Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Rebels ready to defend Fremont Cannon against UNR

Rebels Paint Fremont Cannon

Wade Vandervort

Rebel line backer Javin White laughs as he paints the Fremont Cannon at UNLV, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. The Rebels won the Fremont Cannon during a game against UNR on Saturday.

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At 545 pounds, the Fremont Cannon is the heaviest trophy in all of college football. And when the final second ticks off the clock Saturday in Reno, it will be awarded to the victor of the annual rivalry football game between UNLV and UNR and its wooden carriage will be painted in the winning school’s colors.

A bowl game may be out of their reach and the coach who recruited them is on the way out, but the Rebels still want the Fremont Cannon. A year ago, they reclaimed the antebellum-era replica cannon the hard way, overcoming a 23-0 deficit to win 34-29. Now the 3-8 Rebels will look to close out a difficult season on a high note by going into Reno and beating a 7-4 UNR team bent on getting the trophy back.

UNLV senior linebacker Javin White was instrumental in last year’s victory, snatching two interceptions (including the game-sealing pick in the final minutes). He said he couldn’t think of a better way to end his college career than by defeating UNR and holding onto the cannon for a second consecutive year.

“It means a lot,” White said. “If we win, that’s three out of five years it’s been here. Nobody has done that in a while. For us to win this cannon, for me having the game I had last year, it’s motivation, truly, for me being my last collegiate game. I’m truly excited for this game.”

Junior running back Charles Williams, who has rushed for 1,119 yards and 10 touchdowns this year, said a win in the cannon game would go a long way toward putting a positive spin on an otherwise-disappointing season for the Rebels.

“Keeping it red is our goal,” Williams said. “If we just keep the cannon and go get that win, it gives us hope. We did everything we could this season, but at least we came out with the cannon. It didn’t go our way; we didn’t get the wins we were supposed to get, but we at least kept the cannon.”

A UNLV victory also would give coach Tony Sanchez, whose firing was announced earlier this week but will be on the sidelines Saturday for his last game for the Rebels, a 3-2 record in Fremont Cannon games.

Here’s a timeline of the cannon’s history:

1843-1844: These were the days of the real Fremont Cannon. Explorer and eventual presidential candidate John Charles Fremont traveled through Nevada, California and Oregon on an expedition with the gun-howitzer. Legend states Fremont abandoned the cannon somewhere in a Sierra Nevada snowdrift.

1969: Bill Ireland, UNLV’s first football coach and a UNR alumnus, came up with the idea of the two teams playing for a replica of Fremont’s cannon before their first meeting. Ireland’s idea came to fruition when the Kennecott Cooper Corp. reconstructed the cannon and donated it to the rivalry.

1970: Although UNR won the first meeting between the schools, UNLV was the first to control the cannon. The Rebels defeated the Wolf Pack, 42-30, in 1970 to avenge 1969’s 30-28 loss. The cannon was not completed until 1970, meaning it debuted the year UNLV grabbed its first win of the series.

1973: UNLV can claim to having the cannon before UNR, but the Wolf Pack were the first to fire it. In 1973, when the Wolf Pack beat the Rebels 19-3, a UNR military science student shot off the cannon. It became tradition for the team in possession of the cannon to fire it after every touchdown it scored.

1978: This was the year of the infamous airport incident. After UNR upset UNLV as 20-point underdogs on the road, then third-year UNR coach Chris Ault and the Wolf Pack had to find a way to get the cannon back to Reno. Ault ordered his team to figure out how to disassemble the cannon and talked McCarran Airport officials into letting them carry small pieces of the cannon onto the plane.

1980s: The cannon spent seven of 10 years in Las Vegas during this decade. The catch? The rivals only played four times in that span, so the Rebels had the luxury of keeping the trophy for five consecutive years with only one win.

Oct. 7, 2000: This is where cannon lore starts to pick up — literally. After UNLV defeated UNR 38-7 at Sam Boyd Stadium — for the Rebels first rivalry game victory in six years— players and fans lifted the cannon in celebration. The group subsequently dropped it and damaged the trophy.

Oct. 21, 2000: The UNLV athletics department repaired the cannon at a cost of $1,500 before the Rebels next home game against Wyoming, which they won 42-23.

2001: For the first time in nearly 30 years, the cannon is not available to fire during the game.

2009: UNR wins the cannon for the fifth-consecutive year with a 63-28 victory. It’s the third-consecutive time the cannon has stayed in one location for a half-decade (UNR won every game from 1995 to 1999 and UNLV from 2000 to 2004).

2012: It looks like UNLV will reclaim the cannon, as the Rebels take a 21-0 lead and go into halftime with a 31-14 advantage. But UNR rallies for a 42-37 road victory to keep the trophy blue for the eighth-consecutive year — the longest continual possession of the cannon in the history of the rivalry.

2013: UNLV turns the cannon red for the first time since 2004, as UNLV quarterback Caleb Herring leads the Rebels to a 27-22 win in Reno.

2018: UNR takes a 23-0 lead at Sam Boyd Stadium before the Rebels mount a furious comeback. Linebacker Javin White’s interception late in the fourth quarter seals a 34-29 victory for UNLV, giving the Rebels the cannon for the second time in four years.

Case Keefer contributed to this story.

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