Governor's Cup (Missouri): No Official Wagers?!?!?

While most elected officials are stumbling over each other to get out a press release or hold a press conference about their Friendly Political Wagers, sometimes opportunities go by with no such wager. That appears to be the case with the Missouri Governor's Cup. It is just a preseason game in the NFL, but it still seems like a prime opportunity for the Mayor of St. Louis and the Mayor of Kansas City to line up a a wager. BBQ vs. Budweiser. Now...that would earn quite a few Daleys!

The Missouri Governor's Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner between the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Rams' annual meetings in the preseason and occasional contests in the regular season.

The contest has been a staple of Missourian's football teams from 1968 to 1987 (between the Chiefs and St. Louis' first football team, the Cardinals) and 1996 to the present (featuring the Chiefs and newly-relocated Rams). The local press occasionally refer to the game as The Battle of Missouri, or the I-70 Series. The Chiefs and Rams meet every year in the pre-season but have only met four times in the regular season.

While the Mayors aren't wagering anything, a couple of bloggers have taken up the slack. Highway 61 and Chimpotle are wagering their blog template colors on the game. Loser has to run the winners colors on his blog.

High Flying Wager: Fly the Winners Flag Over State Capitol

The 2007 Little League World Series is getting a lot of action. I mean A LOT. This is the 2nd Friendly Political Wager that we've chronicled this year alone. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Warner Robins American Little League alum has participated in both wagers. The first one was an interesting "for spite" Friendly Political Wager with Governor Bob Riley of Alabama. Perdue had offered a gallon of "North Georgia's finest, 100 percent locally mountain-grown headwaters" to Riley if the Alabama team won. In his most recent wager, Perdue went for "state pride" against Texas Governor Rick Perry. The U.S. Championship of the Little League World Series pits the team from Georgia against a squad from Texas. The winner gets to fly their state flag over the Capitol of the loser. That's a big wager on a bunch of kids!

In a news release Friday, Perdue, who plans to attend this afternoon's game in Pennsylvania, said, "The Texas team has played great so far. But I am confident our boys from Warner Robins American will play hard and represent Georgia well."

The Texas governor said, "When Texans go for something they make it their business to go big or go home. . . . And we look forward to seeing the Lone Star flag shine bright at the Georgia capitol."

The two state leaders made their wagers Friday afternoon, but the bet apparently required some wrangling.

Perdue's press secretary Bert Brantley said he didn't get the impression that Gov. Perry was following the Lubbock team as closely as Perdue has followed the Warner Robins boys.

I'm sure it will go over well with the legislators at both Capitols. Imagine the delight of Texas legislators when they see their flag flying high above Atlanta. This wager will have the intended consequence of getting the Governors on camera for the news. Win or lose, the media will cover this story. Nice bet, guys!

Aurora Superintendents Wager over Cross-Town Football Game, Loser Wears a Helmet

The administrators (pictured here at right) at the public schools in Aurora, Illinois are doing their best to fire up the kids and getting them worked up to come back to school. The 2 public schools held a rally for the students that featured their superintendent and the superintendent from the other school. At the rally, each Superintendent entered into a wager with the other.

The two schools are set to face each other in the opening game of the Football season this week:

The wager was well received by the students:

Perhaps because polo shirts with small logos can be a little too discreet, especially with a cleverly placed name tag, the superintendents of the East and West Aurora school districts decided to fatten their annual bet.

At Monday's welcome back rallies -- West Aurora's "Staff Kickoff" and East Aurora's "Red and Black Pride Day" -- West Superintendent Jim Rydland and East counterpart Jerome Roberts shook hands, validating a friendly wager that hinges on the outcome of Friday's East-West football game at the Tomcats' Roy E. Davis Field.

The loser must wear his rival team's helmet to work for a day next week -- a proclamation that drew thunderous applause and laughter from staff and faculty assembled in each high school's auditorium.

In years past, the losing superintendent simply wore his opposition's polo shirt.

We here at OurCivicPride love that they have upped the ante on the wager. It's also really nice that they're using this as a vehicle to get kids excited about school.

Bottomline: Based on the shame factor of making someone sit in a school office and wear a helmet all day, and that factor alone, we rate this wager high. If this was between Mayors or even Congressmen - where the office in which the loser was sitting was a bit more significant, we'd think this might be one of the best bets of all time. We give this wager: 47 Daleys.

2007 College World Series Wager: To the Loser Go the Spoils?

We're just getting caught up with the Friendly Political Wager over the College World Series that took place this summer. Oregon State was going for a repeat against last year's second place finishers, the North Carolina Tarheels. As expected, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski and North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley make a friendly political wager on the outcome of the championship series.

Governor Easley wagered one pound of barbecue, one bottle of barbecue sauce and one pint of slaw from both Wilber’s Barbecue of Goldsboro and the Barbecue Center Inc. of Lexington and a case of Cheerwine if the Beavers win. Governor Kulongoski wagered a basket of products made in Oregon including a sampling of Pacific seafood, local cheeses, craft beer and hazelnuts – perfect snack foods for an afternoon of baseball.

In the end, the Oregon State Beavers came out on top and Easley will have to pay up. Suprinsingly, some members of the agriculture community in Oregon have urged the winner - Governor Easley - to send his ante anyway:

There's some tasty North Carolina barbecue grub coming out West, thanks to the Oregon State Beavers' repeat drubbing of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels for the NCAA baseball championship.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski and North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley make a friendly wager on the outcome of the championship series late last week.

But, perhaps Kulongoski ought to send the package he wagered anyway. Those folks in Carolina have seen what Oregon has to offer on the baseball diamond in the College World Series for two consecutive years now. Maybe they should also get a taste of the agriculture and food products we have out West too.

That's a novel approach. Win and send it anyway. I'm not sure it's one that will catch on, but it's a nice thought from the folks up in Oregon. Governor Kulongoski will certainly enjoy the BBQ, I bet. To the victor go the spoils.

Link: Blogriculture: Beavers serve up tasty win for Oregon's governor

Mayor Wears Peyton Manning Jersey, Hold Up His Side of the Wager

It took almost 8 months, but Lake Forest (IL) Mayor Michael Rummel (pictured here) paid off his "FPW" with Terre Haute (IN) mayor Kevin Burke. See, Lake Forest is the regular season home of the Chicago Bears and the Mayor decided to bet not food or drink, but rather a uniform.

The Colts won 29-17 in February, and Saturday was payday. Along with Rummel providing Burke with various "goodies'' from Lake Forest, Rummel had to show up at training camp wearing a Colts jersey. If the Bears had prevailed, Burke would have donned a Bears jersey and served as grand marshal at the recent "Dog Day'' parade in Lake Forest.

I like this bet. In addition to delivering these so called "goodies", there's the shame aspect. That's a nice touch, guys. I wonder what the "goodies" were? One of their notable exports is Vince Vaughn!

Welcome to Civic Pride

If you've had a sports team in your town that's done reasonably well, the you've seen these wagers. We love them. They're funny. They're local. And...most importantly, they usually involve food.

What's "Civic Pride"? It's a way to root for your team while wagering products such as food and drink on your hometown team. Oftentimes it's the Mayors or Governors doing this "wagering" and we'll be there the chronicle all that's going down. The good (Chicago), the bad (Seattle) and the interesting (we'll find out!).

Have you seen a Mayor betting on something that we missed? Send it in to ourcivicpride@gmail.com.