There are certain sounds that belong to fall in Mississippi: marching bands warming up, cowbells ringing, whistles blowing, and a stadium announcer carrying across a cool Friday night.
Football may not have been born in Mississippi, but somewhere along the way, Mississippi certainly made the game its own.
The sport arrived in the state during the late 19th century as college football began spreading across the country. Ole Miss fielded its first football team in 1893, while Mississippi A&M—today’s Mississippi State University—began playing football in 1895. What started with relatively small crowds and unfamiliar rules would eventually grow into one of the state’s most enduring traditions.
And Mississippi wasted little time creating a rivalry.
Ole Miss and Mississippi State first met on the football field in 1901. Their annual battle eventually became known as the Egg Bowl, a rivalry that has divided households, workplaces and Thanksgiving gatherings for generations. The rivalry’s famous Golden Egg trophy dates to 1927, created after tensions surrounding the game had become particularly heated.
But Mississippi football has never belonged only to its two largest universities.
Southern Miss began playing football in 1912 and built a tradition that would produce memorable teams and NFL talent. Mississippi’s historically Black colleges and universities developed football traditions every bit as meaningful. Jackson State, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State became places where Saturdays brought communities together and where some extraordinary players made their names.
Among them was Mississippi Valley State’s Jerry Rice, who rewrote record books in Itta Bena before becoming one of the greatest players in NFL history. Walter Payton starred at Jackson State before earning his place among professional football’s legends. Brett Favre, from Kiln, made his mark at Southern Miss before beginning his Hall of Fame NFL career.
Then there is high school football.
In communities across Mississippi, Friday night football became something bigger than a sporting event. Stadiums became gathering places. Players became hometown heroes. Bands, cheerleaders, coaches, parents and generations of former students all became part of the experience.
In some towns, you don’t need directions to the football field on Friday night. Just follow the lights.
That tradition has produced remarkable talent. Mississippi has given football Archie Manning of Drew, Steve McNair of Mount Olive, Ray Guy of Thomson, and countless others whose journeys began on fields in small towns and communities across the state.
Yet the history of Mississippi football isn’t really contained in trophies, statistics or famous names.
It lives in fathers taking their sons to the same stadiums where they once sat with their own fathers. It’s in weathered stadium seats, homecoming games, rivalry weeks and children tossing footballs behind the bleachers. It’s the band playing the fight song one more time and an entire hometown showing up under Friday night lights.
More than a century after those first Mississippi teams took the field, football remains one of the rhythms by which we mark the year.
Summer ends. School begins.
And somewhere beneath a set of stadium lights, Mississippi gets ready for kickoff.
