♪♪ This is more than just a pig, a traveling trophy between Iowa and Minnesota football.

There is a racial element to it.

And what a terrific story how two Governors resolved a racial tension issue with a pig for Fort Dodge.

♪♪ Gary Dolphin: Good morning, everybody.

We gather here today in North Central Iowa, the home of Floyd of Rosedale, the most widely recognized trophy in all of college football.

So here we are today to officially dedicate the great Floyd memory, the trophy, on the grounds where he was born.

♪♪ My name is Dave Flattery.

I am a banker with Availa Bank here in Fort Dodge.

My name is Randy Kuhlman.

I am the CEO of the Fort Dodge Community Foundation here in Fort Dodge.

My name is Jim Kersten.

I live here in Fort Dodge with my wife Laurie.

Flattery: I come from a family of six.

Five of us are Iowa State grads.

Three are actually letter winners at Iowa State, three of us played baseball at Iowa State.

But my mother was always an Iowa fan.

Well, she passed away in 2013.

And she would always tell us that Floyd of Rosedale was from Fort Dodge.

Kersten: The Rosedale Farm was out where Floyd now is located.

And so as kids we used to go out there and we didn't really understand the significance of Floyd of Rosedale at all.

Flattery: So in '34, Iowa was visiting Minnesota and Iowa had a black running back by the name of Ozzie Simmons.

At the time, there were very few African-Americans playing Division I football and I believe he was second team All-American.

Ronald Reagan broadcast that game for WHO.

And he thought that Ozzie Simmons was one of the best running backs that he had ever seen.

So they travel up to Minnesota and they mistreat him.

And he came off the field several times injured and the fans, the Iowa fans were not happy, the Iowa Governor wasn't happy.

And so there was a lot of tension from 1934 to '35 to the point where they didn't know if they were going to even play the game, from what I understand.

And so Minnesota came down to Iowa City and I believe they stayed in the Quad Cities because there was a lot of tension in Iowa City.

♪♪ Flattery: So on the eve of the game, the night before, Floyd B. Olson, the Governor of Minnesota, wired Clyde Herring and said hey, to resolve this difference let's just have a wager.

And so, they wager a live piece of pork.

Whoever lost that game would have to present a live piece of pork to the winning Governor.

♪♪ Flattery: Al Loomis, he had a prize piece of livestock on his farm, which was the Rosedale Farm.

And so he called the Iowa Governor and he says, hey I've got this prized piece of livestock, he's the brother to Blue Boy.

Blue Boy was in the movie State Fair, the original movie State Fair.

And so sure enough he was a prized piece of livestock.

And so they actually walked it into the Statehouse, the Capitol, and presented a live piece of swine to the winning Governor and that was Floyd B. Olson.

And they named him Floyd, of course after the Governor, and then the Rosedale Farms.

Three, two, one.

Cut away, Terry Branstad.

All right.

Welcome Floyd of Rosedale to his true home indeed.

(applause) Flattery: What better way to bring recognition to Fort Dodge and to a great story and the possibility of building a statue that retains the story, the legacy.

And so I thought it was a neat idea.

I made some calls.

And I'm not sure, no, I had nobody that said hey, that's not a very good idea.

Kuhlman: We were really looking for something that represented it well but couldn't be exactly like it but also had a real artistic component to it.

And ultimately Dale Merrill, the sculptor out of Mount Vernon, presented his project to the committee and it was unanimously supported.

And when Dave and I, we went down there when Dale was working putting the project together, we went into his studio and we were extremely surprised by number one, the size of it, number two, that it is really made out of six layers of steel.

So it is really, the artistic design is absolutely amazing.

It's quite a structure.

But it has also got a real artistic look to it as well.

♪♪ Kersten: I think the significance going back to the '30s and resolving a racial issue by a friendly bet between two Governors was priceless.

And I think over the last maybe 10 or 15 or 20 years with leadership in Fort Dodge, public and private, we truly are showing the country how things can get done.

And I think this is an example of a variety of people coming together to raise a lot of money privately and for a good cause.

So I think it's a real good message to send not only Iowa, but the country, that leaders need to sit down and figure out solutions.

♪♪ Flattery: In a sense, this is kind of a legacy to my mom too is that all these years she talked about Floyd of Rosedale and she kept the articles.

And so, yeah, maybe it's a legacy to my mom as well and her belief in the Hawkeyes.

She would have been very proud to know that hey, there's a statue commemorating Floyd of Rosedale and all the characters that were associated with it.

♪♪