The two schools met nearly every year in various sports from 1920 through spring 1960, after which time the series was cancelled when a fight broke out at a men's basketball game.

[2] Later, the Mississippi Sports Council worked with both schools to resume the football series, which was dubbed the "Backyard Brawl" due to the colleges' proximity in the Jackson area.

The first game was held on September 2, 2000, at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium and reportedly drew 13,000 fans, an NCAA Division III record.

In 2005, the series took another brief hiatus when Mississippi College began preparing for a potential move to Division II, where they could grant athletic scholarships.

This move never came to fruition, however, and the series resumed in 2006, again as an opening week contest but with the games alternating between the schools' campuses.