It’s called the Egg Bowl in Mississippi because of the trophy the teams play for, “The Golden Egg,” and a newspaper headline that turned that trophy into the game’s nickname.

Quick Scoop

  • The Ole Miss–Mississippi State football rivalry dates back to 1901 and was formally played for a trophy called The Golden Egg starting in 1927.
  • The trophy is a gold-plated, old‑style football whose rounded shape made it look like an egg , which is where the “egg” part comes from.
  • The trophy was created after a nasty postgame brawl in 1926, when Ole Miss fans tried to tear down the goalposts and fights broke out, so both schools agreed a formal trophy presentation might cool things down.

How the name “Egg Bowl” stuck

  • For decades the rivalry was officially known as the Battle for the Golden Egg , not the Egg Bowl.
  • In 1978–1979, a Jackson newspaper sports editor at The Clarion‑Ledger labeled the game the “Egg Bowl” in a big special section, partly because neither team was good enough for a real postseason bowl, and the catchy name took off with fans and media.

So why “Egg Bowl” in simple terms?

  • “Egg” = the rounded Golden Egg trophy that looks like an old‑fashioned football.
  • “Bowl” = a tongue‑in‑cheek way a Mississippi paper framed the rivalry like a postseason bowl game, even in bad seasons, and the phrase became the rivalry’s popular nickname.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.