Stillwater and White Bear Lake, an ancient rivalry, bring back the Old Oil Can Trophy

When Stillwater and White Bear Lake play boys basketball Friday, they'll compete for a prize with more than a century of background — and 217 games — behind it.

Also to the winner: two Beanie Babies.

Thanks to a dive into history by Stillwater coach Brady Hannigan, with help and craftsmanship from some associates, the victor will, for the first time since World War II, take possession of the Old Oil Can Trophy.

A trophy game in basketball? Hannigan said yes.

"That's why it was so intriguing," he said. "You see it in football, but don't see it in basketball."

It's a new Old Oil Can Trophy, but it goes way back.

Hannigan was researching Stillwater results of the past in July and realized something had been lost. The old Old Oil Can Trophy apparently was first presented to the winner of boys basketball games between Stillwater and White Bear Lake during the 1926-27 season.

His research, assisted by Frank Matschina, Joe Hannigan, and Bob Hannigan, took him to the archives of two newspapers, the Stillwater Arrow and the Stillwater Gazette, to old copies of White Bear Lake's yearbook, the Matoskan, and to the Washington County Historical Society, the White Bear Lake Historical Society and the Minnesota Historical Society.

What he learned: A trophy made from an oil can had been devised by two White Bear Lake teachers in 1926. It included lines indicating prison bars, representing the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater, and it had scores engraved on its base. The trophy came with two stuffed animals crafted by a teacher, a white bear and a pony, indicating the mascots of the schools. The winning team's mascot would reside in a space at the top of the trophy, and the losing team's mascot took a position behind those prison bars, until the trophy next changed hands.

It seems the trophy tradition faded in the 1940s. The old Old Oil Can Trophy hasn't been found, so Hannigan commissioned a new one. It's made of an actual oil can — the father of Hannigan's girlfriend turned that up — with streamers in orange and black for White Bear Lake and red and white for Stillwater. It's perched on a wooden base made by John Schultz, Stillwater Class of 1982. Scores from all 217 games are engraved on the base, and there's room for more. It still comes with stuffed animals, with a modern touch: The white bear and the pony are Beanie Babies.

Hannigan figures it's a rivalry worthy of a trophy. White Bear Lake and Stillwater first played boys basketball against each other in the 1915-16 season, and it has been touted as the sport's longest uninterrupted rivalry in Minnesota.

"We're claiming it until somebody proves us wrong," Hannigan said, laughing.

The rivalry leans in Stillwater's favor, 131-86, but it's tighter in recent years, Stillwater leading by only one game since 1980. Stillwater is 3-1 this season, White Bear Lake 1-1.

Hannigan comes by his interest in the rivalry naturally. His father taught at White Bear Lake for 30 years and coached there, too.

"There's actually a picture of me with orange hair at some point in my life," Hannigan said.