Kevin Grundhoffer, staff writer

Much like the Minnesota Golden Gophers’ football team has traveling trophies for rivalry games against five Big 10 conference opponents, Augsburg has The Hammer, a sledge hammer that is used as a traveling trophy in their rivalry match against Hamline each year. According to the MIAC website, former Augsburg head football coach Frank Haege was looking to spice up the rivalry between Hamline and Augsburg. What better way to do so than by playing for a traveling trophy? But why is the trophy a sledge hammer? 

The idea behind having a hammer as the traveling trophy was tied to Augsburg and Hamline’s former assistant coach Greg Flickinger. He was a special teams coordinator for both the Auggies and the Pipers. During Flickinger’s final season with the Auggies in 2004, he used a hammer as a trophy to commemorate the special teams player of the week. In coach Haege’s first season with the Auggies in 2005, he thought that it would be the perfect trophy based on the fact that there was this tie in with the two schools. Also, The Hammer has similar colors to both Augsburg and Hamline. The handle is sort of a maroon or burgundy color and the hammer head is gray. 

The athletic trainers of Augsburg or Hamline are the appointed guardians of The Hammer depending on which team possesses it. They are responsible for bringing The Hammer to each year’s rivalry matchup and making sure there is a peaceful transfer of power if needed. The score and who won the game from every year is carved on the handle. If one were to look at The Hammer, one could see the short but storied history of the rivalry.

The all-time record of the Augsburg football team against Hamline is 38 wins, 44 losses and two ties. More recently, the tides have changed as Augsburg has seen a renaissance since the introduction of new head coach Darrin Lamker. Hamline, on the other hand, has seen a downfall with the introduction of their new head coach. Since the debut of The Hammer, Augsburg has a 15-4 record against the Pipers and has held The Hammer since 2019. Head coach Darrin Lamker inherited the trophy from the 2019 win against Hamline, which was Frank Haege’s final game as head coach. Lamker has not relinquished his firm grip on The Hammer in the four years he has coached against Hamline. This year, Augsburg defeated Hamline 37-27 and in Lamker’s tenure the Auggies have beaten the Pipers by a combined score of 158-85.

Although the trophy is relatively new compared to many other traveling trophies such as the Little Brown Jug or Paul Bunyan’s Axe which the Minnesota Gopher Football team plays for, it tells the story of a bitter rivalry which dates back long before The Hammer existed. The two schools separated by only the Mississippi river have a long history. The goal of The Hammer is to celebrate this rich history and it does that well.