JOHNSTON, Iowa – Officials at Iowa Corn announced today they will go back to the drawing board with the designing for the new Cy-Hawk Trophy.
The traveling trophy, awarded annually to the winner of the football game between Iowa and Iowa State, was redesigned earlier this year. The new design, which featured an agrarian family of four and a bushel of corn, drew criticism from fans across Iowa.
The now-defunct "new" Cy-Hawk Trophy, featuring a farm family (PHOTO: Schwinn Gunnamiss)
“We finally decided, based upon the criticism we received, that the glamorization of a farm family who receives countless free dollars from the government was not the direction we wanted to go,” said Craig Brush, CEO of Iowa Corn, the sponsor of the matchup. “People should be encouraged to work hard not be on the government dole.”
A farmer's mailbox, where the welfare checks arrive regularly (FILE PHOTO)
Brush said the new trophy would celebrate hard-working Iowans who earn their paychecks and are not the recipients of money the government just hands them for doing nothing.
“These farmers get money for not growing crops,” remarked Brush. “I wish someone paid me for not doing something.”
Brush said the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) amounts to welfare and he should have realized that glamorization of welfare is not a proper message to send to the thousands of college football fans who follow the Cy-Hawk Series.
“CRP is just food stamps for rural people,” said Brush. “We need to celebrate the people who put money into the government coffers, not take it out.”
Brush said an interim trophy will be used at the 2011 Cy-Hawk matchup before a permanent replacement can be designed.