East Lansing, Mich. - Mel Tucker conducted some history lessons on Monday.

Michigan State’s head football coach, with help from some support staff, set out to educate his players on some of the background of the Michigan State-Michigan rivalry.

The subtopic for Monday: The Paul Bunyan Trophy.

Michigan State owns it. Michigan wants it. Michigan State plans to keep it when the two unbeaten, Top 10 teams meet at high noon on Saturday at the stadium.

Michigan State has 41 players on the roster who will experience the rivalry for the first time this year, including 15 scholarship transfers and 19 scholarship freshmen. They’ve seen the trophy every day when they enter the Skandalaris Football Center. The Paul Bunyan Trophy has stood along the east wall of the lobby for the past 12 months, facing the doors to the main entrance. When you walk in, you can’t help but see it.

With that much new blood on the roster, did they need any extra briefing about the rivalry?

“We took care of that history lesson, that introduction for our newcomers, we took care of that this morning,” Tucker said.

It’s becoming an annual dissertation for the second-year head coach. Last year, Tucker told the players about the trophy when Michigan State wasn’t in possession of it.

It was a little different on Monday, with Bunyan residing in the building.

“He taught us about how the governor presented it when Michigan State got into the Big Ten,” said senior safety Xavier Henderson.

Henderson stopped short of going into details.

“I learned some stuff,” Henderson said.

There is some deep-seated motivation behind the trophy.

“I’m not going to say too much,” Henderson said. “Some of the dudes learned some stuff for sure.”

Professor Tucker may have discussed some of these facts during his lesson:

* Michigan tried to stand in the way of Michigan State joining the Big Ten.

* Michigan didn’t want to commemorate the Michigan State-Michigan game with a trophy to the winner.

* Former Michigan coach Fritz Crisler reportedly planned to refuse the trophy if Michigan won the inaugural meeting for the Paul Bunyan in 1953, but No. 4-ranked Michigan State defeated the Wolverines that day in East Lansing, 14-6.

That marked only the sixth time the Michigan State-Michigan game was played in East Lansing. The rivalry became a home-and-home series five years later in 1958, as dictated by the Big Ten Conference.

* Michigan won the game in ’54 and left the trophy on the field at Michigan Stadium for more than a half hour after the game ended. Legend has it that Crisler ordered the trophy stored in an equipment closet.

* Michigan State regained possession of the trophy in 1956 when the No. 2-ranked Spartans defeated No. 4 Michigan, 9-0 in Ann Arbor.

Michigan State retained the trophy for the next eight years.

Michigan tried to minimize the importance of the Paul Bunyan Trophy and even shun its existence when it was introduced. Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr once called it the ugliest trophy in college football. But in recent years, perhaps due to Michigan State winning eight out of 10 meetings during the Mark Dantonio era from 2008 to 2015, Wolverine players have celebrated wildly with the trophy on days when Michigan has won.