The tradition of having the name of the winning team in the annual Tennessee vs. Kentucky football game inscribed on a beer barrel, which remained for the year in the possession of the winning team, began in 1925. When it was announced that this prize would be called a beer keg or beer barrel, the W.C.T.U. (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) of Knoxville and some alumni objected strenuously. The name was changed to water barrel, but both names were used, and the water name slowly faded away. A distributor gave the University of Kentucky the full beer barrel to be used.
During the football game, the keg sat on one side of the field for one half and the other side for the other half. In the year the tradition began, Kentucky kept the keg—and its contents—winning 20-23 in the Thanksgiving Day game. The tradition mirrored that of Minnesota and Michigan, who had a little brown jug as a trophy. The origin of the Minnesota and Michigan jug is said to come from the Minnesota coach’s practice of sending out the Michigan players’ water in a keg between halves of the football game. After several defeats, Michigan fans placed the blame on the water vessel. They challenged Minnesota to give them the keg for one year, and the tradition of passing the vessel to the winning team was begun. UT’s tradition ended in 1997 to align better with UT policies discouraging student use of alcohol. Since UT held the keg at the time, the university kept it.