NASHVILLE, TN – Gary Lewellyn found out he was flying to San Jose on a Wednesday. That left him just two days to find a flight and book a hotel. If Nashville SC clinched the Supporters' Shield on the West Coast, he would be responsible for handing the Shield to the team himself.
That handoff never happened. San Jose Earthquakes striker Preston Judd's 70th-minute equalizer salvaged a draw for the Earthquakes, and delaying the official win for Nashville, who had been on top of the table since May.
"You get deflated," Lewellyn said. "It's like, 'Ah, man!'"
One week later, it was clinched. Nashville's 2-0 victory on the road in Montréal made the Shield official, and the trophy was handed over to the team eight days later on Fan Appreciation Night, after a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes work that most never see.
Because the trophy is fan-owned and volunteer-run, a Supporters' Shield handoff is a logistically complicated dance. SixOneFive Soccer sat down with Lewellyn, Vice President of the Roadies, and Amanda Williams, the COO of the Heaters, to get all the details.
A fan-created trophy
In 1997, a Tampa Bay Mutiny supporter named Nick Lawrus came up with an idea and presented it to the National Association of Supporters (NAS): since MLS crowned its league champion via playoffs, what if there was an award for the regular-season winner, created and donated by the fans? Frustrated by Tampa Bay's dominant 1996 regular season and uninspiring playoff exit, he pitched the name "Supporters' Scudetto", drawing inspiration from Serie A. "Scudetto" means "little shield" in Italian.
The idea was quickly accepted by the NAS committee, which opted to use the English term "shield" instead. After a year of discussion, they began accepting donations to build the first trophy, hoping to raise $3,000. Early donors included inaugural MLS commissioner Doug Logan and ESPN announcer Phil Schoen, and the effort was heavily supported by Kansas City Wizards fan Sam Pierron.
The first Shield was built for $2,200 from sterling silver sheet metal by Paula Richardson, an art student at the University of Kansas. It was completed during the early weeks of the 1999 season and presented to LA Galaxy to commemorate their 1998 season, while also retroactively awarded to Tampa Bay and DC United for their 1996 and 1997 campaigns.
In 2006, the Shield gained a new level of legitimacy when US Soccer decided to award the Shield winner a berth in the Concacaf Champions Cup the following year.
At the 2012 Independent Supporters Council in Portland, the Supporters' Shield Foundation was created, and plans for a new trophy were made. The $18,000 cost for the new Shield was raised largely through an "I Support The Shield" scarf drive, which sold more than 2,000 scarves.
The new Shield design was completed in early 2013. Weighing 35 pounds and made of sterling silver and stainless steel, it commemorates the original chevron trophy in the center, while including an expandable circular ring bearing the names of every winner. The Shield Foundation refuses requests for replicas; there is only one copy of the Shield in existence, and it stays with the supporters during their reigning year, not with the team.
How the handoff works
There is no official Shield courier or league representative overseeing the handoff. The Shield is passed from supporters' group to supporters' group, with a Foundation board member present to ensure everything is handled properly.
"There's obviously a member of the previous supporters' group that has the Shield from winning it last year," Lewellyn said. "They get taken wherever the Shield needs to be, and then a member of the Supporters' Shield Foundation board will also join us as well. They've been great. They're at our back if we need to give the club a push or anything. They're there for us."
The San Jose plan was detailed: Lewellyn would receive the trophy from a member of the Sons of Ben, fans of the reigning winners, Philadelphia Union. With a Foundation board member present, the Sons of Ben representative would hand the Shield to Lewellyn; he'd pass it to Nashville SC captain Hany Mukhtar, and Mukhtar would take it into the locker room for celebrations. Afterward, Lewellyn would fly the Shield back to Nashville before its official presentation at Geodis Park.
That didn't happen in San Jose. Nashville officially clinched the Shield in Montréal the next weekend, but concerns over customs meant that Lewellyn and the trophy didn't actually make the trip (and ironically, Nashville's return flight was delayed by nearly six hours with similar issues). The idea of presenting the Shield after a midweek match against the Philadelphia Union was floated, but with no Shield Foundation representative able to be present, the celebration was pushed to Sunday, November 1. Fittingly, Fan Appreciation Day.
The trophy stays with the supporters
Hours after Nashville SC players lifted the trophy on the Geodis Park pitch, a small group of supporters and staff members quietly walked the Shield out of the stadium, down the hill, and into the middle of the Nashville speedway that sits adjacent to the stadium.
There, under a tent in yet another downpour, Chris Jones raised the Shield in front of a small group of exuberant fans. Jones, a Middle Tennessee native, founded Nashville Football Club in 2013, an amateur, fan-owned club that eventually was absorbed into Nashville SC's 2018 USL Championship side.
Lifting the Shield in the rain on a racetrack, Jones – who worked for the club until 2024 – was visibly emotional. "I can't believe this," he said through tears.
Chris Jones, who founded Nashville FC in 2013, lifts the Supporters’ Shield. pic.twitter.com/eHqKKypDcW
— Ben Wright (@benwright) November 2, 2026
"You look back at Chris Jones, who was a significant influence in even getting this team," said Williams. "The supporters have always been the backbone, and the club has embraced the fans... It's been a long time coming, and there are a lot of people that made this happen in the early days to get us where we are today."
Unlike every other trophy in MLS, the Shield won't sit in a trophy case at Geodis Park. Over the next year, until a new winner is crowned, Nashville supporters will hold onto the Shield, and they're not planning on keeping it hidden. They've opened a calendar for fans to request appearances for the Shield, and already have several plans on the docket, including Nashville's player awards ceremony this week and a Christmas appearance with Taylor Washington at the Monroe Carrell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
"This Shield is for all the supporters," said Williams. "We just want to make sure that everyone gets their opportunity to see what we've brought home."
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