Sport Football Trophy River Bell Trophy | Next meeting 2017 Meetings total 26 | |
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First meeting September 30, 1972
Southeastern Louisiana 31, Nicholls State 9 Latest meeting November 17, 2016
Southeastern Louisiana 44, Nicholls State 42 | ||
The River Bell Classic is the annual football game between Nicholls State University and Southeastern Louisiana University with the winner being presented with the River Bell Trophy. The two schools are 94 miles apart and no two football-playing schools in the Southland Conference are as close as Nicholls State and Southeastern Louisiana. The game played between the rivals began in 1972 and was played annually until 1985 when Southeastern Louisiana dropped its football program. It resumed 20 years later in 2005 when football was reinstated by the university.
The River Bell Trophy which was redesigned for the 2012 contest is a wooden trophy which has a ship's bell under an arch which reads "River Bell Classic". On each side of the bell are the teams athletic logos with Nicholls State on the left and Southeastern Louisiana on the right. Underneath the bell is a plaque surrounded by the yearly victors on each side of the plaque. The trophy was conceived by the Phi Chapter Alumni Association of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity at Southeastern Louisiana.