“Tell the boy with the ‘hate state’ shirt that he’s not welcome back here!” is what a girl posted on my friend’s FaceBook wall. This was after I had failed to convince her earlier that this shirt I wore, mentioning how state fans entertain themselves by cowtipping on Saturday nights, was just something I put on.
She wasn’t having it because her ego was hurt, and since it probably was a little bit true! The self-image each alma mater has inherited from the past has influenced how both Ole Miss and MS State battle each other on, and off the field.
That shirt touched upon the insecurity many state fans have that their school’s focus on agriculture, engineering, and mechanics is not as snazzy as our focus on law, medicine, accounting, or pharmacy.
And their fans like to nibble on our overinflated sense of superiority by pointing out how difficult it is to wear a seersucker in a MS heat wave, as well as our team’s record. This difference is mostly due to Ole Miss refusing to have agricultural or mechanical studies in order to maintain it’s elite status.
It leads to a lot of mostly friendly fun with jokes like:
Do you know why the Mississippi State football team should change its name to the “Possums”? Because they play dead at home, and get killed on the road.
How many Bulldogs does it take to screw in a light bulb? One, but he gets 3 credit hours.
What do you call a good-looking girl on the Mississippi State campus? A visitor.
What does the average Mississippi State student get on his SAT? Drool. (find more at http://www.zaneszeros.com/?p=3969)
All of us love to take any opportunity to flaunt our snobbery in front of our friends further down south. “People like to tease them about the cowbells (rung by Bulldog fans at home games), and they get real mad about that,” says Mississippi chancellor Robert Khayat, who played for the Rebels from 1957-59. “It has always been a rural-against-city rivalry. It’s funny, though. Mississippi is mostly rural. There isn’t too much that’s cosmopolitan about the state.” (http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football/college-footballs-great-rivalries-ole-miss-vs-mississippi-state)
Other factors besides each other’s psychological makeup has gotten tangled into the rivalry. It actually started with a riot in 1926 after our fans celebrated a win on their turf by tearing down their goal posts. The players just stood by the field and watched the royal rumble after Ole Miss won 7-6.
Then years later, Johnny Vaught became head coach and lost to the bulldogs twice, while he defeated them 22 times total. The 17 year win streak against the Bulldogs only helped extend the passions of each side.
Nowadays the rivalry has taken the form of irking Oxford citizens by posting an “Our State” billboard on Jackson Avenue, and taunting state fans on Facebook over losses to Alabama and Texas A&M. You’re also bound to see flags, rugs, or even license plates proclaiming a family has been divided by loyalties to either Ole Miss or MS State.
The rivalry has always been a source of entertainment for us all. My earliest memory is of two male cheerleaders from each school duking it out on the football field at a game.
At that same game, two state fans had wandered into an Ole Miss section at Vaught Hemingway waving a sign basically saying “Go State!” My out of control little bro proceeds towards them and swats down the sign, and quickly runs away before they see who did it!
So how do you push a state fan’s buttons?
- Ask them how much their jean shorts cost and where they got them.
- Give them some tips on cowtipping, or suggestions for other classy activities only Ole Miss folks do.
- Investigate why they couldn’t get into Ole Miss, if they went to college.
- When you encounter one of their fans wearing a “Hail State” shirt, yell Roll Tide! (They lost badly to Alabama)
You may be more creative than I am, but that should provide enough fun for you all!