COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF: 34 days

Each day leading up to Iowa State’s season opener against South Dakota State, Cyclone Fanatic will check another day off the calendar with a memorable statistic, player or game as part of our Countdown to Kickoff presented by Tailgate Clothing.

It has been nearly seven years since Iowa State last played one of its longest-running rivals, and it has been almost 12 since the Cyclones claimed the Telephone Trophy for the final time with their 34th win over the Missouri Tigers in 104 meetings between the old conference rivals.

Iowa State’s most recent win in the series came in 2006 in the form of a 21-16 victory at Jack Trice Stadium. It was the one break in a stretch of eight Missouri wins in nine years before the Tigers left the Big 12 for the SEC following the 2011 season.

The Telephone Trophy was born in 1959 after the sideline phones each team used to communicate with their coaches in the press box were discovered to have been improperly wired to the opposing sidelines. The problem was fixed before kickoff of the Tigers’ 14-0 win in Ames, but that did not stop the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company of Ames from creating a trophy to commemorate the event.

Who knows when (or if) we’ll ever see Iowa State and Missouri do battle on the gridiron again, but the rivalry will forever remain among the longest-running for both schools.

As of this writing, Iowa State has not faced an opponent more times than the Tigers. On the flip side, only Kansas has squared off against the Tigers on the gridiron more than Iowa State.