Published 4:00 am Friday, June 6, 2025
By Ernest Bowker
In case you haven’t heard or forgot, big changes are coming for the Red Carpet Bowl football game this season.
The season-opening doubleheader with Vicksburg and Warren Central is no more. Instead, when they play each other in their annual rivalry game on Sept. 19, it will be the Red Carpet Bowl as well as the River City Rivalry game.
The reasons for the switch are many — hot weather that forced last-minute schedule changes and the evolving business of high school sports being the top two — but it’ll still be a football festival that continues the game’s rich tradition.
And while it’ll mark the start of a new era for the Red Carpet Bowl, some things will never change. Mainly, the game’s core mission of providing scholarships to Warren County’s high school seniors.
The Red Carpet Bowl committee recently awarded nine scholarships worth $1,000 each at the athletic awards ceremonies for Vicksburg High, Warren Central, St. Aloysius and Porter’s Chapel Academy.
The recipients were Caden Barnett, Avery Van Norman and Kennedy Mullins at Vicksburg; Whitley Parks, Jack Ford and Addison Jackson at Warren Central; Ryan Davidson at St. Aloysius; and Sophie Masterson at Porter’s Chapel.
Another Warren Central senior, Harber Williams, received the Red Carpet Bowl Carl Blue Scholarship. It is given in conjunction with the Red Carpet Bowl and a Warren Central alumni group.
The other scholarships are also made possible through sponsorships. Mutual Credit Union sponsored the St. Al award, Batesville Casket the Vicksburg High awards, and Terral River Services the Warren Central scholarships.
Sponsorships have always been the lifeblood of the Red Carpet Bowl. Our local business community has supported the game for 63 years and counting, which means they’ve contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cause. The Red Carpet Bowl benefits schools as a whole — each participating team receives an appearance fee similar to a college bowl game — as well as individual students through the scholarship fund.
The committee is always looking for more sponsors, too. If you’d like to sign on please email Red Carpet Bowl chairman Wayne Roberts at wayner@dimco.net; or vice chairman Johnny Reynolds at johnnylr4545@gmail.com.
Otherwise, just continue to support the game. Buy tickets. Supoort the local businesses who keep it going. Wear your old Red Carpet Bowl T-shirts that provide advertising for years afterward. And if you see one of the scholarship recipients around town, offer a round of congratulations. They’re part of a decades-old tradition
Vicksburg can be proud to call its own.
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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com
Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post’s sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post’s sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper’s 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.
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