| Wide: | yes |
| Battle for the Victor's Bell | |
| Team1logo: | San Jose State Spartans logo.svg |
| Team2logo: | Pacific university athletics old logo.png |
| Firstmeeting: | 1895 Tie, 0–0 |
| Mostrecent: | October 28, 1995 Pacific, 32–30 |
| Trophy: | The Victor's Bell |
| Total: | 68 |
| Series: | San Jose State leads, 43–23–6 |
| Trophy Series: | San Jose State leads, 29–17–2 |
| Largestvictory: | Pacific, 46–0 (1923) |
| Longeststreak: | San Jose State, 9 wins (1984–1992) |
The Battle for the Victor's Bell is the name given to the now defunct Pacific–San José State football rivalry. 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.
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. Beginning in 1949 the winner of the game received The Victor's 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.
After the dissolution of the series, the Victor's Bell trophy was adopted and traded between the school's basketball teams, which happened until 2009. Since 2018, the Victor's 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.
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 | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Games played | 72 | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Wins | 43 | 23 | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Ties | 6 | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Home wins | 20 | 12 | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Road wins | 23 | 11 | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Consecutive wins | 9 | 7 | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Most total points in a game | 111 (1991) | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Most points in a win | 64 (1991) | 46 (1923) | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Most points in a loss | 35 (1966) | 47 (1991) | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Fewest total points in a game | 0 (1895, 1935) | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Largest margin of victory | 41 (1970) | 46 (1923) | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Smallest margin of victory | 1 (1953, 1979, 1992) | 2 (1974, 1995) | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | Total points scored in series | 1,472 | 1,242 | - ! style="text-align: right; width: 14em;" | 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) | |||||
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