The labor is not over for the linemen on the winning team once a verdict has been reached in the annual regular-season finale played between the University of Montana and Montana State.
Several of said linemen have the task of carrying around the trophy in celebration. They are not dealing with a wooden ax or even a 98-pound bronzed pig.
The series dates to 1897 and has been fierce, yet in 2001, an hombre named Dave Samuelson decided the game needed even more, and designed the "Great Divide Trophy." This bronze monstrosity displays both a bobcat and a grizzly climbing toward a football and weighs several hundred pounds.
"I'm not sure exactly what it weighs, but it has handles and you get a few of us big fellows with a hold on it," Lewis Kidd said. "It's tremendous fun carrying it around with your fans going crazy."
Kidd is a 6-foot-6, 315-pound redshirt junior and offensive tackle for Montana State. He worked the handles in his home stadium on Nov. 23, after a 48-14 victory that gave the Bobcats a four-game winning streak vs. Montana for the first time in four decades.
Not so long ago, Montana State fans were suffering through "The Streak" — 16 victories in a row for Montana from 1986 through 2001.
Kidd was a two-way lineman at Totino-Grace. In his senior season, he was part of the Eagles' first victory ever over Eden Prairie, 27-13 in the Class 6A quarterfinals.
You don't compare high school and college victories, you just enjoy them.