Good Mornin’! Good Mornin’!
If it’s Thanksgiving, then everything at the family table is festooned in either maroon or red and blue.
Oh, there may be the occasional green and white and black and gold donned relatives sprinkled in but it’s all about the Egg Bowl when turkey day comes around. But as a kid our “tradition” had no turkey.
No, we were at Cordy Brake Hunting Club hunting deer and lined up cafeteria style to take part in some of the best fried deer meat, mashed potatoes and butter beans you can imagine. I’m sure there were more delectable items but my memory is hazy on those details. But it was all good!
The earliest Egg Bowl memories are riding around in my daddy’s truck looking for deer and the strains of Jack Cristil explaining “the Bulldogs are headed left to right on your radio dial.” I reckon the whole hunting season from dove to deer was listening to Cristil on WNLA in my daddy’s truck. My dad still got off some long-range impressive shots at deer while I sat there, mouth open, in wonderment perplexed as to how in the world he did that. I don’t think I ever went through the five slugs I had for the single shot .20 gauge I hunted with. They were always in my pocket and are probably in my childhood closet somewhere still waiting to be sent after a prized deer.
I grew up in a household of bulldogs. My dad matriculated there but didn’t finish as he was drafted and finished his education in the Army. My oldest brother John went there after the two-year pre-requisite at Moorhead and has his Ag Econ degree and my middle brother, Paul followed the same educational turn row. My older sister, Beth has her master’s from State after attending MUW for her undergrad. I was blindly headed to Starkville but I had no farming instincts, capabilities or inclination. Johnny Weathersby invited me to an Ole Miss football weekend our junior year and I saw Rebel legend John Fourcade carve up the Tigers, 61-7. I had never been to a Division 1 football game, only JUCO and DSU’s D2 outings. I fell in love with Ole Miss and discovered their journalism department and headed that way after a pre-requisite year as a Trojan in Moorhead.
I don’t know if any of my immediate family has been to an Ole Miss/State football game. My brothers came home to work on the farm on weekends while at State. While I was an undergrad, Ole Miss was 4-0 in the Egg Bowl. My first one was the Immaculate Deflection game in 1983. What an introduction! Then in 1984, I was on the field working for WTBS and briefly held the trophy after the 24-3 win. Two more victories filled out my “four years” at Ole Miss with Billy Brewer.
Since then, I’ve interviewed a few Egg Bowl legends for stories on both sides and I can’t wait to get a few more in the coming years. What’s your favorite memory of the Egg Bowl? I can’t beat deer hunting with my dad and listening in even though I’ve been there in person and held the Egg Bowl for a brief second.
#Hotty Toddy and #HailState, I’m ready for some fried deer meat!
