College football’s rivalry trophies usually belong to the players and the fans in the stands. Last Saturday, though, Minnesota’s Floyd of Rosedale belonged to a baby.
After the Gophers beat Iowa 13-10, a photo of four-month-old Winnie Weston sitting on the bronze pig rocketed across the internet. The image had all the ingredients for a perfect viral moment: a rivalry trophy with real history, a newborn who looked completely unbothered, and a scene that somehow felt both ridiculous and completely fitting.
Winnie is the daughter of Minnesota starting punter Tom Weston and his girlfriend, Tia Medve. Both are from Perth, Australia. Medve spoke with The Sporting News about how the now-famous picture came together and why it happened so naturally in the moment.
Ahead of the game, Tom Weston planned to meet up with Winnie and Medve so the family could celebrate together. That’s when Minnesota offensive lineman Tony Nelson brought the 98-pound trophy over to the family section. What happened next was the kind of thing nobody can really script.
"They lifted it all up together, and I was like, 'Why would I not sit her on the pig?'" Medve recalled. "And that was just incredible, everyone just started cheering as soon as she sat on it."
"It was just an instinct," Medve added of putting her on the pig. "She was awake, and she was happy, so why not?'"
For Medve and Weston, the moment landed even harder because they’re living far from home. With the rest of their family 10,000 miles away in Australia, she said the support around them from Minnesota’s football program has meant a lot.
"We've had so much support with the staff and the coaching and the families," Medve added. "I've never felt alone or unsupported. There is always someone just like at a call away if I need anything."
Tom Weston later shared the photo online, and the reaction was immediate. Fans turned the picture into a full-on meme machine, and the image spread fast across social media.
Even Minnesota coach PJ Fleck got in on it. Via the Pioneer Press, he called it “A cool moment and memory,” and then explained what stood out to him about the scene around the trophy.
“All the players around them. That’s what the picture encompasses, for me, is how happy and prideful they are. …
“It looks Photoshop. It looks AI, and it’s not.”
Medve said Fleck showed the photo in a team meeting and framed it as a snapshot of what the sport is supposed to feel like.
"[Coach] Fleck had the photo up in the meeting and just said, 'This is what college football is about,'" Medve added.
Winnie is too young to know anything about college football, of course, but her parents already know the story she’ll hear one day.
'"Hey, Winnie, you're the girl that rode the pig,"' Medve said with a laugh of how the conversation might go. "And she's just gonna be like, 'what does that even mean?'"
Minnesota still has two home games left this season, against UCLA and Northwestern, and Winnie is expected to be there for both. The next crowds may be quieter than the one that greeted her on the pig, but the memory of that Saturday is already locked in for the Weston family.
"For me, it's how much love and community that we had when having her," Medve said of what the photo means. "We don't have any family over here, so having this new family in football-she's been so loved.
For her to realize that 130 football boys plus the rest of the team and the staff and the fans and the family have all loved her. And she was just going along with it."
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