The 10 Spot: Dec. 9, 2005

With the Heisman Trophy up for grabs again this Saturday, it's time to take a look at where the bronze stiff-armer ranks among the sports world's coolest prizes. This isn't intended as a list of the most prestigious titles, but rather to honor the awards that themselves have the most character or uniqueness.

1. Milk for the Indy 500 winner: Undoubtedly the healthiest prize in sports. Louis Meyer inadvertently started the tradition after he won the 1933 race when a photographer snapped him in the garage area downing a glass of his favorite drink, buttermilk. He did the same in Victory Lane after winning in 1936. A photo of that swig reached an executive at the Milk Foundation, who sensed an opportunity. Milk was provided for the next five winners before the race was interrupted by World War II. The tradition returned in 1956 and has stuck ever since, much to the chagrin of PETA, which has called milk a "racist drink" in protesting the practice.

2. Stanley Cup: Lord Stanley, the Canadian governor-general who bought a $50 trophy (it's now the little bowl at the top) as an honor for the top amateur team in Canada back in 1893, couldn't have known what he had wrought. He probably didn't foresee, for example, that the Cup would end up in strip clubs, falling into the Rideau Canal or sinking to the bottom of Mario Lemieux's pool. Those things happened because every player is allowed to take the Cup for a day, one of the coolest traditions in sports. Players and coaches also get their names engraved permanently -- there are 2,324 names at last count -- though not always accurately. Goalie Jacques Plante, for example, has his name misspelled five times alone on the Cup.

3. Heisman Trophy: The most recognizable individual prize in sports was sculpted in 1935 by Frank Eliscu, using NYU player Ed Smith as his model. The 13 1/2" bronze figure carries a ball in his left arm while fending off imaginary tacklers with his right. The pose is so distinctive and familiar that potential candidates have been known to strike it on the field after a big play, going at least as far back as Michigan's Desmond Howard in 1991. (Though for some reason most mimics raise one leg in the air; the statue's feet are both earthbound.) The Heisman may not be able to take a lick, though, as Eddie George's trophy lost some fingers on an airport conveyor belt. (It was repaired.)

4. Green jacket: The members of Augusta National have been wearing the gaudy garments since club founder Clifford Roberts purchased them from the Brooks Uniform Company in New York in 1937. The tradition of slipping a jacket onto the Masters champ began in 1949. Winners are allowed to keep the jacket for a year but are then supposed to return them to the club for good, though they can wear them whenever they're at Augusta. ( Gary Player, though, took his home to South Africa in 1961 and told Roberts he'd have to come and get it.) Multiple winners still have just the one jacket, which is why Tiger Woods requested extra-roomy measurements when he won in 1997 at age 21, figuring he'd be pulling the same coat on years later after future wins.

5. Old Oaken Bucket: The bucket was reputedly used by Union troops during the Civil War. It was found covered with mold on a southern Indiana farm in 1925, cleaned up and presented to the winner of the Purdue-Indiana football game ever since. Lee Corso was so excited to win it as Indiana's coach in 1976 after three straight losses to Purdue that he slept with the bucket between his legs, then put flowers in it and used it as a centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner. Let's hope he washed it before putting it on the table.

6. Venus Rosewater Dish: This is the silver plate (technically, a "salver") presented to the women's singles champion at Wimbledon. The 18 3/4" diameter plate is decorated with mythological figures and was made in 1864. One of the more practical prizes, it's terrific for serving petits fours or vegetables and dip. Still, isn't it a bit sexist that the men receive a traditional-looking trophy while the women get dishes?

7. Blanket of roses: The horses that win the Kentucky Derby can't do much with cash or a trophy, so at least they get to look like a million buck with this luxurious wrap. The 7 1/2'-long garland contains exactly 554 dethorned roses -- this year from the mountains of Ecuador -- that are sewn onto an intricate lining by a team working through the night. The same three women have done the honors for nearly 20 years. That's an awful lot of work for a two-minute race.

8. Gibson guitar for winner of Nashville's Busch race: NASCAR presents a number of colorful awards, from Martinsville's grandfather clocks to the regulation championship boxing belts handed out in Las Vegas to the $65,000 Beretta shotgun that the pole-sitter in Texas won this season. Still, the coolest prize is the genuine Gibson guitars that drivers win in Nashville. We can only guess how many strummed a few bars of Sweet Home Alabama in Victory Lane.

9. Floyd of Rosedale: This 21"x15" bronze sculpture of a pig is awarded to the winner of the Minnesota-Iowa football game. (The Big 10 boasts 15 such trophy games, including the Old Oaken Bucket above.) It's not just any pig, mind you, but a replica of the original Floyd of Rosedale Farms near Fort Dodge, Iowa. The state's governors each bet a prize hog in 1935. When Minnesota won, Iowa governor Clyde Herring personally delivered Floyd to his Minnesota counterpart, Floyd Olsen. (Whether the pig was named for the governor is in some dispute.) Alas, the porcine Floyd -- whose brother, Blue Boy, appeared in the movie State Fair -- passed away from cholera in 1937. Now, of course, he has been forever immortalized in bronze.