The rivalry
Porter and Chippewa Valley State first met in football in 1948, when the Porter teams were still the Millwrights and the game was played on a county fairground field because neither campus had stands. The schools are 52 miles apart, recruit from the same high schools and, for most of the last 75 years, have shared a conference. The game has been called the Forge Bowl since 1966, when the trophy arrived, and it has been the centerpiece of Millrace Week, Porter's October homecoming, for as long as anyone in the athletics office can document.
It is the best-attended event on the athletic calendar, routinely drawing more than 4,000 people to a stadium that seats about 5,500. Last year's crowd was roughly 4,500; as of October 8 the ticket office had sold or issued 4,712 tickets for this year's game, the last Forge Bowl to be played as a conference game.
The anvil
The trophy is a 138-pound cast-iron anvil that sat in the blacksmith shop of the Porter Manual Training School from 1893 until the shop closed in the 1950s. In 1966 machine-shop staff in Founders Hall mounted it on a white-oak stand, and each year's score has been stamped onto a steel plate riveted to the base since. The base ran out of room in 2009; a second tier was added, and there is space on it until about 2040.
The winning team's seniors each strike the anvil once with a four-pound hammer at midfield. It used to be as many strikes as the margin of victory, a custom retired after the horn chipped in 1987. The winner keeps the anvil for the year; Porter's copy sits in the Ironclad Fieldhouse concourse beside the Hall of Fame wall.
Series record and notable games
Chippewa Valley State leads the series 39–33–2 in 74 meetings. The game was not played in 1951 and 1952 (Porter did not field a team), 1972 (a scheduling collision during the UW System merger) or 2020. Porter has won the last two, and its longest streak is six straight, 1996–2001; Chippewa Valley State won nine in a row from 1979 to 1987.
| Year | Result | Why people still bring it up |
|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Chippewa Valley State 6, Porter 0 | The first meeting, in ankle-deep mud; one touchdown, missed extra point |
| 1965 | Porter 14, Chippewa Valley State 7 | The first game in the new Millwright Stadium |
| 1966 | Porter 20, Chippewa Valley State 20 | The first game for the anvil; it spent the year in the Porter County Courthouse lobby |
| 1994 | Porter 21, Chippewa Valley State 17 | The first Forge Bowl as the Ironclads |
| 2000 | Porter 35, Chippewa Valley State 14 | Marcus Webb ran for 247 yards, still the game record |
| 2014 | Chippewa Valley State 5, Porter 3 | Seven inches of snow; a safety and a field goal decided it |
| 2024 | Porter 31, Chippewa Valley State 28 | Porter's first win in the series in five years |
| 2025 | Porter 24, Chippewa Valley State 20 | A goal-line stand in the final minute in front of about 4,500 during Millrace Week |
2026 game day
Porter enters at 4–1 and Chippewa Valley State at 3–2; both are 2–1 in the conference. Full results are on the fall 2026 schedule.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Kickoff | Saturday, October 17, 1:00 p.m., Millwright Stadium |
| Lots open | 10:00 a.m.; tailgating in the gravel lots only |
| Parade | 10:30 a.m. on Founders Drive, ending at the stadium; Founders Drive is closed to cars 9:30 a.m.–noon |
| Students | Free with a Porter Card at the north gate; the student section opens at 11:30 a.m. |
| Public tickets | $12 adults, $6 youth and seniors, from the ticket office at (715) 555–0163, or at the gate if any remain |
| Visiting fans | East stands, about 1,500 seats |
| Shuttle | The Porter Loop adds a stadium stop and runs every 8 minutes from 10 a.m. |
| Halftime | The Ironclad Pep Band and the Alumni Band share the field |
| Can't make it | Student radio and the athletics live stream |
| Food drive | "Fill the Anvil," run by SAAC for the campus food pantry; bring canned goods to any gate |
The game is played rain or shine, with one clear bag per person; accessible and companion seating is at field level and mid-concourse. Other rules are in the game day guide and on athletics tickets, and the logistics are summarized in the Forge Bowl preview.
The game closes Millrace Week, October 11–17: the Foundry pour in the Founders Hall high bay on Thursday at 6:30 p.m., the Ring of Iron for seniors Friday at dusk, the alumni 5K from Millwright Stadium Saturday at 8 a.m. and fireworks over the quad at 7:30 p.m. The full lineup is in the Millrace Week schedule.
After 2027
Porter moves to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference in 2027–28, and Chippewa Valley State is staying where it is. In September 2026 the two athletic directors signed a ten-year nonconference scheduling agreement that keeps the Forge Bowl on both schedules every October through 2036, alternating sites, so the anvil will make its first trip of the new era in 2027. Nobody has yet worked out who drives it.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. The Forge Bowl, its anvil, series record, historic scores and 2026 game-day details are invented, and Chippewa Valley State is a fictional rival.