It’s a known fact that the annual game between Casa Grande and Petaluma High School is coined as “The Egg Bowl,” but where did this name come from? It is not, in fact, due to the fact that Petaluma (also nicknamed “Egg Basket,” and “Egg Capital of the World”) is known for its chickens and produces an abundance of eggs. The name actually traces back to an old time college football rivalry between Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi. They play against each other annually and their rivalry is the tenth longest uninterrupted series in the United States. The Golden Egg trophy is the most treasured piece of hardware in Mississippi, and the two teams play to win that shiny, golden egg mounted on top of a pedestal. The game used to be called the “Battle for the Golden Egg,” but in 1978, Clarion-Ledger executive sports editor Tom Pattinson changed to “The Egg Bowl.” Patterson didn’t believe the state’s football programs were good enough for his newspaper. He was proud of his sports sections and enhanced them by covering special events, but the Bulldogs (Mississippi State University’s team) and Rebels (University of Mississippi’s old mascot, now the Landsharks) were not winning any significant games. So, Patterson decided to create one, and thus the Egg Bowl was created. The Golden Egg is supposed to represent a golden-plated football and Patterson’s newspaper referred to it as the Egg Bowl for the rest of that week, and the section on the Egg Bowl won a first place award. Now, more than three decades later, the game is still referred to as the Egg Bowl.