While the eyes of the rest of the country this month may be on the trophies to be awarded NCAA basketball’s champions, the University of Idaho community knows the ultimate basketball trophy lives right here in Moscow.
King Spud, the most handsome trophy in sports, was commissioned in 1962 by the Moscow Chamber of Commerce to drum up excitement about the annual contest between the men’s basketball teams of UI and Idaho State University. In the 960s and 1970s, Idaho would take King Spud home seven times, while Idaho State only won five of the contests. The original King Spud was last awarded in 1979, when the Bengals surrendered it to the Vandals. ISU coach Lynn Archibald, clearly speaking from a place of heartbreak, said: “The trophy should go to the losing team, not the winning one. It’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”
The original trophy was designed by UI art professor Alfred Dunn, with a brass crown, silver-plated potato and a wooden base. The three elements of the trophy supposedly represent the three principal industries of Idaho at that time — potatoes, mining and lumbering. History has forgotten who actually constructed that first trophy. It appeared in the 1963 Gem of the Mountains yearbook with little fanfare though it often was mentioned in coverage of the annual series in early years.
It would disappear just as mysteriously in 1979. Many have searched for the original King Spud, scouring the UI’s Kibbie Dome and ISU’s Holt Arena as well as the archives of both schools.
In 2021, the staff of the UI Special Collections and Archives made a concerted effort to track the trophy down. They even launched a social media campaign in hopes that someone, somewhere, had seen it. The search generated a lot of fresh interest but no new answers.
“It seemed unlikely that we will ever actually find the original King Spud. That seems to be lost to the ages,” said UI Library Dean Ben Hunter, who initiated a plan to create a replica. “The next best thing to tap into this piece of history seemed to be to do something big — let’s make a new one.”
Associate professor of art and design Casey Doyle was charged with sculpting a new King Spud based purely on a scant handful of known photos. Made of ceramic, this oversized King Spud replica now greets visitors to the University of Idaho Library.
That was not the end of King Spud mania, however. Using the new design, UI’s Integrated Research and Innovation Center made another 3D model this past year, and the UI/ISU basketball series has been rekindled with a new King Spud trophy at stake.
This year ISU took the trophy to Pocatello, but the Vandals will be back to reclaim it next year. In the meantime, you can visit the giant King Spud in the Library. And if you know where the original King Spud is, the library just wants it returned, no questions asked.
Perret is the university archivist at the University of Idaho.
