The Egg Bowl gets its name from the “Golden Egg” trophy awarded to the winner of the annual Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State football game.
Origin of the name
The schools introduced the Golden Egg trophy in 1927 after a postgame brawl in 1926, hoping a formal award presentation would calm tensions between the rival fanbases. The trophy is a brass football mounted on a base, but because 1920s footballs were rounder, the ball looks more like an egg to modern fans, which led to it being called the Golden Egg.
In 1979, Jackson Clarion-Ledger sportswriter Tom Patterson dubbed the rivalry game the “Egg Bowl,” tying the bowl-style season finale to the long-standing Golden Egg trophy. The nickname stuck with media and fans, and “Egg Bowl” is now the common name for the Ole Miss–Mississippi State matchup.
