Rivalries in college football are what make the sport the absolute best. Every fan and fan base has a rival. You grew up hearing the stories as a kid. You grew up watching the same weekend every year. You tote that distaste around with you no matter how far and wide life takes you.
Me, I grew up with the big dumb Egg Bowl. I couldn’t give a shit about Michigan-Ohio State or USC-Notre Dame. Who cares about stodgy tradition and prestigious pedigrees? Not me. I care about the absurdities of the sport. And buddy, the Egg Bowl has got a lot of that.
In honor of the occasion, let me get you up to speed on the history of this big stupid game, why I love it and why soon I hope you will too.
History of the Egg Bowl
For the uninitiated, the Egg Bowl is the annual rivalry between Ole Miss and Mississippi State that started way back in 1901 and since 1944 hasn’t missed a year. It’s usually played on Thanksgiving night or Black Friday and in the last 20 or so years has alternated between Oxford and Starkville.
Let’s address the elephant (egg) in the room. You’re asking yourself: Why the hell do they call it the Egg Bowl in the first place?
In 1926, Ole Miss broke a 13-game losing streak to the then State College Aggies/Maroons (later to be named Mississippi State University Bulldogs) and decided to storm the field and get buck wild. They were so stoked about the win, they attempted to tear the field goal posts down, much to the chagrin of the other part of the state.
Like most stories in redneck culture, a fight broke out. State fans played better defense than their football team that day and defended the goalposts with wooden chairs and beat the hell out of rival fans. Below is a blurb from the night’s events:
"Irate Aggie supporters took after the ambitious Ole Miss group with cane bottom chairs, and fights broke out. The mayhem continued until most of the chairs were splintered."[11]
Both schools hoped to alleviate such tensions down the road (LOL) by creating a traveling trophy. The “Golden Egg” trophy is made from brass with a wooden base and, because the footballs they used then looked weird compared to the balls used today, the trophy looks more like an egg than a football. Thus, the Egg Bowl was born.
Why this game matters
College football reporter Ole Miss alum Steven Godfrey describes the Mississippi thought process and Egg Bowl rivalry better than anyone: Crabs in a bucket.
What does this mean? If you’ve ever had a gallon bucket and filled it with live crabs, there’s a phenomenon that happens. The crabs try to escape. They climb on top of each other, hook themselves onto each other, whatever they need to do to climb out.
If one crab gets close to climbing out of said bucket without the others, guess what happens: they drag that crab’s ass back to the bottom. That same process repeats again and again. That is this rivalry in a nutshell.
The state, the teams, the game…it’s never been looked upon as good, per se. My home state of Mississippi is one of if not the poorest state in the US, has the worst public school system and is generally looked down upon by anyone with eyes. The same goes for each of these schools.
But for the people in this state, much like the crabs, this game is everything. It’s not even so much about winning, more so just not letting them win. Drag TSUN (that school up north) or those cowbell ringin’ fucks into the mud with you. Keep them from enjoying themselves. That’s how you enjoy yourself.
Every rivalry game talks about how their fanbases hate each other the most, have the most tradition, have the best games. I’m not here to argue the Egg Bowl has any of those things. The Egg Bowl has the most absurd things. That’s the calling card.
You can’t find a series with more absurd outcomes. There’s the ass whoopin’ of 1926, in-game brawls spanning multiple years, a guy pretending to piss like a dog in the endzone and then a guy mimicking the guy pissing in the endzone two years later.
It’s the absolute best. I’ve hand-picked some of the funniest, most absurd occurrences in this series’ delightful history.
Egg Bowl Highlights
1907: Ole Miss and Mississippi A&M played to a scoreless halftime draw in otherworldly muddy conditions. At the half, Ole Miss HC Frank A. Mason warmed his team up with whisky-laced coffee to jumpstart the second half. They played like drunk bastards and lost 15-0.
After the game, Mason was asked whether his team would go back to Oxford that night. Mason replied, “Yes, the team is going north at 11 o'clock. I'm going in another direction, and hope I never see them again!" He never coached another game for the Rebels.
1911: That week, the old Jackson Fairgrounds had added extra seating in lead up to the game. Prior to kickoff, those new stands collapsed and hurt upwards of 60 people. Despite the chaos, the game kicked off without disruption.
Please imagine a whole stand collapsing and the teams not stopping the game. Yeah, that shit happened.
1964: Mississippi State snapped a 17-year streak and beat Ole Miss 20-17.
1983: In 1983, “The Wind Bowl” game happened. Down by one with 24 seconds left, the Bulldogs attempted a game-winning 27-yard FG. Kicker Artie Crosby kicked the hell out of the ball in a straight line, only for a 40-MPH gust of wind to catch the ball at the crossbar, forcing it to fall short of the uprights.
1992: THE STAND - This hilarious 12-turnover game ended with the Ole Miss vaunted “Red Death” defense stopping the Bulldogs on the goal-line. The Dawgs had 11 plays inside the 10 yard-line on two different drives and got their ass stuffed harder than a Thanksgiving yard bird. The Rebels won 17-10.
1997: Both teams threw major hands pregame and it led to a huge melee. With 2:12 left, Ole Miss scored a touchdown to make the game 14-13. They rolled the dice, went for two and completed the two-point conversion to go ahead by one. Replay would reveal that the Rebel WR clearly trapped the ball and they won on some bullshit. Very apt for this game.
1998: Mississippi State won the SEC West title with a 28-6 win and kicked Tommy Tubberville’s sorry ass so bad he left Ole Miss to go to Auburn.
1999: THE PICK AND THE KICK - MSU had a big dumb rally in the fourth quarter and tied the game. Instead of kneeling and forcing OT, Ole Miss got cute and QB Romero Miller closed his eyes and heaved a deep pass that got deflected off a hand and foot and later picked off and returned deep by Bulldog Robert Bean. The very next play MSU hit a 41-yard kick to steal the win.
2007: The Bulldogs stormed back down 14-0 with less than 8 minutes left thanks to awful coaching by Ed Orgeron. The Bulldogs scored 17 unanswered and it ended the career of Coach O.
2013: The legend of Dak Prescott was born. Dak came off the bench and led the Bulldogs to points and to force OT. In OT, Dak scored from 3 yards out and Dr. Bo Wallace got stripped to seal the victory for Dak and Dan Mullen.
2014: Ole Miss beat the best MSU team ever and knocked them out of the SEC Championship hunt. It was basically the biggest game in rivalry history and the worse of the teams played spoiler. Very appropriate.
2016: Nick Fitzgerald went the fuck off and led MSU to the biggest blowout win of the series against Ole Miss.
2017: Nick Fitzgerald got his ankle gruesomely dislocated early in the game and the Rebels upset then No. 15 MSU 31-28 with an interim coach in Matt Luke.
More importantly: In the third quarter, DK Metcalf scored a touchdown and mocked the MSU fans by getting on all fours and pissing like a dog on the pylon. Let the record show that image should be the Mississippi state flag forever and ever.
2018: They call this game the Egg Brawl. MSU beat the hell outta Ole Miss 35-3 and it led to a massive brawl during the middle of the game. See, this rivalry game is perfect and you can’t tell me otherwise.
2019: THE MISS, THE PISS AND THE DOUBLE DISMISS
You could write a whole ass book about this game. Ole Miss was trailing MSU by seven with nine seconds left, before Matt Corral hit Elijah Moore for a 2-yard touchdown pass.
In celebration, Elijah Moore mimicked DK Metcalf’s 2017 dog piss celebration, leading to a 15-yard penalty on the game-tying PAT. What do you know, the extra point was missed and it got Matt Luke fired the next day.
What to expect this year
Hey buddy, if you’ve read this far, good on you. We appreciate that.
That said: If you think I, or anybody else, can predict what might happen in the Egg Bowl…think again. Lane Kiffin might have sex on the field during the game. Mike Leach might use an Apache war relic to fight Tony the Landshark. Hell, someone might pretend to be a peeing dog for a third time. Matt Corral and Will Rogers III might combine for the most passing yards in NCAA history or throw 47 interceptions between them.
It’s all on the table. And that’s what makes it great.
My favorite Egg Bowl tradition is what happens prior to kickoff, right at the end of the national anthem. As the anthem wraps, there’s that lingering silence that looms every year in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford or Davis Wade Stadium in Starksville. Hats are still in hands, the other hand over hearts…if you listen close enough, you’ll hear it: “Fuck You Ole Miss!” and “Go to Hell State!”
Welcome to the Egg Bowl.