Egg Bowl steeped in unique history

By By Will Bardwell/staff writer
November 27, 2003
On a chilly autumn Monday in October 1901, football teams from the University of Mississippi and Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College met in Starkville, with the hosts taking a 17-0 win over their Oxford visitors.
And so it began.
One-hundred two years later, the Ole Miss Rebels and Mississippi State Bulldogs will meet for the 100th time on Thursday night. Theirs has become the 16th-longest series in the nation and the second-longest in the Southeastern Conference. A passionate rivalry that stirs the emotions of both sides, the Rebels lead their in-state adversaries with 56 wins, 37 losses and six ties.
Despite the lopsided record, neither team has dominated the other in recent years. The last time one team beat the other more than two years in a row was 1990, when the Rebels bested the Bulldogs 21-9 for their third straight win in the Battle for the Golden Egg.
Manning's father, Archie, was quarterback for the Rebels during a time of rare one-sided superiority in the series. Before the Bulldogs edged Ole Miss 19-14 in 1970, the elder Manning's senior season, the Rebels had lost just one of the previous 23 meetings.
The greatest period of Mississippi State dominance came from 1911-1925, when the Maroons swept 13 consecutive meetings. Ole Miss' 7-6 win in Starkville in the 1926 matchup broke that streak and led to the creation of the rivalry's symbol the Golden Egg.
Following their team's first win over the Bulldogs in 15 years, Ole Miss students stormed Scott Field in an attempt to reap the goalposts. The home faithful rushed to defend the uprights from the invaders, employing the use of chairs in the battle. After a melee of near-riot proportions, the goalposts were saved.
Soon thereafter, the idea of an exchanged trophy was proposed by an honorary society at Ole Miss. A&M agreed to share the $250 pricetag for the trophy, which was shaped like a regulation-size football.
The obvious outcome of the project brought the prize the name it bears today. Since the Golden Egg first became the spoils of victory in the 1927 game, Ole Miss has won the trophy 50 times, compared to 20 for Mississippi State.
On six occasions the teams have tied, the last of which happened in 1968. Following such an outcome, the previous year's winner would keep the trophy for six months, after which the other team would house the Golden Egg until the schools played again.
In 1978, the Battle for the Golden Egg featured the 4-6 Rebels and the 6-4 Bulldogs. With neither team in contention for a postseason game, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger newspaper dubbed the matchup "The Egg Bowl." The name stuck, and it has been used ever since.
Traditionally played on the final Saturday of the season, Thursday's clash will mark the sixth straight year in which Ole Miss and MSU have met on Thanksgiving Day. Just as it has since 1998, the game will be televised nationwide on ESPN.
MSU head coach Jackie Sherrill said that the national telecast along with modern technology makes the rivalry more intense than ever.