This year, the Birmingham Bowl just means more thanks to an old SEC rivalry. The Wramblin’ Wreck of Georgia Tech will face Vanderbilt this afternoon at 3:30 pm EST on ESPN. The winner of this game will take home two trophies.

In addition to the volcano statue presented each year to the bowl game winner, this year the winner will take home a silver-plated cowbell. The Georgia Tech-Vanderbilt Cowbell is one of the oldest rivalry trophies in college football, but it hasn’t been won in several years and was almost lost forever.

Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt were rivals in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association and charter members of the SEC. It makes sense that the private institutions in Atlanta and Nashville have a rivalry, even if the origin story is atypical.

Ed Cavaleri was a Georgia Tech fanatic who stopped at a hardware store to buy a cowbell on his way to the game in 1924. Georgia Tech had won its last three games by a combined score of 147-0, but suffered a 3-0 loss to Vanderbilt that day. Someone suggested to Cavaleri that he give his noisemaker to the winning team, and a tradition was born.

It was a point of pride for Cavaleri that he attended every game from 1924 to 1967 to present the rivalry trophy. However, as Georgia Tech play-by-play announcer Andy Demetra writes, it was nearly lost several times, first in 1935.

“I had just left the stadium and took the bell with me to have it engraved. Two guys attacked me on a side street near the stadium. One pushed me to the ground, the other grabbed the bell,” he told the Associated Press in 1964.

According to his son Ed Jr., Cavaleri posted a notice about the missing cowbell at the Georgia Tech YMCA. Finally, two engineering students came forward and told him that the bell was at a friend’s house in North Carolina. It was returned hours before the 1937 game.

(The Cowbell didn’t miss much in the meantime. The 1936 game ended in a 0-0 draw.)

More shenanigans would follow. Another time at Dudley Stadium in Nashville, Cavaleri rang the bell during a stoppage in play. When he reached down to pick it up, a good-for-nothing had made off with it. In response to urgent requests on the radio, it was delivered the next day by someone on the steps of WSM radio in Nashville.

Andy Demetra for Al.com

Georgia Tech left the SEC after the 1964 season following a dispute with Alabama, effectively ending the rivalry. They lead the series 20-15-3 and have played just four times since 1967. Vanderbilt hasn’t taken home the cowbell since 1941. Diego Pavia and Co. are 3-point underdogs and are looking for their first bowl victory since 2014.