Between all the coaching changes that have occurred, the fact that the Cincinnati Bearcats and Louisville Cardinals are about to renew the “Keg of Nails” rivalry has gotten a little lost in the shuffle.
The two schools, which are only approximately 100 miles apart, will head to Boston to play for the 54th time in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl on Dec. 17.
The game, which will be played at the legendary home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, will be the first time the two teams have met since 2013.
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The Bearcats hold the edge in the all-time series, 30-22-1.
Why is the Cincinnati-Louisville rivalry referred to as the Keg of Nails?
The traveling trophy is believed to have been started between fraternity chapters from the two schools, with the winning team being the one that is “tough as nails.”
The current trophy is a replica of the original. The original award is believed to have been misplaced when Louisville office facilities were undergoing construction.
The beginnings of the Cincinnati vs. Louisville rivalry
The two teams first met on Oct. 2, 1929, and the Bearcats came out on top at Louisville’s Parkway Field, 7-0.
The Enquirer reported more than 7,000 fans attended the game, which was arranged as part of the American Legion convention. UC captain Art Hallett scored the game's only touchdown.
UC dominated the early years of the rivalry, winning 12 games in a row between 1929 and 1969.
The Cardinals weren’t able to score at all the first three games the teams played. In fact, Louisville only scored more than seven points twice in the first 12 meetings — in 1950 and 1969. UC outscored them 317-65 in those games.
Most lopsided UC vs. U of L football games
The Bearcats had a couple of huge shutout wins early on, 51-0 in 1942, 38-0 in 1951 and 41-0 in 1953.
There have been plenty of close games and shootouts since those days, but Louisville has been able to pick up its biggest wins in the past 25 years, 62-19 in 1998 and 70-7 in 2004.
Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm vs. UC
The new Cardinals’ coach is an alum, but only played the Bearcats once.
Brohm was the team's starter to begin the year in 1991, but was injured in the second game of the season and missed the UC game. He was also the starter in 1993, but the Keg of Nails wasn’t played from 1993-95.
In his only start vs. the Bearcats, Brohm guided Louisville to a 27-17 win on Oct. 31, 1992. He finished 15-for-29 for 180 yards in the game.
Other memorable Keg of Nails games
∙ NOV. 7, 1953: UC's 41-0 victory is notable, as it's the second-largest UC win in the rivalry's history.
But, what's more notable is who they did it against. This was the only time the Bearcats faced Hall-of-Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas. Unitas played in the game for U of L, although he was injured, and did not attempt a pass. As a matter of fact, the Cardinals only attempted two passes the entire game, completing one for 39 yards.
Mike Murphy, who went on to become a longtime high school football coach in Northern Kentucky, was UC's quarterback. He finished the game 9-for-12 passing for 145 yards.
UC outgained U of L in total yards, 449-204.
∙ NOV. 9, 1968: UC cruised to a 37-7 win and quarterback Greg Cook had a huge night.
The win, which was Cincinnati's 11th straight in the series, was never in doubt almost from the beginning.
Cook set a then-career high with 396 passing yards... before he was taken out with four minutes to go in the third quarter. Cook threw for three scores, too.
Another Bearcats legend, Jim O'Brien, had a big day as well. The Aiken High grad had a touchdown reception, three field goals and four extra points to put him in the lead nationally for points scored, for a little while at least. West Texas State's Eugene Morris and Southern Cal's O.J. Simpson had big night games to take over the lead.
∙ NOV. 14, 1970: Louisville, under head coach Lee Corso, got its first win in the rivalry, beating UC 28-14.
Corso actually turned to Bengals coach Paul Brown for advice.
“If I had heart problems, I’d call the best, Dr. Christian Bernard,” Corso told the Enquirer following the win. “But this is football. I call the greatest of them all, Paul Brown.”
Louisville had just qualified for a bowl game, something new to Corso, and he needed help keeping his team focused. So what happened?
“Well that was Monday,” Corso explained. “Tuesday I did as Paul Brown said. It was the worst practice we ever had. He told me to expect that. Then I chewed them out like I never did a team in my life. He told me I’d probably have to do that, too. Well, Wednesday we were back down out of the clouds and on the ground.”
Only an estimated 3,000 fans showed up for the rainy game which featured 26 combined fumbles, 15 by UC and 11 by Louisville (UC lost four fumbles, U of L lost five).
That just missed out on the NCAA record of 27 combined fumbles between Florida State and Wichita State a year earlier.
∙ SEPT. 17, 1977: The only tie in the series, the two teams played to a 17-17 deadlock in Louisville.
A 45-yard field goal by UC’s Steve Schultz with two seconds left led to the final score.
The Bearcats led 14-0 early, but Louisville sophomore Stu Stram, the son of legendary coach Hank Stram, came off the bench and the Cardinals took a 17-14 lead into halftime.
Quarterback Art Bailey threw three interceptions for the Bearcats, something coach Ralph Staub was quick to voice his frustrations with.
"I'm very much displeased with the number of interceptions he had," Staub told the Enquirer. "He would scramble a bit and throw back to the middle of the field which is very, very dangerous."
∙ SEPT. 11, 1982: The first time the two teams played in Cincinnati outside of Nippert Stadium. The Bearcats prevailed 38-16 at Riverfront Stadium.
This was the first season where the Bearcats experimented with playing home games at the larger Riverfront Stadium. Only a reported 14,324 showed up for the big win.
"It's the only way we can get the the Penn States and the Pitts to play us," Cincinnati coach Mike Gottfried explained after the game.
The fans who did show up managed to see one of the best passing performances in school history.
UC quarterback Danny Barrett threw for 311 yards and tied a school record with four touchdown passes. Three of his TD passes went to receiver Deno Foster.
"To me, if one person shows up, or a million show up, it's the same," Barrett told the Enquirer after the game. "We can't worry about that. But I'll tell you, it feels good playing down here. We could hear the crowd. The students were sitting behind us, and we knew they were there."
∙OCT. 27, 1984: Another game at Riverfront, another UC victory. This time the Bearcats won 40-21.
Five-foot-seven, 170 pound running back Reggie Taylor had the big day for UC, carrying the ball 29 times for 180 yards and adding four receptions for 43. He had two touchdowns rushing and one receiving.
"The little guy really makes a good coach of you," UC coach Dave Currey said after the game.
Bearcats quarterback Troy Bodine added 236 yards passing and three touchdowns.
∙ NOV. 8, 1997: UC’s Tinker Keck tied an NCAA record with two punt return touchdowns in UC’s 28-9 win.
It gave him four punt returns for scores that season.
“Once you get past the first line of defense, you end up with one or two guys to beat, and in the open field that’s not hard to do,” Keck told the Enquirer. “It was actually pretty easy, because the other 10 guys were making a lot of blocks.”
The Bearcats won despite a big day from Louisville's Chris Redman. The Cardinals' quarterback was 32 of 62 passing for 337 yards, but was held to only one touchdown pass.
∙ NOV. 7, 2002: After beginning the season 3-5, the Bearcats needed a win to keep their bowl hopes alive. UC went into Louisville and did just that, beating the Cardinals 24-14.
Louisville entered the game with a 5-3 record in 2002 and a four-game winning streak in the rivalry.
UC had close losses to West Virginia and a Ben Roethlisberger-led Miami University team earlier in the year. This was also the season the Bearcats had eventual national champions Ohio State on the ropes at Paul Brown Stadium, but couldn't finish off the upset bid.
The UC defense did its part to win back the Keg. They held two-time Conference USA offensive player of the year Dave Ragone to 11 of 31 passing for 91 yards.
"Our defense set the tone for the game," UC coach Rick Minter said following the game. "Everybody talked about the quarterbacks, but all week long I said the difference would be on defense and special teams."
Cincinnati quarterback Gino Guidugli got the only Keg of Nails win in his career (he was injured and missed the 2004 game). He went 9-for-23 passing for 120 yards. Minter said that those numbers weren't entirely his fault.
"Gino didn't get any help in that first half," Minter said. "He must have had five drops. Some of those were very catchable."
The defense ultimately was the difference in the game. Louisville led 7-0 at halftime, but Antwan Peek's fumble recovery and return for a touchdown in the third quarter got the Bearcats on the board. Louisville was held to 12 first downs in the game and only 70 yards rushing and 106 passing.
∙ NOV. 14, 2008:Dustin Grutza took over for an injured Tony Pike and led a game-winning drive in UC’s 28-20 win.
Grutza guided the Bearcats down the field on a drive topped by a John Goebel touchdown run with 6:29 to go in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
"I think we can all say the rivalry is back," UC coach Brian Kelly said after the win. "There was a lot of emotion out on the field in this game."
The Bearcats took back the Keg for the first time in six years with the win.
∙ OCT. 15, 2011: The only time the game was ever played at Paul Brown Stadium. UC came out on top, 25-16. This is the last win the Bearcats have in the series.
Isaiah Pead had 20 carries for 151 yards, including a 50-yarder to seal the win.
The UC defense was led by Derek Wolfe and J.K. Schaffer, each with 11 total tackles. Wolfe added three tackles for loss, and Schaffer had two for loss.
The Louisville offense, led by Teddy Bridgewater, was held without a touchdown.
∙ DEC. 5, 2013: The last time the two teams played. Both were nationally ranked and the game was on prime time on a Thursday night. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater led Louisville to a 31-24 win in overtime.
Winton Woods High School grad Dominique Brown scored the final touchdown in the rivalry. He ran for a score on U of L’s opening OT possession, and the Cardinals kept the Bearcats from scoring.
Bridgewater threw for 255 yards and three touchdowns.
Anthony McClung had seven catches for 97 yards and Chris Moore had seven catches for 92 yards to lead UC.
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