Football rivalry trophy found at Dayton High

The mystery of the Gold Mining Pick football trophy’s whereabouts has been resolved.

This weekend, members of the custodial staff at Dayton High School found the football trophy — once passed between Lyon County high schools Dayton, Fernley and Yerington — sitting in an attic of a campus building, according to Dayton High athletic director Cory Sanford in an email Monday.

For about two decades, the three schools used the pick as a football trophy passed around the three largest schools in Lyon County.

“There are no plans for it at this time as it has not been circulated for over 20 years,” Sanford said. “Not all of the three schools involved are even part of the same league anymore. We will send it to Jeff Knutson at (Fernley High School) because Fernley has the most wins on the pick and they can do with it as they want.”

Small metal plaques were mounted on the Gold Mining Pick football trophy noting the final score between each of the three teams every year.

Those scores were last updated in 2005, Sanford said,

Knutson said the tradition doesn’t carry the same weight as it once did simply because Yerington dropped from 3A to 2A in 2008. Fernley and Dayton still traditionally play the final game of each season against each other.

“It’s a curious little story, I guess,” Knutson said. “If we had it, we’d display it.”

The Nevada Appeal brought attention to the football trophy with a story in Friday’s newspaper exploring the pick’s whereabouts the day of the rivalry game between Fernley and Dayton.

Fernley won at home against Dayton on Friday, 47-27.