December Dawgs
December 17, 2020 | Football
On Saturday, MSU will look for its first SEC victory in the month of December in the last 56 years
STARKVILLE – Regardless of the final score or any other number on the box score, another record will fall on Saturday afternoon inside Davis Wade Stadium.
When Mississippi State hosts Missouri on December 19, it will mark the latest regular-season, conference game in program history.
It will supplant last week's game against Auburn as the latest regular-season contest since a December 7 victory in the 1918 Egg Bowl. It will land on the calendar just two days before the earliest bowl game in program history, the 1963 Liberty Bowl that was played on December 21. And if it were not for one unique contest back in the 1911 season, it would be the latest non-bowl game in school history.
On January 1, 1912, the Bulldogs, then known as the Mississippi A&M Aggies, played in the Bacardi Bowl, an unsanctioned bowl that was the final event in Cuba's annual National Sports Festival, pitting a local Cuban squad against various American universities.
The previous season had seen MSU set a then-program record with seven wins and the Aggies were on the cusp of matching that mark. Head coach W.D. Chadwick, who lends his name to the lake in the midst of State's athletic facilities today, sent his team of just 15 student-athletes to Havana, Cuba, for one final game on New Year's Day. The Aggies went on to claim a 12-0 victory over Havana Athletic Club in the third edition of the bowl and post their second straight seven-win season.
State was the second SEC team to make the trip to Cuba, after LSU did so in the first Bacardi Bowl in 1907. Florida, Ole Miss and Auburn would also play in the game until it was discontinued in 1946 after Southern Miss won the final matchup. It would be more than 30 years before another NCAA football game was played outside the U.S., and MSU has never again played on foreign soil.
But the Bulldogs continued to play in December. In fact, including last week's game with Auburn, MSU has now played 23 non-bowl games in the final month of the year.
In 1921, MSU hosted LSU on December 3, dropping a 17-14 decision. Two years later, State defeated the Tigers 14-7 on December 1. In 1936, the Bulldogs traveled to Florida for a 7-0 victory that sent them to their first sanctioned postseason game, returning to the state a month later for the Orange Bowl in Miami on New Year's Day.
To open the 1940s, MSU claimed its first-ever win in the state of California with a 26-13 victory at San Francisco on December 6, 1941. The following year, the Bulldogs defeated San Francisco again, this time by a score of 19-7 in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 5.
The last time MSU won a regular-season game in December came in 1964, when MSU won the Egg Bowl in Oxford, 20-17, for its first win in the rivalry in 17 years. Prior to 2020, that game was tied with the 1936 Florida game for the latest regular-season conference game in program history.
When Mississippi State hosts Missouri on December 19, it will mark the latest regular-season, conference game in program history.
It will supplant last week's game against Auburn as the latest regular-season contest since a December 7 victory in the 1918 Egg Bowl. It will land on the calendar just two days before the earliest bowl game in program history, the 1963 Liberty Bowl that was played on December 21. And if it were not for one unique contest back in the 1911 season, it would be the latest non-bowl game in school history.
On January 1, 1912, the Bulldogs, then known as the Mississippi A&M Aggies, played in the Bacardi Bowl, an unsanctioned bowl that was the final event in Cuba's annual National Sports Festival, pitting a local Cuban squad against various American universities.
The previous season had seen MSU set a then-program record with seven wins and the Aggies were on the cusp of matching that mark. Head coach W.D. Chadwick, who lends his name to the lake in the midst of State's athletic facilities today, sent his team of just 15 student-athletes to Havana, Cuba, for one final game on New Year's Day. The Aggies went on to claim a 12-0 victory over Havana Athletic Club in the third edition of the bowl and post their second straight seven-win season.
State was the second SEC team to make the trip to Cuba, after LSU did so in the first Bacardi Bowl in 1907. Florida, Ole Miss and Auburn would also play in the game until it was discontinued in 1946 after Southern Miss won the final matchup. It would be more than 30 years before another NCAA football game was played outside the U.S., and MSU has never again played on foreign soil.
But the Bulldogs continued to play in December. In fact, including last week's game with Auburn, MSU has now played 23 non-bowl games in the final month of the year.
In 1921, MSU hosted LSU on December 3, dropping a 17-14 decision. Two years later, State defeated the Tigers 14-7 on December 1. In 1936, the Bulldogs traveled to Florida for a 7-0 victory that sent them to their first sanctioned postseason game, returning to the state a month later for the Orange Bowl in Miami on New Year's Day.
To open the 1940s, MSU claimed its first-ever win in the state of California with a 26-13 victory at San Francisco on December 6, 1941. The following year, the Bulldogs defeated San Francisco again, this time by a score of 19-7 in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 5.
The last time MSU won a regular-season game in December came in 1964, when MSU won the Egg Bowl in Oxford, 20-17, for its first win in the rivalry in 17 years. Prior to 2020, that game was tied with the 1936 Florida game for the latest regular-season conference game in program history.
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