radio audience. 50 years later, after a career in the movies, Ronald Reagan would be president. In October, 1934, he was in Ozzie Simmons fan. Reagan later described a trademark Simmons move during a telephone interview with Jim Zabel of WHO Radio Des Moines.

RONALD REAGAN: Ozzie would come up to a man, and instead of a stiff arm or sidestep or something, Ozzie, holding the football in one hand, would stick the football out, and the defensive man just instinctively would grab at the ball as he'd pull it away from him and go around him.

SPEAKER: There were no dazzling runs against Minnesota. Simmons was knocked out three times, leaving the game for good in the second quarter. The Gophers overwhelmed Simmons and the rest of the Iowa team. Robert Johnson of Anoka got to some of the 1934 players when he entered the Minnesota Super Bowl program the next year.

ROBERT JOHNSON: We had two fullbacks who were very, very good, Sheldon Beise and Stan Kostka. And what happened was they broke loose through the line, and the only player between them and the goal line was Ozzie Simmons. So they just ran over him. And they carried Simmons off the field.

MARK STEIL: By halftime, Minnesota led 34 to 0. But the Gophers didn't let up. At the head of the Minnesota attack, that day was running back and Team Captain Francis Pug Lund. Johnson says Lund was one of the nation's top runners.

ROBERT JOHNSON: He was a driver. He was-- nothing fancy about pug. Here I come. I mean, that was pug.

MARK STEIL: Lund came to symbolize Minnesota's physical toughness and do anything to win brand of football. The Wisconsin native even had his little finger amputated because it interfered with catching and gripping the football.

ROBERT JOHNSON: It was broken, and it healed crooked. And so he had it cut off. And he had trouble then for a while fumbling because he didn't have all his fingers to catch the ball.

MARK STEIL: The Iowa fans grew more upset with each hit, cutting through the roar of the wind came the sound of boos. They grew louder. One Minnesota coach said later, no college team should hear booing like the Gophers did that day in Iowa City. Some speculated fans were so upset because Minnesota had ruined Iowa's homecoming. Some blamed the crowd's reaction on alcohol.

Prohibition ended the year before, and one Iowa newspaper called the game a drunken orgy. But most felt the crowd was unhappy with Minnesota's play against Ozzie Simmons. They thought Minnesota deliberately roughed Simmons up. Some said it was because he was Black. What happened in Iowa City that day became a long-running sore point between the two states. Ozzie Simmons became the public face of the dispute.

[TRAIN HONKING]

Ozzie Simmons came far and traveled hard to be in Iowa City that day. He originally came to Iowa from Texas by hopping a freight train. His brother and several friends rode along. Simmons died in 2001, but he described the trip in a 1988 interview with Star Tribune newspaper reporter Jay Weiner. The interview was recorded from a distance on a cassette recorder with a built in microphone. The noise of the machine almost overwhelmed Simmons voice. But if you listen carefully, you can hear him describe his first meeting with Iowa football coach Ossie Solem. It was a moment Simmons clearly relished. Simmons arrived on campus and asked for directions.

OZZIE SIMMONS: They told us where the stadium was. And so we went to the stadium, and finally, we found the Ossie Solem's office. So I walked in, and I told him who I was. So he looked at me like he was just stunned for about two minutes-- I guess to say, "What the hell are you doing here?"

MARK STEIL: One possible reason for the coaches stunned silence is that Ozzie Simmons had crossed the color line. Even at Iowa, known by African-Americans as a liberal institution, Black football players were rare. To have one simply walk into the head coach's office was almost unheard of. Some alumni, though, had recommended Simmons, and the coach agreed to give him a tryout. He was impressive running a kick back for a touchdown. The coach put him on the team along with brother Don.

On the field, his breakaway runs quickly attracted media attention. Newspapers soon ranked him as one of the best running backs in the nation. Writers called him the Negro halfback or nicknames, like "the ebony eel." He became a symbol for young people. Near Wheaton, Illinois, lived a Black teenager who met Ozzie Simmons later in life. She had the memorable name of Eutopia Morsell. She says, in her teenage years, she cheered. Simmons long runs but fumed at the newspaper coverage.

EUTOPIA MORSELL: He'd always call him ebony eel and everything that meant black. And I'd get so mad. I'd stomp my foot. Why do they have to talk about Black? Why don't they just tell it like it is that he was good and that's it? Why did they have to put this "Black" in there?

SPEAKER: The Iowa running back wasn't the only one getting this treatment. University of Miami history Professor Donald Spivey says those were the days of widespread discrimination in college sports.

DONALD SPIVEY: College football mirrored society, the same lines of discrimination, inequality that existed in society in general. The color line is real, and it's very difficult to penetrate.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

(SINGING) I told everybody over the radio

Make up the mind and get together to break up this old Jim Crow

MARK STEIL: The America Huddie Ledbetter, Lead Belly, sang about included laws in Southern states which segregated Blacks from whites. In Northern states. No such laws existed, but discrimination was still widespread. In college sports, Ozzie Simmons was the exception who proved that discrimination was the rule. History Professor Donald Spivey says, star Black players were allowed in. Every one else need not apply.

DONALD SPIVEY: It was very easy to screen any player out. First of all, the difficult thing was to even get a tryout.

MARK STEIL: Ozzie Simmons suffered for his unique talents. During a run against Northwestern University, he was punched. In another game, a newspaper account says a player rammed his locked hands into Simmons face. Ronald Reagan told WHO's Jim Zabel, Simmons and other Black players of the era routinely faced unfair play.

RONALD REAGAN: The problems were when you played another team that did not have a Black--

JIM ZABEL: I see.

ROBERT JOHNSON: For Some reason other then they would pick on this one man.

MARK STEIL: Reagan remembered an incident in a game with Illinois. Ozzie Simmons was roughed up.

ROBERT JOHNSON: I saw Dick Crane and Ted Osmolovsky walk over to the Illinois huddle during the timeout. They walked over, and they said, "Do that to him once more, and we're going to run right out of the end of your stadium."

MARK STEIL: There were racial slurs. In his interview with Star Tribune reporter Jay Weiner, Ozzie Simmons says most teams taunted him.

OZZIE SIMMONS: "This kid didn't go with it. Come on, nigger. You're not going to run today." So I didn't say anything because I learned the best way to do is just play your game and don't say anything.

MARK STEIL: Simmons got some of that treatment in the 1934 Minnesota game. Among other things, it was alleged to gopher player deliberately drove a knee into Simmons during a punt. Minnesota's players and coaches vigorously defended their team. They said. They treated Simmons the same as any other player. Head Coach Bernie Bierman said the allegations of dirty play were themselves dirt. Minnesota players said they were roughed up. Several said they were punched and kicked in the game. Ozzie Simmons was asked by a newspaper reporter if he thought Minnesota had played dirty.

Simmons replied, "No, sir, I don't." University of Miami Historian Donald Spivey says it's probably the only answer Simmons could give. White administrators controlled college football. There was little chance they'd support a complaint by a Black player against a white player. 50 plus years later in a changed racial climate, Simmons said there was indeed rough stuff. He told the Star Tribune, the Gophers hit him late and piled on after plays were over. Simmons always said he felt he was targeted because he was good. But he said the racial issue probably added some oomph to the hits.

[TRAIN HONKING]

The game may have ended with the final whistle on that October day, 1934, but some matters were far from settled. As the Gophers and the Hawkeyes left the field that day, neither side knew the game was just a scene setter for a tumultuous confrontation the following year.

[TRAIN HONKING]

The Gophers boarded a Rock Island train for Iowa in November 1935. A scheduling change had the team returning to play at Iowa for a second year in a row. There were many new faces on the Minnesota team that year, including Dwight Reed of Saint Paul. He was the first African-American on the Gophers in several years. Like many northern colleges of the time, Minnesota had Black football players from time to time. Bill McMoore of Plymouth got to know Dwight Reed well. In the 1950s. Reed hired McMoore to his coaching staff at a college in Missouri.

BILL MCMOORE: He loved football. Dwight would call me in the morning at 3:00 o'clock in the morning, "Mac, what are you doing" I said, "What the hell do you think I'm doing? I'm sleeping." "Let's come over to the office. Let's talk about the defense for this next week." He was just a football nut.

MARK STEIL: And a star and on some very good Minnesota teams in the 1930s. The university Dwight Reed attended was far different from the U today. Only about 50 Black students were enrolled. School officials were proud of that. They felt progressive, especially compared to southern schools, which banned African-Americans. Mark Soderstrom teaches at Empire State College in Syracuse, New York. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on race relations at the University of Minnesota. He says he was surprised to find out how much discrimination Black students faced in the 1930s at the University.

MARK SODERSTROM: The men's dormitory is segregated at the University of Minnesota, maintained as a white-only space. The women's dormitories are maintained as white-only spaces. We maintain a white-only nursing program, dances to be racially pure at the University of Minnesota. University employees are white-only.

MARK STEIL: At the time, then University President Lotus Coffman claimed the University of Minnesota has never discriminated against colored students. But Soderstrom calls Coffman the main actor in creating the school's segregated order. What made the discrimination even more bitter was that it completely ignored Minnesota State law. Mark Soderstrom says state anti-discrimination law was broad and straightforward.

MARK SODERSTROM: No person shall be excluded on account of race or color from full and equal enjoyment of any accommodation, advantage, or privilege furnished by public conveyances, theaters or other public places of amusement, or by hotels, barbershops, saloons, restaurants, or other places of refreshment, entertainment, or accommodation.

MARK STEIL: As with Ozzie Simmons, black athletes like Dwight Reed quickly learned their place in the system. When Minnesota played Tulane in 1935, Reed watched the game from the press box. Like many northern schools, Minnesota honored an unwritten agreement with segregated Southern colleges. They refused to play against African americans, so northern schools left their Black players at home. Bill McMoore was the final Minnesota athlete to experience this injustice. In 1951, his coach delivered some bad news as the boxing team prepared to travel South.

BILL MCMOORE: We're going to fight the University of Miami, and I was a light-heavy on the team, and the day before we left. Chislom said, "Billy we can't take you. You can't go because they don't have any integrated matches in the south."

MARK STEIL: When University President James Morril found out, he apologized to mcmoore. Morril said it was the last time Minnesota would honor what they'd once called the Gentleman's Agreement.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

(SINGING) Go, Gopher Victory

Minnesota go

The racial politics of the time were mainly a distant argument for the Gopher players as they rolled into Iowa for the 1935 game. They were immersed in football. Once again, the team was undefeated, hoping for a second straight national championship. 90-year-old Bob Weld played for Minnesota that year. He said as the team settled in, one Iowa player was on their mind.

BOB WELD: Ozzie Simmons was one of the great stars of Iowa. Everything that he did was sensational.

MARK STEIL: The Minnesota coaches were also concerned, but for a different reason. Minnesota Head Coach Bernie Bierman had received a flood of threatening letters from Iowa fans. He requested and received special police protection for the team when it detrained in Iowa couple days before the game. As the contest drew closer, the situation deteriorated. Rumors flew. One was fans were organizing to storm the field if Ozzie Simmons was roughed up. The day before the game, Iowa Governor Clyde Herring seemed to funnel all the state's unhappiness into one statement. It was reported in the newspapers of the day, and it's reread here. The governor appeared to legitimize the rumors.

CLYDE HERRING: Those Minnesotans will find 10 other top notch football players besides Ozzie Simmons against them this year. Moreover, if the officials stand for any rough tactics, like Minnesota used last year, I'm sure the crowd won't.

MARK STEIL: The news quickly reached Minnesota. Coach Bernie Bierman threatened to break off athletic relations. Minnesota Attorney General Harry Peterson practically accused the Iowa Governor of thuggery.

HARRY PETERSON: Your remark that the crowd at the Iowa Minnesota game will not stand for any rough tactics is calculated to incite a riot. It is a breach of your duty as governor and evidences an unsportsmanlike, cowardly, and contemptible frame of mind.

MARK STEIL: At this point, the only politician in the bunch wearing a smile entered the dispute. Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson knew he had to lighten the mood. He telegrammed Iowa Governor Herring game day morning.

FLOYD OLSON: Dear Clyde, Minnesota folks excited over your statement about the Iowa crowd lynching the Minnesota football team. If you seriously think Iowa has any chance to win, I will bet you a Minnesota prize hog against an Iowa prize hog that Minnesota wins today.

MARK STEIL: The Iowa Governor accepted in what became known as the Floyd of Rosedale trophy was born. Herring apparently followed Olson's cue. He joked it would be hard to find a prize Minnesota hog since they were all so scrawny. Word of the bet reached Iowa City as the crowd gathered at the stadium. Things calmed down and the game was untroubled. Minnesota won 13-7. Minnesota player Bob Weld said the Gophers were happy to leave with a win.

BOB WELD: We beat the team, but we didn't beat Ozzie.

MARK STEIL: Weld says Simmons impressed Minnesota with a strong game. Simmons himself praised both teams for their clean, crisp play. The following week, Iowa Governor Herring delivered. He brought a live pig to the Minnesota Capitol building in Saint Paul and took it inside to Governor Olson. The hog was dubbed "Floyd" after the Minnesota Governor, "Rosedale" for the animal's Iowa birthplace. Floyd of Rosedale started out as a trophy, but he ended up a normal farm animal here in Southeast Minnesota.

DONALD GJERDRUM: It's kind of a surprise to people to learn that hog is here.

MARK STEIL: Donald Gjerdrum lives on the farm near the town of Mabel.

DONALD GJERDRUM: Every year when the two football teams clash, well, then this thing comes up.

MARK STEIL: It was Gjerdrum father who bought Floyd. Within weeks of winning the pig, Governor Olson gave him away in an essay contest titled "Oppertunities for life on the farm." The winner, though, didn't want Floyd and gave him to the University of Minnesota. The school then sold Floyd to the airdromes. Walking past a plot of native grasses and flowers he's planted, Gjerdrum leads the way to a special spot on the farm.

DONALD GJERDRUM: Well, we're here. This is where he came to rest.

MARK STEIL: Gjerdrum says Floyd died of cholera in July 1936, about eight months after he made the front page.

DONALD GJERDRUM: People were vaccinating their hogs, and somebody said, well, surely that hog's been vaccinated, coming from the U up there. And so dad, let that go. But it was too bad because his dad put it. He said he just leaned up against the straw pile and died.

MARK STEIL: The location was appropriate, six miles from Iowa, almost exactly halfway between the two schools. A bronze statue replaced the animal as the annual prize. The real Floyd, Governor Olson passed away less than a month later. He died of cancer in August 1936. Ozzie Simmons said he never took much interest in the Floyd of Rosedale trophy, in part because of the racial era it recalled. Simmons was denied a chance in pro football.

The National Football League banned black players at the time. He played some minor league ball, joined the Navy, and eventually became a Chicago Public School teacher. In the 1950s, he met an early fan of his, someone who followed his career at the University of Iowa in the newspaper. Eutopia Morsell, the Wheaton, Illinois teenager who fumed at media nicknames like "ebony eel" was introduced to Ozzie Simmons by friends. Simmons was moonlighting as a stockbroker.

EUTOPIA MORSELL: He sold the stock all right, and he sold himself to. And by 1960, we were married. And don't think I don't miss him. Oh, boy.

MARK STEIL: The Floyd of Rosedale trophy is most of all about football, a celebrated college rivalry. But look a little deeper and it's also about American history. It began in an era when racial discrimination was widespread and protected at the highest levels of government. When Ozzie Simmons stepped onto the field in October, 1934, to play Minnesota, he entered a national drama that still playing out today. All Simmons wanted was a chance. The trophy is an ever-present reminder of how precious right is. Reporting from Worthington, Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio News.