HISTORY OF THE BRONZE DERBY 

PRESBYTERIAN vs. NEWBERRY

It was during the basketball season of 1946-47 that the Bronze Derby had its origin as the symbol of Newberry-PC athletic rivalry. For some time prior to the introduction of the Bronze Derby, the athletic rivalry between Newberry and Presbyterian, which began early in the century, had been growing immoderately on notes of student antagonism that had educators of both schools worried and considered a severance of athletic relations.  

The rumors that took place when Presbyterian’s basketball team played at Newberry on the night of January 30, 1947, could have been the last straw, but for the thinking of two keen-minded college publicists who salvaged tradition from apparently ruinous events.

Before the game started, a set of PC students unfurled a large banner and suspended it in prominent view on the wall of the gymnasium behind the PC cheering section. “Beat H ... Out of Newberry!” was the fighting inscription on the banner.

During a moment when attention was riveted on the action on the court, some Newberry students obtained a ladder and climbed the outside of the gym wall. Gaining access through a window, they ripped the banner off the wall and fled into the night. A few minutes later when the PC rooters noticed the banner was missing, the rumbling from the visitor’s grew louder.

The game was won by PC 51-47 and after the game ended, PC students insisted that the banner be returned. Tempers flared and a scuffle ensued. In the midst of the commotion, a Newberry student snatched a derby from the head of a PC student.

During the next two days, in the aftermath of the derby theft, important events shaped the history of Newberry-PC athletic relation. Frank E. Kinard, a senior at Newberry and editor of the school paper, the Indian, and serving as the athletic publicity director, received a letter from Charles MacDonald, then assistant professor of English and athletic publicity director at PC. MacDonald suggested that an effort be made to recover the derby and institute it as a symbol of athletic rivalry between the Blue Hose and the Indians. Kinard presented the plan at a convocation of the Newberry student body. The idea of the derby serving as a laurel of victory in Newberry-PC games, received enthusiastic endorsement from the Newberry students. The derby was recovered and the identity of the abductor was never revealed. The derby was turned over to W.E. Turner & Son, a Newberry jewelry firm for bronzing. The hat was packaged and forwarded to a company in Columbus, Ohio, where the casting was done.

During the early years of the Bronze Derby rivalry, the hat was interchanged frequently between Newberry and PC on every athletic event. The first coming on February 28, 1947 at a basketball game in Clinton that the Blue Hose won 44-42.

For a few years, the Bronze Derby was constantly exchanged, going to the winner of each sports contest until officials and students of the two colleges decided that it would be awarded only to the winner of the Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Day Bronze Derby Game. The game was moved from Thanksgiving after the 1992 season due to the teams and the conference moving to NCAA Division II and that date would conflict with the playoffs.

PC’S RECORD VERSUS NEWBERRY AT HOME BY THE DECADE