District championship era (1881–1950) In 1881,
Pennsylvania State College played its first collegiate game against
Lewisburg where they won 9–0. This was the first team fielded by any of the Big Three. The
Western University of Pennsylvania (WUP) introduced football in 1890 and
West Virginia University introduced football in 1891. The first game played between any of the three was on November 6, 1893, when Penn State defeated WUP 32–0. The rivalry between the three schools rapidly formed as Pittsburgh, then WUP, regularly battled West Virginia and Penn State, who played an imbalanced series in Pittsburgh. Notably, Penn State versus West Virginia became an extremely heated rivalry as the two met in 1904, 1905, 1906, 1908, and 1909 in State College. WVU was shut out each time. They met again at
Yankee Stadium in 1923. The result was a 13–13 tie. In 1900, the first rivalry qualifying season took place as Western University played both Penn State and West Virginia. Western University lost both matchups, making the first result a split championship between Penn State and West Virginia. In 1904, the first full round-robin took place, meaning each of the three teams played both of the others. West Virginia went 0–2 in the rivalry, Penn State went 1–1, and Western went 2–0 as part of their undefeated 1904 campaign. By 1908, the battle between the three was considered a championship and representative of supremacy in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia and a 1921 article from
The Pittsburg Press referred to a triangular rivalry between the schools as they competed for the "sectional title". By the 1930s, the trio was simply referred to as "the east's Big Three" Over time, Central and Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and eastern Ohio became considered the
Tri-State district for college athletics. Pittsburgh (formerly WUP), Penn State, and West Virginia were the district's powerhouses and the title of "Big Three" was synonymous with their dominance of the district's less prominent collegiate teams: the "
Little 15" also sometimes called "West Penn Class B" and annual battles for the "district championship". Local newspapers frequently included a spot in the sports section of their daily paper which included the overall and head-to-head records of the Big Three and Little 15/West Penn Class B. The two groups were also sometimes referred to as the "Tri-State Big Three Conference" and "West Penn Class B Conference" respectively. The Tri-State district also included a scoring title awarded to the player from a Big Three school with the most points scored over the course of a given season. The district title or district championship was not replaced by the Old Ironsides trophy, although it was eventually pushed out of relevance in favor of the battle for the trophy. The title coexisted with the trophy for years as a distinct rivalry and competition.
Old Ironsides trophy era (1951–1984) (left) and
Art "Pappy" Lewis (right) holding the large, 3-sided Old Ironsides trophy The Old Ironsides trophy was introduced to the Big Three championship in 1951 by the Pittsburgh Junior Chamber of Commerce to be given to the winner of the round robin. although some sources place the trophy at 200 pounds. The 4 foot tall trophy consists of a 3 foot tall
stainless steel triangular prism mounted onto a one-inch thick stainless steel triangular base. On each side of the trophy is a plaque at the top of the trophy's body. Each plaque represents one of the three schools as their name appeared at the time of the trophy's introduction (Pennsylvania State College became Pennsylvania State University in 1953). Smaller plaques were annually placed underneath the large plaque to mark years in which the team had had a shared result or an outright victory. Atop the pillar sits a "nearly regulation sized" football presumably also made of stainless steel. The trophy was traditionally awarded to the victorious team's head coach, or a chosen position coach in the case of then Penn State quarterbacks coach
Joe Paterno following the
1964 season, at the annual Pittsburgh
Junior Chamber of Commerce banquet or Curbstone Coaches awards banquet in the Roosevelt Hotel or the Sherwyn Hotel. and the Sherwyn Hotel is now
Point Park University's
Lawrence Hall. There is also at least one instance of the presentation taking place at the weekly Junior Chamber of Commerce luncheon in the Old Vienna Restaurant. West Virginia went on to win that game 16–0. From its inception the trophy was met with little fanfare from fans or media. Coverage of the trophy largely novelty; the mentions focused on its size and weight, in particular the difficulty of transporting the trophy. There was little to no coverage outside of the tri-state area and within ten years of the trophy's use, the originator of the idea was unknown. Despite all this, the teams and coaches turned out to the annual ceremonies awarding the victor and fought for possession of the monolith. A 1975 article in Penn State's
Daily Collegian student newspaper reported that the trophy had sat in "its homely location between the men's and women's rooms in the upstairs hallway of
Rec Hall for 10 years." The trophy had not been updated since 1970 and the article describes the trophy's poor condition in minor detail. Similar searches by The University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University also yielded no trophy. Since then, there have been no public efforts to locate the trophy. The fate of the Old Ironsides trophy is unknown. == Champions ==