It is called the Egg Bowl because of the rivalry trophy, “The Golden Egg,” which looks more like an egg than a modern football.
Origin of the name
- Ole Miss and Mississippi State play annually for a trophy created in 1927 called The Golden Egg, a brass, football-shaped piece whose rounded, old-style shape resembles an egg to modern eyes.
- Because the game came to be identified with this “egg”-shaped trophy, the rivalry gradually became known as the Egg Bowl, a nickname that stuck over time.
How “Egg Bowl” caught on
- The rivalry had long been officially known as the Battle for the Golden Egg, but in 1979 a Mississippi newspaper sports editor popularized “Egg Bowl” as a catchy label for the game.
- Since then, fans, media, and the schools themselves have widely used “Egg Bowl” as the standard name for the Ole Miss–Mississippi State football game.
