| Carleton vs. St. Thomas | Swimming and Diving | Founded: 1995 |
Each swim season, the Carleton College and University of St. Thomas swimming & diving teams compete for the Margate Memorial Trophy. This award is an emblem of the sportsmanship and friendship between the two schools that goes back many years. The trophy has a unique back story.
At the Saint John’s Invitational in January 1994, the Carleton food service sent the Knights to the meet with a brick of cream cheese that had (according to the expiration date on the carton) expired three months earlier. The Tommies joined the Knights in a complex combination of mourning (over the expired cream cheese) and indignation that the Carleton swimmers and divers would be treated with such disrespect by their own food service.
This shared moment wove a fabric of friendship between the teams that can only be described as “well beyond diaphanous,” and led to the creation of the Margate Memorial Trophy, in memory of the expired three-pound brick of cream cheese.
Hours of painstaking woodwork and careful engraving created the trophy so respected today. Each meet is preceded by a ceremony, where the trophy is presented for competition by the home team. It is believed that this trophy is unique in all of Division III swimming and diving. Carleton's Margate Memorial Trophy web site includes the history of the trophy and each season's winner dating back to 1995.
| More details about "The Margate Memorial Trophy" | MIAC Rivalry Trophies |