Rusty Tool Box Rivalry Resumes Friday
November 21, 2003 | Football
Saturday's game between the Badgers and the Hawkeyes is not the only big game in Madison this weekend. Friday night marks the annual 'Rusty Tool Box' game between the Wisconsin and Iowa football student managers. Since 1990, student managers from the two schools have faced off in a flag football game on the Friday night before the Badger-Hawkeye game. The winning team is awarded the 'Rusty Tool Box,' an old tool box that is half red and white and half black and gold. Each year the winning teams logo, along with the score of the game is placed on the tool box.
UW Associate Athletic Director John Chadima, a former student manager at Iowa, started the game with the help of his former boss Bill Dervrich, Iowa's director of football operations, when he came to Madison in 1990. The game is an eight-on-eight flag football game with two twenty minute halves. The Iowa student managers have won four straight games in the rivalry. Friday night will be the last chance for the Wisconsin seniors to gain possession of the 'Rusty Tool Box.' Chadima, who is the general manager of the Wisconsin team, has his team ready to break the four-year losing streak.
'I gave them a fire and brimstone talk and got them ready to go,' Chadima said. 'More than anything, the guys that are fifth year seniors haven't had this in their hands yet. So, I just told them they were due and it was time for the underclassmen to step up and win this thing so the seniors could enjoy it once.'
Rumor has it that Chadima wants to win so bad that he has vowed to shave his head and goatee if the Wisconsin managers win.
Jake Cherney, a sophomore Wisconsin player/coach, is confident the Badger team has learned from past mistakes and is ready to finally take the tool box from the Iowa managers. 'We are not scared of (Iowa) by any means,' Cherney said. 'We pretty much came in without a game plan last year. That is going to change this year.'
The game will take place at the McClain Center Friday night. A camera crew from ABC will be in attendance filming parts of the game that will be shown during Saturday's broadcast of the Wisconsin-Iowa game.
