Birmingham, Alabama, and Memphis, Tennessee, are two southern cities separated by about 245 miles with many similarities. Among them is a knack for making some damn good barbecue.
So, when the football teams from the University of Memphis and the University of Alabama at Birmingham meet on the gridiron, there’s a trophy up for grabs. The rivalry exists not only because the two schools are near each other geographically, but also because of the shared history of the cities.
And college football has a lot of cool trophies. Cincinnati and Louisville play for The Keg of Nails, the winner of SMU versus TCU gets The Iron Skillet, Ole Miss and Mississippi State compete for the Golden Egg, and Minnesota and Wisconsin battle over Paul Bunyan’s Axe.
But the trophy for the winner between UAB and Memphis is better than them all.
The winner of the Battle of the Bones gets a 94-pound bronze statue depicting a rack of ribs.
No, really.
File this under: “images that go hard”
UAB and Memphis play in the Battle of the Bones on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/rBjjNTKEG1
— Oliver Hodgkinson (@ojhodgkinson) November 14, 2024
Memphis vs. UAB – the Battle for the Bones – has maybe the coolest rivalry trophy in college football
If you can’t get hyped to win a 94-pound bronze rack of ribs, I got nothing for you pic.twitter.com/PEqWhG4dNP
— Steve Helwick (@s_helwick) November 15, 2024
The Bones Trophy is on the line tonight at the Liberty Bowl 😤
UAB and Memphis meet in the 17th edition of the Battle For The Bones at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.#WinAsOne pic.twitter.com/bc2omFA26L
— UAB Football (@UAB_FB) November 16, 2024
According to AL.com, the trophy was introduced in 2006.
The football rivalry went on an 11-year pause when Memphis joined the Big East – which became the American Athletic Conference – and UAB briefly stopped playing football in the mid-2010s. But UAB is back, albeit under a seemingly-soon-to-be-fired Trent Dilfer, and is back in the same conference as its rival.
Memphis has won two straight in the series.
