The state of Nevada has one public university in the north and one in the south. Two schools, two cities, one cannon. Since 1969, the University of Nevada Wolf Pack in Reno and the UNLV Rebels in Las Vegas have settled the question of who owns the Silver State one game at a time. Nevada leads the all-time football series 29–22. UNLV has won four straight. The Fremont Cannon is painted red and sitting in Las Vegas.
The Trophy and What It Means
The Fremont Cannon is college football’s heaviest and most expensive rivalry trophy. It weighs 545 pounds and cost $10,000 to build in 1970 — equivalent to roughly $83,500 today. It is a replica of a Howitzer cannon that explorer John C. Frémont used on an 1843 expedition into the American West, ultimately abandoned in the Sierra Nevada mountains due to heavy snows. The replica was donated by Kennecott Copper.
The cannon contains a 55-millimeter barrel and has been inoperable since 1999. The rules are simple and absolute: only the wooden carriage is painted in the winning team’s color — navy blue for Nevada, scarlet for UNLV. The barrel and wheels remain in their original state. Originally the cannon was fired after touchdowns by the team in possession, but that tradition ended with its mechanical failure.
The winning coach gets to paint the carriage. The winning team gets to roll it home. Given that it weighs 545 pounds and does not travel well, the logistics of moving it have produced some of the rivalry’s best stories.
The Origin and the First Coat of Paint
The two schools first played on November 22, 1969, in Reno — Nevada won 30–28 in a game still mired in controversy about the officiating. The cannon had not yet been completed, so no trophy changed hands that day.
The first Battle for the Fremont Cannon was played in 1970. UNLV won 42–30 in Las Vegas, making their homecoming game the inaugural Cannon game. The first coat of paint on the Fremont Cannon was red. Wolf Pack fans have never forgotten this.
The earliest significant figure in the rivalry’s lore is Bill Ireland, UNLV’s first football coach — an alumnus and former coach at Nevada who came up with the idea for a trophy game between the two schools. The connection to Nevada’s program is baked into UNLV’s founding identity from the very beginning.
The Stories the Cannon Carries
1978 — The Airport Caper: Following Nevada’s first win over UNLV in four seasons, Wolf Pack coach Chris Ault convinced security at McCarran International Airport to allow the team to disassemble the 545-pound cannon and carry it onto the plane as luggage. The ROTC unit that typically managed the disassembly wasn’t available — UNLV didn’t have one — so the team figured it out themselves. The cannon flew home to Reno in pieces.
1993 — The Red Defection: Wolf Pack coach Jeff Horton left Nevada after just one season to take the head coaching job at UNLV, crossing the state line to coach the rival. Nevada fans named it the Red Defection. It added a layer of personal animosity to the rivalry that persisted for years.
1995 — The Pre-Game Brawl: UNLV players allegedly started a fight before the game. Nevada ran up the score in a 55–32 victory. After the final whistle, UNLV player Quincy Sanders threw his helmet at Nevada coach Chris Ault.
2000 — The Drop: UNLV won the game. In the post-game celebration, fans and players attempted to lift the 545-pound cannon. It fell. The cannon required $1,500 in refurbishment. During the repair, UNLV officials discovered an inscription inside: “University of Notta Lotta Victories.” The identity of whoever carved it has never been revealed. UNLV later carved “University of Northern Rejects” onto the cannon. Nevada ground it off.
2005–2012 — Nevada’s Eight-Year Run: Nevada won eight consecutive Cannon games — the longest winning streak in series history. The stretch included the Colin Kaepernick era, when Nevada ran the pistol offense, finished 13–1 in 2010, and went to the Liberty Bowl.
2022–2025 — UNLV’s Ascent: Under Barry Odom and then Dan Mullen, UNLV has won four consecutive Cannon games. In 2022, UNLV won 27–22 on a late goal-line stand. In 2023, UNLV won 45–27 in Reno. In 2024, UNLV won 38–14 at Allegiant Stadium — the Rebels’ first 10-win season in 40 years. In 2025, UNLV won 42–17 at Mackay Stadium in Reno, with Jai’Den Thomas rushing for 103 yards and four touchdowns as UNLV clinched a share of the Mountain West regular-season title for the second straight year. The cannon remains red.
Football and Basketball in the Same State
The basketball dimension of this rivalry carries its own weight. UNLV’s Jerry Tarkanian-era teams are among the most famous in college basketball history, peaking with the 1990 national championship — a 103–73 demolition of Duke in the title game that stands as one of the most dominant championship performances ever. Tarkanian’s programs spent years in conflict with the NCAA, but the basketball identity they built — explosive, Vegas-born, distinctly non-establishment — shaped UNLV’s entire athletic brand.
Nevada basketball has built a respectable program of its own, and Mountain West matchups between the two programs regularly influence conference tournament seeding. The Silver State Series, an all-sports competition tracking head-to-head results and conference finishes across all varsity sports, ensures that every meeting between the schools — from volleyball to baseball — carries institutional significance beyond football season.
Two Programs, One Conference, Different Markets
Both Nevada and UNLV compete in the Mountain West Conference, which distributes up to $20.5 million annually to athletes under the House v. NCAA settlement. UNLV’s Allegiant Stadium, at 65,000 seats, is the largest football venue in the conference — a commercial asset that makes the Rebels’ NIL ecosystem unique among Mountain West programs.
UNLV’s NIL infrastructure operates through the Friends of UNILV collective and the UNLV Championship Resources program launched in April 2026, allowing the university to directly invest in and compensate student-athletes. The Las Vegas market creates NIL opportunities unlike anywhere else in the Mountain West — casinos cannot donate directly to NIL collectives due to Gaming Control Board rules, but the workarounds being developed represent creative solutions unique to the Las Vegas sports economy. A Rebels linebacker can promote a local business on the Strip in a market where college football is the only FBS game in town.
Nevada athletes operate in the Reno market, smaller in scale but with its own advantages — a compact, loyal fanbase and proximity to the Sierra Nevada outdoor economy that creates natural sponsorship partnerships in outdoor recreation, sports nutrition, and regional retail.
RallyFuel’s weekly college football predictions game lets fans earn points and direct them toward NIL support. The schools leaderboard tracks total fan-driven contributions — a live measure of which fanbase is more mobilized each November. The Trophy Case tracks award contenders throughout the season.
Why It Never Ends
Nevada leads the all-time series 29–22. UNLV has won four straight. The cannon has been airport-smuggled in pieces, dropped and damaged, inscribed with insults from both sides, and painted back and forth more than 50 times. It weighs 545 pounds and doesn’t travel well. The coach who invented the rivalry game was a Nevada man who built UNLV. The coach who crossed the state line in 1993 is still remembered as a defector.
In a state with two cities that look nothing alike and agree on almost nothing, the question of who owns Nevada is settled once a year in late November. UNLV says they own it now. Nevada is keeping a list.
