The first Otago team to win the Ranfurly Shield got more than the keys to the city.
Players received specially designed trophies, which appear to be as rare as hen's teeth now, after claiming the Log o' Wood.
It is nearly 80 years since Otago first won the shield. It was obviously a big deal back then, as it will be if Otago can halt a run of 22 unsuccessful challenges, against Waikato in Hamilton on Friday night.
Bryan McSkimming, of Ranfurly, has a trophy which was given to his father in 1936 by the residents of Dunedin.
Ron McSkimming, who died in 2003, was a member of the 1935 Otago team, which won the shield for the first time in the province's history.
Otago beat Canterbury 15-6 at Lancaster Park in its final game of that season.
It was a start of a 15-year-period when the shield did not get above the Waitaki River as it was shared between Otago and Southland.
Bryan McSkimming said his father, who was 90 when he died, did not talk a lot about the trophy initially but was prouder of it in his later years.
The trophy was given by a group called the Residents of Dunedin. It is understood only 15 of them were handed out, to the starting XV. In those days, reserves were not required.
The trophy has a small version of a rugby field, made of greenstone, with posts and a player.
Bryan McSkimming said he had only ever seen one other similar trophy, and that was more than 20 years ago.
Ron McSkimming was a first five-eighth who played 19 games for Otago from 1933 to 1936.
He played club rugby for Taieri and Union, but gave up playing for Otago when he was 23, after hurting his shoulder in a tackle. He continued to play rugby and retained his love for the game all his life, eventually becoming president of the Otago Rugby Football Union in 1965.
Ron McSkimming was also a handy cricketer, getting to an Otago trial. His grandson, Warren, was a long-serving first-class cricketer for Otago.
