No, you can’t smoke out of it, but this six foot long piece of carved wood is a Peace Pipe—and if you were a student at WMU from the late 60s through the 80s, you may remember it and the tradition it represented.
The tradition began in 1967, according to an article from the October 8, 1987 Western Herald. The exchange of the pipe was meant to be a gesture of goodwill between the WMU Student Alumni Association and Miami of Ohio's Student Foundation.
The 'Peace Pipe Ceremony' took place every year after the football game between the two schools. Three representatives from each university would march to center field and a member from the 'losing' side would present the pipe to a member from the 'winning' side, and then everyone would shake hands.
The last mention of the Peace Pipe ceremony in the Western Herald is from the same article mentioned above from 1987, celebrating its 20th anniversary. Jason Williamson was a member of the WMU Student Alumni Association in 1992 and remembers finding the pipe and taking it to Ohio for the match up.
“I never saw it before I was in SAA or again after the year we brought it to Miami of Ohio. I am sure most other students would say the same,” Williamson said. “We rode down on the bus to Miami and had a lot of weird looks… because no one at WMU, or at least those on the bus, knew what it was or what it was about.”
The Broncos lost that game, but they didn’t lose the pipe.
“No one met us down there from Miami of Ohio, so we never turned it over after the game,” Williamson said. "It got stored back in the SAA office and that was that. I thought about it a few times through the years, but never looked further into it.”
The following year, the Broncos did win, but by this time it seems the Peace Pipe had been forgotten. For the next 20 or so years, it sat in an office in Walwood Hall until it was turned over to the University’s Archives and Regional History Collections for safe keeping earlier this year.
The Broncos will take on the Miami of Ohio Redhawks for WMU’s 92nd Homecoming Game on Saturday, October 24. Interestingly, the 20th anniversary of the Peace Pipe in 1987 was also WMU’s Homecoming game—which was also against Miami of Ohio. Unfortunately, since this tradition has ’gone up in smoke,’ the Peace Pipe will not be making an appearance this year.
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“Peace Pipe Given to Miami-Bronco Football Game Winner”
Western Herald -- Wednesday, September 13, 1967 (article pictured above)
A giant-size peace pipe is to be presented to the winner of the WMU-Miami football game on Sept. 16. The traveling trophy, presented by the WMU Class of 1968, will inaugurate the tradition between the Mid-American Conference rivals.
The idea for the new trophy was conceived by Rick Markoff, president of the WMU senior class. At the Sept. 16 class between the Broncos and the Redskins (Note * the team is now known as the Redhawks), Frank Arno, Miami senior class president and other class officers will be in Kalamazoo for the trophy presentation. They will be guests of WMU’s senior class for the weekend.
The peace pipe was made by Terry Moore, currently an instructor in WMU’s Industrial Education Department. He was senior class vice-president in 1965. The six foot, hand-carved pipe has two bowls and is decorated in red and white and brown and gold, colors of both schools.
Markoff noted, “We hope that the tradition started with the peace pipe trophy this year will grow until it is a well-known as the Little Brown Jug battle between Michigan and Minnesota, or the Old Oaken Bucket rivaley between Indiana an Purdue.”
The image above features the Western Herald article from October 8, 1987.