Mississippi Library Association

The Egg Bowl: Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss

Barner, William G. The Egg Bowl: Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss.
Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2007.

Catching the school bus from our home on Southaven Circle to Horn Lake High School from 1962 to 1965, even a newly transplanted Memphis, Tennessee native knew Vaught Circle and Conerly Drive were names related to sports in Mississippi. Not until reading The Egg Bowl did I realize it was an Ole Miss fan that put his stamp on the streets of the third Southaven subdivision to open, using names like Hovious, Kindard, Tad, and Gibbs Coves. After reading this book you might pay more attention to street names in your part of Mississippi.

All of these names and many more are in the index of The Egg Bowl. Arranged chronologically from the first in-state Mississippi rivalry game in 1901 through the 103rd game in 2006, each game is given two to four pages of statistics, black and white pictures, quotes, and highlights. This book gives the history of the Ole Miss. vs. Mississippi State rivalry through quotes from coaches, players, and newspaper reports. It is filled with reporters’ writings from local newspapers across the state and from those out-of-state papers that covered Mississippi sports, including the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Memphis Press-Scimitar, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The fifth oldest in-state trophy in Division IA, this game is the sixteenth oldest in-state rivalry nationwide.

Supporters of each school will find interesting tidbits, old and new, to throw into the endless discussion of Mississippi football. ‘The Egg Bowl’ name came from the golden football trophy first presented to the winner in 1927 in an effort to end the game in a more dignified manner than the brouhaha that occurred after the 1926 game. Slightly rounder and more oval than a present day football, the ‘egg shaped’ trophy has been replaced several times and modified with additional base pieces to provide room for the scores of future games.

The first chapter, “The First Feud, the First Protest, the First Delay, and Finally the First Game, gives a hint of the contentious nature of the series to come. The start of that first game was delayed over a forty-minute debate on the eligibility of A&M’s [State's] Billy Green who had played for the University’s team the previous year. One veteran observer said of the traditional game, “Rivalry? Ole Miss and Mississippi State are war.”

Giving no offense to the ‘Good Book,’ this title belongs on the bedside table of every fan of either of these two schools. Reading a short chapter every day or two will take the reader from the last of the
bowl games in January through spring practice and right into fall football fever. In addition to the statistical attention given to each game, appendixes provide even more fascinating facts and records. Barner’s book allows Mississippi libraries to provide the answer to most trivia questions and bar bets about the Egg Bowl games. It is a great gift book for alumni of these schools and is recommended for most medium to large school, public, and college libraries as needed.

Linda Hopper Jowers
Retired Librarian
M. R. Davis Public Library

Entry Filed under: Book Reviews
Posted on: March 31st, 2009