With apologies to all the rest, the best and most meaningful college football rivalry involving a Mississippi team has been the one that matches Ole Miss against LSU. Historically, nothing else comes close.

The two teams play again Saturday at Oxford. Both are undefeated. Both have looked like FBS playoff teams. LSU is ranked No. 4, and Ole Miss is ranked No. 13. Surprisingly, at least to this column, Ole Miss is favored, albeit by the slimmest of margins.

I have covered probably 30 Ole Miss-LSU games in person, but my introduction to the rivalry was not in person or even on TV. No, it came on Halloween night, 66 years ago. LSU was ranked No. 1, Ole Miss No. 3. My father and I listened to the radio at our kitchen table with a yellow formica top on 26th Avenue in Hattiesburg. Our beige Philco radio was tuned to 870 AM, WWL in New Orleans. As was usually was the case at night, WWL came in loud and clear. LSU broadcaster J.C. Politz was on the call.

Ole Miss led 3-0 when Jake Gibbs punted late in the fourth quarter. We heard Politz say Billy Cannon gathered in the punt on a bounce at his own 11-yard line. We heard Politz say Cannon stumbled momentarily at the 20. And then, we couldn’t hear anything Politz said. All we could hear was the roar of the crowd. But, even at age 7, I knew what was happening.

The rest is college football lore. Cannon broke several tackles en route to an 89-yard touchdown. It won the game for LSU and the Heisman Trophy for Cannon. It cost the greatest football team in Mississippi history the outright national championship. Ole Miss absolutely dominated the game, except on the scoreboard. The Rebels gained 19 first downs and 363 yards to six first downs and 74 yards total for LSU. In a Sugar Bowl rematch, Ole Miss hammered LSU 21-0. If not for Cannon’s punt return, that Ole Miss team probably would be remembered as the greatest college football team of all time. Those Rebels outscored 11 opponents, including mighty LSU twice, 349-21

Fifty-four years later, in 2013, Cannon and his LSU coach, Paul Dietzel, attended a meeting of the Jackson Touchdown Club. Also in attendance were several of the ’59 Ole Miss Rebels. Beforehand, Cannon and Dietzel posed for a Clarion Ledger photographer while the former Ole Miss players stood off to the side and watched. And then Marvin Terrell, the biggest and strongest of all the ’59 Rebels, brought down the house when he bellowed, “Hey Billy, come try to run through us now.”

Wisely, Cannon declined.

The LSU-Ole Miss series has provided so many more poignant memories, though few with the national ramifications of that ’59 game. The last three Ole Miss-LSU games have ended with the home crowd storming the field The last two meetings have been especially memorable.

Two years ago at Oxford, Ole Miss overcame a 42-34 fourth quarter deficit to win 55-49 in a duel of fantastic quarterbacks Jayden Daniels and Jaxson Dart. As of today, both Daniels and Dart are starting NFL quarterbacks. Last year, at Baton Rouge, Garrett Nussmeier rallied No. 13 LSU to a 29-26 overtime victory over Dart and the No. 9 Rebels. My guess: Nussmeier, as well, will one day start at quarterback in the NFL.

My most memorable in-person Ole Miss-LSU game? There have been so many, but I’d have to go with the 1997 meeting when unranked Ole Miss stunned No. 8 LSU 36-21 behind a heroic performance from previously unsung quarterback Stewart Patridge. Remember?

If you were there at Tiger Stadium that sunny, breezy afternoon, you haven’t forgotten. A week earlier, LSU had knocked No. 1 and undefeated Florida, coached by Steve Spurrier. Ole Miss had lost two of its first five games by double digits. There was nothing to suggest heavily favored LSU wouldn’t wipe the field with Tommy Tuberville’s Rebels, still reeling from NCAA probation and with only 68 players on scholarship.

Patridge, who would win the Conerly Trophy that season, had transferred to Ole Miss from Mississippi Delta Junior College and had not become the Rebels’ starter until late in his junior season. But that October afternoon in Baton Rouge, Patridge was remarkable. Checking off about every other play against the constantly blitzing LSU defense, Patridge, both resourceful and accurate, threw for 346 yards and two touchdowns. He picked LSU apart is what he did. Time and time again, he hit key third down passes to extend drives and keep the Tigers’ offense off the field.

By game’s end, much of the LSU crowd had exited. In the southeast corner of the Tiger Stadium end zone, about 3,000 Ole Miss had-to-be-hoarse fans stayed and Hotty Toddied long, long after the final horn sounded.

Death Valley? Not that day.