THE CHUCK THE CATFISH TROPHY is awarded to the winner of the annual Iowa A&M - Norse Dakota State game. The rivalry started in 2003, the MCAA's first season, as both teams are charter members of the league. They did not start playing for Chuck the Catfish until 2011.
Prior to the 2011 season, the schools' head coaches were on a goodwill fishing tour, fishing the lakes and streams of Iowa and North Dakota. While visiting "Catfish Charlie's On The River", a restaurant in Dubuque, Iowa, the two coaches became entangled in a heated debate when NDSU Head Coach Scott Stockton proclaimed North Dakota the "Land of the Biggest Catfish", despite the fact A&M Coach Dave Boese had just pulled a 75-lb. catfish out of the Mississippi River. Stockton went to his trailer to get his cooler, and pulled out a catfish he caught earlier in the trip, out of the Heart River in North Dakota. The owner of the restaurant offered up a trophy for the heaviest catfish of the two. All that had to be done was to weigh the fish.
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That's where things get strange. The Iowa Catfish outweighed the North Dakota Catfish by 5 grams; but Stockton claimed that Boese had put his 2004 MCAA National Runner-Up ring inside the Iowa Catfish, adding 80 grams to the weight. Stockton asked Boese to produce his ring on the spot, but Boese claimed it was "at the cleaners".
Stockton, not happy with the weigh-in, started swinging his catfish in the air to fend off the Iowa A&M fans as he grabbed the trophy. He ran back to his trailer and drove home to North Dakota, with the original Chuck the Catfish trophy buckled in the front seat. NDSU won the 2011 contest, 46-32. In 2012, in a blatant attempt to taunt the Cowtippers, Stockton brought the trophy to the Iowa A&M campus. Iowa A&M won that second contest, 40-33, and players stormed the Bison sideline to steal the trophy.
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