War Canoe Trophy

The War Canoe Trophy was hand carved by Seminole Indians from a 200 year old cypress tree that was struck by lightning. Donated on the behalf of Hollywood, Florida in 1950, it was an award given to the winner of college football games between the University of Florida and the University of Miami. The canoe is a representation of the fighting spirit of the Seminole Indians that was displayed during play between the Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes.

The game was played every year until the 1980s, when the requirement of the Southeastern Conference for member schools to play eight conference games induced the University of Florida to fill out the nonconference portion of its schedule with lesser competition. The War Canoe trophy was retired when the year-to-year series was ended with the 1987 game and is currently on permanent display at the University of Miami's Sports Hall of Fame.

This article appeared in Miami Magazine, the UM's Alumni magazine, in 2007...

A Seminole war canoe, a trophy symbolizing “fighting determination” once presented to the winner of the annual UM vs. University of Florida football game, illustrates how the tide of history can rise and fall. Hand carved from a 200-year-old cypress log, the Seminole dugout was donated in 1955 by the City of Hollywood By the Sea to crown the victor.

As the years passed, the tradition was dropped and the canoe disappeared. It was even rumored to have been hidden under longtime assistant coach Walt Kichefski’s bed at home. Not true, says his widow, Helene. “There’s no room under the bed!” she exclaims. Whoever said that “must have thought that the Gators were trying to steal it.”

In fact, the Gators never got it, but the garbage truck nearly did. During their morning exercise routine one day in 1975 or 1976, Kichefski and Don Mariutto, B.B.A. ’53, a former UM football player and Board of Trustees alumni rep, came upon the canoe atop a trash pile at the Hecht Athletic Center. “We were in complete disbelief,” Mariutto recalls. He brought the dugout home to his two-acre spread in South Miami, where it served for about 20 years as a pool canoe for kids, a rustic planter for flowers, or as a conversation piece at University Athletic Federation parties. It is now refinished and on display at the Tom Kearns Sports Hall of Fame.