Jackson State–Southern football rivalry

Boombox Classic

Jackson State Southern University
Sport	American football
First meeting	November 30, 1929[1] Southern, 98–0[1]
Latest meeting	December 7, 2024 Jackson State, 41–13
Next meeting	2025
Statistics
Meetings total	72
All-time series	Tied, 35–35 (not including 2 vacated wins)[2]
Largest victory	Southern, 98–0 (1929) Jackson State, 41–0 (1981)
Longest win streak	Southern, 8 (2013–2021) Jackson State, 7 (1977–1983)
Current win streak	Jackson State, 5 (2021–present)

150km
100miles

Southern

Jackson State

  

Locations of Jackson State and Southern University

The Jackson State–Southern football rivalry, often informally called the BoomBox Classic,^[3] is a college football rivalry between the Tigers of Jackson State University (JSU) and the Jaguars of Southern University (SU). An annual conference game between two historically black universities in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), its location usually rotates between JSU's Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson, Mississippi and SU's A. W. Mumford Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but it has also been held at larger venues to accommodate the large crowds that the game draws. As of 2023, the Jaguars lead the series 35–33, not including two wins that Southern was ordered to vacate by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).^[2]

Background

The teams first met on November 30, 1929, a 98–0 win by Southern.^[1] After that game, the series was not resumed again until 1958, when Jackson State joined the SWAC. Since then, the conference rivals have played each other every year—and twice in 1999 and 2013, when Southern defeated Jackson State in SWAC championship games. In fact, both schools are among the most successful SWAC members. Through 2021, Southern has won the second-most SWAC football titles (19), while Jackson State has won the third-most (17).

Past venues and atmosphere

Both JSU and SU are known to have finished among the top ten NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision schools in past annual home attendance figures.^[4] Due to the game's substantial crowds, it has sometimes been played at alternative venues to accommodate the numbers. In 1961 it was played in Mobile, Alabama as part of the second annual "Claver Classic." It was played in Baton Rouge's Memorial Stadium in 1978,^[5] since it could hold upwards of 25,000 fans, while Southern's stadium could only hold 13,000 at the time.^[6] It was played in New Orleans in 2000,^[7] 2002, and 2004^[8]—the latter as part of the then-annual "Big Easy Classic" series.^[7] In 2009, Southern voluntarily surrendered a home game to keep it at JSU’s home stadium to take advantage of the larger capacity.^[9] The 2012 game was played as part of the annual "W. C. Gorden Classic" series.^[10]

The intense rivalry extends beyond the game itself, featuring a battle between the schools' well-respected and popular marching bands, Jackson State's "Sonic Boom of the South" and Southern's "Human Jukebox."^[9] Hence, in the past, the game had been commonly referred to informally by using a portmanteau of the bands' names—the BoomBox Classic. The BoomBox battle traditionally starts about an hour before the game begins and continues for about an hour after the game has been decided, known as the "Zero Quarter" and "Fifth Quarter" respectively in the HBCU community.

Recent national attention

JSU's hiring of Deion Sanders as head coach in 2020 drew a great deal of attention to the Tiger program in general^[11] and the JSU-SU series in particular. On October 23, 2022, ESPN's College GameDay program announced that it would broadcast live from Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium on the morning of the game.^[12] GameDay had previously made appearances at only three other HBCU games: the 2005 Grambling State–Southern game at the Bayou Classic in Houston,^[13] the 2008 Florida A&M–Hampton game in Tallahassee, Florida, and the 2021 Alcorn State–North Carolina Central game at the MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Atlanta.^[14]

Game results

Jackson State victories

Southern victories

Tie games

Vacated games[2]

No. Date Location Winner Score 1 November 30, 1929[1] Southern 98–0 2 October 25, 1958 Scotlandville Southern 30–6 3 October 24, 1959 Jackson Southern 22–6 4 October 22, 1960 Scotlandville Southern 41–0 5 October 21, 1961 Mobile, Alabama^* Southern 17–7 6 October 20, 1962 Scotlandville Southern 19–14 7 October 19, 1963 Jackson Southern 17–16 8 October 17, 1964 Scotlandville Jackson College 9–0 9 October 16, 1965 Jackson Southern 24–21 10 October 15, 1966 Scotlandville Southern 9–0 11 October 14, 1967 Jackson Jackson State 3–0 12 October 19, 1968 Scotlandville Southern 30–16 13 October 18, 1969 Jackson Southern 47–21 14 October 17, 1970 Scotlandville Southern 27–14 15 October 16, 1971 Jackson Jackson State 49–28 16 October 14, 1972 Scotlandville Jackson State 22–17 17 October 13, 1973 Jackson Jackson State 28–3 18 October 19, 1974 Scotlandville Southern 21–19 19 October 18, 1975 Jackson Southern 21–20 20 October 16, 1976 Scotlandville Southern 20–6 21 October 15, 1977 Jackson Jackson State 38–0 22 October 14, 1978 Baton Rouge[5] Jackson State 41–14 23 October 13, 1979 Jackson Jackson State 34–0 24 October 18, 1980 Scotlandville Jackson State 7–6 25 October 17, 1981 Jackson Jackson State 41–0 26 October 16, 1982 Baton Rouge Jackson State 17–10 27 October 15, 1983 Jackson Jackson State 31–0 28 October 13, 1984 Baton Rouge Southern 34–28 29 October 19, 1985 Jackson Jackson State 27–9 30 October 18, 1986 Baton Rouge Jackson State 16–9 31 October 17, 1987 Jackson Jackson State 14–0 32 October 15, 1988 Baton Rouge Jackson State 23–3 33 October 14, 1989 Jackson Southern 21–7 34 October 13, 1990 Baton Rouge Jackson State 52–14 35 October 19, 1991 Jackson Southern 21–20 36 October 17, 1992 Baton Rouge Jackson State 25–24 37 October 16, 1993 Jackson Southern 16–3 No. Date Location Winner Score 38 October 15, 1994 Baton Rouge Jackson State 24–21 39 October 14, 1995 Jackson Jackson State 16–14 40 October 19, 1996 Baton Rouge Southern 27–16 41 October 18, 1997 Jackson[15] Southern 28–8 42 October 17, 1998 Baton Rouge Southern 33–28 43 October 16, 1999 Jackson Southern 26–14 44 December 11, 1999 Birmingham, Alabama^** Southern 31–30 45 September 23, 2000 New Orleans Jackson State 13–10 46 October 13, 2001 Jackson Jackson State 24–21 47 September 21, 2002 New Orleans Jackson State 36–13 48 October 18, 2003 Jackson Southern 30–20 49 October 16, 2004 New Orleans^† Southern 45–7 50 October 15, 2005 Baton Rouge Southern 20–14 51 October 14, 2006 Jackson Jackson State 31–28 52 October 13, 2007 Baton Rouge Jackson State 32–26 53 October 4, 2008 Jackson Southern 35–28 54 October 3, 2009 Jackson Jackson State 22–14 55 October 16, 2010 Jackson Jackson State 49–45 56 October 17, 2011 Baton Rouge Jackson State 28–24 57 September 22, 2012 Jackson^‡ Southern 28–21 58 September 28, 2013 Baton Rouge Jackson State 19–14 59 December 7, 2013 Houston^** Southern 34–27 60 October 25, 2014 Jackson Southern 42–28 61 September 19, 2015 Baton Rouge Southern 50–31 62 October 15, 2016 Jackson Southern 28–24 63 October 22, 2017 Jackson Southern 35–17 64 October 27, 2018[16] Baton Rouge Southern 41–7 65 November 16, 2019 Jackson Southern 40–34 66 April 3, 2021 Jackson Southern 34–14 67 November 13, 2021 Baton Rouge Jackson State 21–17 68 October 29, 2022 Jackson Jackson State 35–0 69 December 3, 2022 Jackson^** Jackson State 43–24 70 September 9, 2023 Baton Rouge Jackson State 27–14 71 September 14, 2024 Jackson Jackson State 33–15 72 December 7, 2024 Jackson** Jackson State 41–13 Series: Tied 35–35 * Claver Classic ** SWAC Championship Game[17] † Big Easy Classic ‡ W. C. Gorden Classic

See also

• List of NCAA college football rivalry games
• List of black college football classics

References

1. "Southern Jaguars: 1929 Schedule (7-1)". cfbinfo.com. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
2. "Robinson 5 TDs for No. 16 TCU in 55-7 win over Southern U". si.com. 2018. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
3. "JSU Winning the SWAC East Has Been a Long Time Coming". November 14, 2021.
4. "2019 Football Attendance" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (p. 4). 2020.
5. Joe Planas (November 25, 1979). "Ex-'fat dude' at home away from home". Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate (sec. D, p. 6).
6. Joe Macaluso (November 15, 1979). "University sports". Baton Rouge Morning Advocate (Newcomers Guide Special Edition, pp. 42–43).
7. Joseph Schiefelbein (October 14, 2004). "SU players excited about playing in Superdome". Baton Rouge Advocate (sec. C, p. 3).
8. "Southern vs Jackson St. (MS)". cfbdatawarehouse.com. College Football Data Warehouse. 2012. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
9. Perry White (September 16, 2011). "Jackson State vs. Southern – A Rivalry Renewed in Baton Rouge". HBCU Digest. Archived from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
10. "Smile Page". Clarksdale (Miss.) Press Register (p. 24). September 28, 2012.
11. Langston Newsome (September 20, 2022). "How Deion Sanders changed Jackson State from 'pickup football' to 'burning desire' to make NFL". clarionledger.com. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
12. Nick Gray (October 23, 2022). "ESPN's 'College GameDay' coming to Jackson State football for first time". clarionledger.com.
13. "ESPN and College GameDay to broadcast live from Bayou Classic". gojagsports.com. November 22, 2005.
14. "College Gameday coming to Jackson State–Southern: College Gameday, the biggest college football show in the world, will broadcast ahead of Jackson State–Southern". hbcugameday.com. October 23, 2022. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
15. Greg Abadie (October 19, 1997). "High-powered JSU offense unable to get on track". Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate (sec. C, p. 14).
16. "Live updates: Jackson State vs. Southern University football". clarionledger.com. October 27, 2018. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
17. "Jackson State vs Southern (LA)". cfbdatawarehouse.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2014.