The winner of this weekend’s LSU-Arkansas battle will bring home one of the most illustrious trophies in all of college football.
“We already know that it’s going to be a dogfight,” Tigers senior running back Josh Williams said this week. “Playing for that [Golden] Boot, it’s a big deal. A lot of guys overlook it and a lot of people don’t really know about it, but being here for as long as I have and playing for that boot every year, it’s really a big deal for our team and our culture.”
Arkansas will seek its second straight top-10 upset when it hosts No. 8 LSU at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville on Saturday night. The winning team will receive the Golden Boot, a four-foot-tall, 24-karat gold trophy molded in the shape of the states of Arkansas and Louisiana, geographically resembling the silhouette of a boot. 
But what exactly is the story behind this 200-pound, $10,000 golden boot? 
Even before Arkansas’ transfer to the SEC from the Southwest Conference in 1991, the Tigers and Razorbacks have a history that stretches back over a century. Prior to their 42nd meeting on November 20, 1996, David Bazzel, a former Arkansas linebacker, looked to add to the rivalry’s heritage. 
“LSU and Arkansas have won national championships. Both have very passionate fans,” Bazzel told The Times-Picayune in 2012. “Originally, I didn’t think Arkansas-LSU was meant to be a true rival game. It was meant to be a trophy game, but I knew it could eventually lead to a rival game if the games were good enough.” 
Bazzel approached Arkansas’ athletic director at the time, Frank Boyles, with an idea. Bazzel presented Boyles with a scaled cardboard cutout of his boot-shaped design. Boyles and LSU eventually agreed to pay $5,000 each to have the trophy melded out of 24-karat gold.
“I wanted it as big and gaudy as possible because I wanted to create value in it with gold and size,” Bazzel told The Times-Picayune.
A Boston jeweler agreed to take upon the $10,000 boot project. Bazzel told the Bostonian, “I want it as heavy as possible.”
Bazzel was astonished to see the finished product at a local jeweler in Arkansas’ capital city, Little Rock. It couldn’t be more perfect. When he tried to pick it up, he nearly buckled under its immense weight.
The rest is history.
The No. 19 Tigers emerged victorious from the first Battle for the Golden Boot, defeating the Razorbacks at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock on November 20, 1996. The annual Battle for the Golden Boot has continued ever since. LSU leads the Boot series 17-9 since that first matchup nearly three decades ago.
“I can tell you that having been a player at one time, I would have never wanted to see that other team run off with the trophy,” Bazzel told The Times-Picayune. “I guarantee that it sticks in the craw of Arkansas players to see LSU players go over and haul off The Golden Boot and vice versa.”
As Bazzel had hoped, the games were good enough to warrant a trophy and even a historic SEC rivalry.
That’s certainly been the case in recent years, with the last four games each coming down to just three points. When it comes to LSU and Arkansas, you can throw rankings and records out the window.
On Saturday night at Razorback Stadium, LSU and Arkansas will add another chapter in a long, storied SEC rivalry: The Battle for the Golden Boot. The winner will have the right to hold on to the coveted four-foot-tall, 200-pound, 24-karat gilded until 2025’s tussle in Tiger Stadium.
Will the Golden Boot’s residence remain in Baton Rouge for the third straight year, or will the trophy head home to Fayetteville? Only time will tell.
To the victor go the spoils.