DAPHNE, Ala. — No matter their records, and no matter when they meet on the football field, the Alabama-Auburn rivalry is one of the most special in all of sports.

The United States Sports Academy has commissioned Fairhope found-object artist and Auburn University graduate Bruce Larsen to construct a sculpture to honor the long and grand tradition of college football’s best rivalry.

“The Iron Bowl” sculpture, featuring a player from Auburn and a player from Alabama, will be unveiled on the academy campus on Jan. 22. In a special touch, Larsen, who was the 2009 American Sport Art Museum and Archives Sport Artist of the Year, will construct the entire sculpture with steel to honor the nickname given to the rivalry.

Alabama and Auburn played their first football contest in 1893. It developed the name “Iron Bowl” as a nod to Birmingham, which hosted the game for many years at Legion Field, and the city’s rich background as a center of iron and steel production.

In 1989, the game was hosted at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time. Alabama moved its home games in the series from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa’s Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2000.

Larsen’s creation will feature a player from each school lining up against each other at the line of scrimmage, capturing the intensity leading up to the snap of a football, shortly before the two players square off. The players will be pushing each other across the line, and reflect a level of neutrality between the two teams.

The sculpture will be the latest addition to the academy’s developing Sport Sculpture Park. “The Iron Bowl” will be the first sculpture added to the green-themed park since “Mr. Basketball,” also designed by Larsen, was dedicated in September 2009.

Larsen’s relationship with the Academy began in 2003, when his sculpture “Borzov the Sprinter” was donated to the museum archives. Other Larsen works at the Academy include “Nastia the Gymnast,” in honor of Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin, and “The Weightlifter.”