Issaquah football coach Buddy Bland was digging around in the school's storage in 2001 when he stumbled across an old coal bucket, similar to buckets used in the 1930s and 1940s for carrying hot coals to a stove.
"It was a brand new bucket that got lost in the rafters," Bland said.
Issaquah's economy was dominated by the coal mining industry from the 1880s to the 1930s when fuel oil was introduced, and the coal industry collapsed. Considering Issaquah's history and rivalry with Skyline, Bland asked then-Skyline head football coach Steve Gervais if the team wanted to play for the bucket as a trophy each year.
The Issaquah-Skyline rivalry was natural after Skyline became a high school in 1997 and began to draw students that used to attend Issaquah. For the first few years, all 9th graders in the area attended the Cascade Freshman campus, but competed in sports at either Issaquah or Skyline.
"It stirred the rivalry along because the kids were going to school together and competing on different teams," Bland said.
The Spartans have kept the Coal Bucket for nine consecutive years. Other than an initial Issaquah victory in 1997 and the Eagles' 3-year winning streak from 2002 to 2004, Skyline has held onto the trophy.
This year the battle for the Coal Bucket will take place Sept. 4 on Issaquah's turf. Skyline was supposed to host this year's game, but the Spartans' new grandstand has not finished construction.
