Henry Hatch - Little Brown Jug

Little Brown Jug

As Michigan's equipment manager, Hatch played a role in the early history of the Little Brown Jug, one of the most famous trophies in college athletics. In 1903, the Michigan Wolverines traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the unbeaten Wolverines played the unbeaten Minnesota Golden Gophers. At the end of the game (a 6-6 tie), the crowd poured onto the field, and Michigan left its earthenware water jug on the field. Michigan asked to have it returned, but Minnesota refused, saying Michigan would have to win the jug back. Michigan reclaimed the jug several years later. In 1919, Minnesota beat Michigan on the Wolverines' home field in Ann Arbor. When Minnesota asked for the symbolic trophy at the end of the game, Michigan officials said they could not locate it. Eventually, Hatch came up with it. Hatch recalled, "When Minnesota made such a fuss about getting it back, I started looking around and found it behind a clump of shrubbery near the gym. I shined it up and shipped it on to Doc Cooke." Minnesota fans have long doubted Hatch's story, raising their suspicions that Hatch did not find the jug in a clump of shrubbery, but more likely "in a trophy case inside the gymnasium, easily dusted off and proudly brought back to Minnesota."

In the decades that followed, one of Hatch's jobs was to serve as the custodian of the jug during the time it was in Ann Arbor and to print each year's game score on the side of the jug. In 1953, the NEA wire service distributed a photograph of Hatch placing the score on the jug on the 50th anniversary of the first Little Brown Jug match.