# Jackson State–Southern football rivalry

The Jackson State–Southern football rivalry, often informally called the BoomBox Classic, 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).

## Background

The teams first met on November 30, 1929, a 98–0 win by Southern. 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. 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, since it could hold upwards of 25,000 fans, while Southern's stadium could only hold 13,000 at the time. It was played in New Orleans in 2000, 2002, and 2004—the latter as part of the then-annual "Big Easy Classic" series. In 2009, Southern voluntarily surrendered a home game to keep it at JSU’s home stadium to take advantage of the larger capacity. The 2012 game was played as part of the annual "W. C. Gorden Classic" series.
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." 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 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. GameDay had previously made appearances at only three other HBCU games: the 2005 Grambling State–Southern game at the Bayou Classic in Houston, 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.

## Game results

| Jackson State victories | Southern victories | Tie games | Vacated games |
| No. | Date | Location | Winner | Score |
| 1 | November 30, 1929 | | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 † Big Easy Classic ‡ W. C. Gorden Classic |||||