Victory Bell (Pacific–San Jose State)

The Victory Bell is the trophy that was awarded to the winner of the now defunct Pacific–San José State football rivalry game. It was a college football rivalry between the Pacific Tigers football team of the University of the Pacific and the San José State Spartans football team of San José State University.

Victory Bell (Pacific–San Jose State)

San Jose State Spartans Pacific Tigers
Sport	American football
Type	Collegiate
First meeting	1895 Tie, 0–0
Latest meeting	October 28, 1995 Pacific, 32–30
Stadiums	Spartan Stadium and Stagg Memorial Stadium
Trophy	Victory Bell
Statistics
Meetings total	68
All-time series	San Jose State leads, 43–23–6
Trophy series	San Jose State leads, 29–17–2
Largest victory	Pacific, 46–0 (1923)
Longest win streak	San Jose State, 9 wins (1984–1992)

75km
50miles

San José State
University

University of the
Pacific

  

Locations of University of the Pacific and San José State University

University of the Pacific was founded in 1851 in Santa Clara, California but soon moved to San Jose, California, and claims to be the first institution of higher education in California.^[1] San José State University was founded in San Jose, California in 1857 and is California's first public institution of higher education. Due to the "private vs. public" institutional competitiveness and the close geographical proximity of the two schools, a natural "cross-town" rivalry was born.

The series ended in 1995, when Pacific dissolved its football team citing cost issues.^[2] At the conclusion of the rivalry, San Jose State led the series, 43–23–6 for a total of 72 matches. The Victory Bell was initially introduced in 1949.

Historical overview

The Pacific-San Jose 'Victory Bell'

The 100-year series between San José State and Pacific began in 1895 with a game held at Pacific, which ended in a 0–0 tie. The first victor of the series came in 1898 when San Jose State won 18–0 at home. Pacific's first win of the series was a 34–0 in 1921 at home.

Ahead of the 1949 game, members of Pacific's Alpha Kappa Phi fraternity commissioned a bell to serve as the trophy for the series.^[3] The bell is two feet tall and waist-high on a rolling cart, it features an orange "P" for Pacific on half, and blue with a gold "SJ" for San Jose on the other half.^[4]

In 1969, San Jose State became a charter member of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (which later became the Big West Conference),^[5] Pacific joined for football only, becoming a full member two years later, allowing the series to be a conference match-up.^[6]

In 1992, San Jose State had their ninth consecutive win, the longest win streak of the series. In 1995, Pacific's Board of Regents voted to disband the football team to save money for the athletic program, which was reported to have gone over $400,000 in debt.^[2]

After the dissolution of the series, the Victory Bell trophy was adopted and traded between the school's basketball teams, which happened until 2009. Since 2018, the Victory Bell has been on loan from San Jose State to the San Francisco 49ers Museum at Levi's Stadium as a part of an exhibit on Bay Area college football.^[4]

Statistics

Overall, the series is notable for its large amount of blowouts, through the first 66 years (37 games) of the series the losing team only managed to score more than 7 points three times.

Sources:[7][8]	San José State	Pacific
Games played	72
Wins	43	23
Ties	6
Home wins	20	12
Road wins	23	11
Consecutive wins	9	7
Most total points in a game	111 (1991)
Most points in a win	64 (1991)	46 (1923)
Most points in a loss	35 (1966)	47 (1991)
Fewest total points in a game	0 (1895, 1935)
Largest margin of victory	41 (1970)	46 (1923)
Smallest margin of victory	1 (1953, 1979, 1992)	2 (1974, 1995)
Total points scored in series	1,472	1,242
Shut-outs of opposing team	12 (1898, 1899, 1932, 1934, 1936, 1941, 1942, 1946, 1951, 1961, 1982, 1984)	7 (1921, 1922, 1923, 1930, 1931, 1947, 1968)

Game results

San Jose State victories

Pacific victories

Tie games

No. Date Location Winner Score 1 1895 San Jose, CA Tie 0–0 2 1896 San Jose, CA Tie 6–6 3 1898 San Jose, CA San Jose State 18–0 4 1899 San Jose, CA San Jose State 6–0 5 November 5, 1921 San Jose, CA Pacific 34–0 6 November 24, 1922 San Jose, CA Pacific 23–0 7 November 3, 1923 San Jose, CA Pacific 46–0 8 October 26, 1929 San Jose, CA Tie 6–6 9 October 35, 1930 Stockton, CA Pacific 27–0 10 November 11, 1931 San Jose, CA Pacific 27–0 11 October 8, 1932 Stockton, CA San Jose State 7–0 12 October 16, 1933 San Jose, CA San Jose State 12–6 13 November 17, 1934 Stockton, CA San Jose State 13–0 14 October 18, 1935 Stockton, CA Tie 0–0 15 October 10, 1936 San Jose, CA San Jose State 8–0 16 October 1, 1937 Stockton, CA San Jose State 12–7 17 October 14, 1938 San Jose, CA San Jose State 19–6 18 October 20, 1939 Stockton, CA San Jose State 13–3 19 November 8, 1940 San Jose, CA San Jose State 28–7 20 October 24, 1941 Stockton, CA San Jose State 7–0 21 October 17, 1942 San Jose, CA San Jose State 29–0 22 November 8, 1946 Stockton, CA San Jose State 32–0 23 October 31, 1947 San Jose, CA Pacific 14–0 24 October 30, 1948 Stockton, CA San Jose State 14–7 25 October 28, 1949 San Jose, CA Pacific 45–7 26 November 18, 1950 Stockton, CA Tie 7–7 27 November 23, 1951 San Jose, CA San Jose State 7–0 28 October 18, 1952 Stockton, CA San Jose State 26–21 29 November 7, 1953 San Jose, CA San Jose State 7–6 30 November 6, 1954 Stockton, CA Pacific 13–7 31 October 22, 1955 San Jose, CA Pacific 14–7 32 November 10, 1956 Stockton, CA Pacific 34–7 33 November 9, 1957 San Jose, CA Pacific 21–6 34 November 8, 1958 Stockton, CA Pacific 26–13 35 November 20, 1959 Stockton, CA Pacific 20–7 36 November 5, 1960 Stockton, CA Pacific 26–20 37 September 22, 1961 San Jose, CA San Jose State 16–0 No. Date Location Winner Score 38 November 11, 1961 Stockton, CA San Jose State 29–26 39 November 3, 1962 Stockton, CA San Jose State 24–22 40 November 30, 1963 San Jose, CA San Jose State 32–20 41 October 24, 1964 Stockton, CA San Jose State 37–13 42 November 6, 1965 San Jose, CA San Jose State 52–21 43 October 29, 1966 Stockton, CA Pacific 38–35 44 October 28, 1967 San Jose, CA Pacific 34–14 45 November 2, 1968 Stockton, CA Pacific 28–0 46 November 22, 1969 San Jose, CA San Jose State 15–12 47 October 24, 1970 Stockton, CA San Jose State 48–7 48 October 30, 1971 San Jose, CA San Jose State 28–18 49 October 21, 1972 Stockton, CA Pacific 38–28 50 October 6, 1973 San Jose, CA Tie 21–21 51 October 26, 1974 San Jose, CA Pacific 29–27 52 October 18, 1975 San Jose, CA San Jose State 41–13 53 November 13, 1976 Stockton, CA San Jose State 50–30 54 October 29, 1977 San Jose, CA Pacific 24–7 55 November 11, 1978 Stockton, CA San Jose State 33–31 56 November 10, 1979 San Jose, CA San Jose State 32–31 57 November 8, 1980 Stockton, CA San Jose State 28–23 58 November 14, 1981 San Jose, CA San Jose State 40–25 59 November 13, 1982 Stockton, CA San Jose State 31–0 60 November 12, 1983 San Jose, CA Pacific 30–26 61 November 17, 1984 Stockton, CA San Jose State 33–0 62 October 26, 1985 San Jose, CA San Jose State 34–26 63 October 25, 1986 Stockton, CA San Jose State 44–15 64 November 17, 1987 San Jose, CA San Jose State 42–17 65 October 15, 1988 Stockton, CA San Jose State 35–17 66 September 23, 1989 San Jose, CA San Jose State 41–32 67 September 15, 1990 Stockton, CA San Jose State 28–14 68 October 19, 1991 San Jose, CA San Jose State 64–47 69 November 14, 1992 Stockton, CA San Jose State 28–27 70 November 20, 1993 San Jose, CA Pacific 24–20 71 November 19, 1994 Stockton, CA San Jose State 28–15 72 October 28, 1995 San Jose, CA Pacific 32–30 Series: San Jose State leads 43–23–6

See also

• List of NCAA college football rivalry games

References

1. "Pacific's Mission". University of the Pacific. Archived from the original on October 14, 2016. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
2. Archives, L. A. Times (December 20, 1995). "Pacific Decides to Drop Football". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
3. "'Victory Bell' Held by Hungries for Five Years". Pacific Weekly. November 20, 1959. p. 1.
4. Mountjoy, Nicole Grady (August 16, 2021). University of the Pacific. Arcadia Publishing. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-4671-0706-8.
5. "California Colleges Form New conference". The San Bernardino Sun. San Bernardino, California. June 11, 1968. Retrieved December 2, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
6. Miles, Jerry (May 16, 1969). "Pacific Eight Gets New Rival". Progress Bulletin. Pomona, California. Retrieved December 2, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
7. 2023 San Jose State Football Record Book (PDF). San Jose State University. 2023.
8. Pacific Football record Book. Pacific Athletic Media relations. 2002.