Veterans Memorial Stadium: The House of the Egg Bowl

Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium opened in nineteen fifty with twenty-one thousand seats and has grown to hold more than sixty thousand. For most of its history it was the biggest stage in Mississippi football. From nineteen seventy-three to nineteen ninety, the annual rivalry game between Ole Miss and Mississippi State, known as the Egg Bowl, was played here on neutral ground, drawing enormous crowds to the state capital.

Jackson State University, the historically Black university whose Tigers football program has produced some of the sport's great players, has called this stadium home since nineteen seventy. Among its famous alumni are Walter Payton, who played here before becoming one of the greatest running backs in NFL history. The stadium was transferred to Jackson State's ownership in two thousand eleven, and the Tigers continue to play here today, keeping alive a tradition that stretches back seven decades.