MTSU and Western Kentucky University started their heated rivalry in 1914, known as the 100 Miles of Hate.
The rivalry is well known on the football field and basketball court, but the rivalry spread to other sports.
Fowler Park, in Cumming, Georgia, host numerous youth soccer tournaments and college recruitment camps throughout the year. The park is also where MTSU head women’s soccer coach Aston Rhoden and WKU head women’s soccer coach Jason Neidell added an extra aspect to the game.
Over a decade ago both coaches were at Fowler Park recruiting when the two decided to see who would stay the longest that day, Rhoden said in a pre-season interview. The winner went on to win the first edition of the Fowler Cup.
“It started as a joke between colleagues who were also friends, and it blossomed into a really fun rivalry, but it just added dimension to the rivalry,” Neidell said.
Neidell and Rhoden have spent 25 and 24 years respectively at WKU and MTSU and played 24 times since 2001. The Hilltoppers own the record at 10-7-7 and held on to the cup from 2019 to 2023.
‘It’s a plastic cup and the games are written on in sharpie, so he [Rhoden] has the cup because MTSU won last year,” Neidell said.
This year’s game takes place on Sept. 27 in Bowling Green, Kentucky as the Blue Raiders look to win back-to-back matches for the first time since 2010.
“Every time there’s a trophy involved, there’s more motivation and it doesn’t matter if the trophy is small, large, gold, silver, bronze it doesn’t really matter,” Rhoden said. “Whenever you’re playing for something in addition to what the game gives you as far as three points, it’s about bragging rights.”
Historically, Middle Tennessee has its hands full going on the road against Western as the Blue Raiders are 0-7-4. MTSU won a playoff game against WKu in penalties during its 2010 playoff run when the Blue Raiders won the Sun Belt Championship after upsetting No.15 Denver University.
MTSU had an entire week of practice leading up to Saturday. A week’s worth of practice is rare in college soccer as most teams play Thursday and Sunday each week.
From the recovery standpoint, the players are getting more time to get back to 100% and coaches have more time to teach hyper specific parts of the game with the full week of practice, Rhoden said.
“Going to Western Kentucky, it is about trying to maintain our identity through longer spells of the game and then be able to play with a level of composure that we need to play with,” Rhoden said.
Kickoff is at 6 p.m. CDT at the WKU Soccer Complex in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
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