Vandalism, pigs & confusion. The wild history behind South Mississippi’s Crab Trap Trophy

Bay High and St. Stanislaus know each other quite well.

The two Bay St. Louis high schools have met each other 55 times on the football field. It’s the second-longest running rivalry on the Mississippi Coast, trailing only the Gulfport-Biloxi series.

The rivals have played continuously since 1968 with the exception of two seasons — 1995 and 2005. The latter was due to Hurricane Katrina and SSC’s decision to not field a team for the remainder of that season.

The former for an entirely different reason.

Pranks from students at both schools escalated to property damage and the release of an mud-sploshing animal. Officials met on the afternoon on the game and decided to call it off as a safety precaution to fans and players. It would officially go in as a Rock-a-Chaw forfeit since SSC initiated the cancellation.

But accounts differ on whether the inception of the rivalry’s trophy was a cause of the week’s shenanigans or a result of it.

Some are convinced the Crab Trap Trophy — an actual crab trap with a plaque attached — was created ahead of the 1996 game. But a key figure in the rivalry’s history promises it debuted in 1994.

Was it 1996?

It started out innocently enough, according to St. Stanislaus athletics historian and Sea Coast Echo reporter Joe Gex.

Trees were rolled, houses were egged, but nothing too serious. Until it was. According to police at the time, windows were shot out at St. Stanislaus High School with a BB gun.

Graffiti was sprayed on walls at both schools. And it culminated in SSC students releasing a pig onto the football field at BHS just before a storm.

“Both sides were responsible for vandalism and it got so excessive that the game was not played,” Gex told the Sun Herald.

In response to the canceled game and the petty crimes that caused it, the Bay St. Louis Rotary Club worked to create a trophy that would unite fans and students and temper tensions between the two schools.

Thus the Crab Trap Trophy was born. At least, according to Gex. Current Rock-a-Chaw head coach Tate Thigpen also has the same story. Thigpen told the Sun Herald his cousin Brian — who graduated from SSC in 1996 — informed him of the pig story and the subsequent creation of the trophy series.

Gex’s brother, Correy, was the quarterback for the Rocks from 1993-95 and said he believes the trophy came about in ‘96, as well.

Rotary member Mike Meyers, who came up with the trophy idea along with the late Dusty Rhodes and personally bought the crab trap itself, doesn’t remember what the year was.

But another prominent figure in the series says he does.

Or 1994?

Current Bay High head coach Jeremy Turcotte was there.

He was a senior when the game was canceled in ‘95, but did play in the contest the previous two seasons. In fact, he was the long snapper for the Tigers’ game-winning field goal in the 24-21 win in 1994.

The prize they carried into the locker room that night? The Crab Trap Trophy itself, according to Turcotte.

“It was on the shelf above the coaches office door in our old field house when I was a player,” Turcotte said.

Outside of his memory, which he promises “isn’t that bad,” Turcotte also has a particular fact working in his favor. The first inscription on the trophy itself is from the 1994 game.

Turcotte says the rivalry ignited after that. St. Stanislaus students covered the walls of BHS’s athletics complex and little league ball field bathrooms with obscenities. Bay High students did the same to the walls that circle the field at SSC.

You could still see the outlines of the messages on the old field house for years before the building was replaced.

The calming agent after that was a joint breakfast ahead of the ‘96 and ‘97 games, according to Turcotte.

Regardless of how or when the trophy came to be, tempers would quickly fade.

“It’s become a very healthy rivalry,” Gex said.

The Rock-a-Chaws have a 35-20 lead in the series and a 20-8 lead since the trophy was created. Turcotte himself is 5-18 in the series from his time as a player, assistant and head coach for the Tigers.

Regardless of the outcomes, the game has become one of the biggest weeks of the year for the community.

“It’s a big deal, it’s a year of bragging rights,” Turcotte said. “It doesn’t matter the records of the teams, everyone is going to come out.”

Turcotte is in his fifth season as the head coach of the Tigers. He says his team’s focus is on themselves this year and less about who lines up across from them.

He’s facing first-year head coach Thigpen, who is a South Mississippi implant but still understands the importance of the game.

“Anytime you have two teams in a town this size and a county this size that play each other every year, that rivalry is going to develop over time naturally,” Thigpen said. “Most of these kids know each other and have grown up together. There’s going to be a lot of talk back and forth.”