Legend has it that in the mid 1930s a Jersey cow wandered across Scott Field during an Ole Miss-Mississippi State football game. Mississippi State whooped the Rebels that day, and Bulldog fans adopted the cow as a good luck charm. For years, Bulldog fans brought a cow to every home game until the early ’50s when cowbells became more prominent. In the 1960s, two MSU professors obliged some students’ requests by welding handles to the bells so they would be more convenient to ring. Ever since then, faithful Bulldogs have developed a sense of love and compassion for the cowbell, and now it’s being stripped from our grasps!
During the late ’60s and early ’70s the cowbell became so dominant at games that in 1974 the SEC banned cowbells from all conference events.
Obviously it didn’t work too well.
This year another rule has been added to force fans to quit ringing cowbells. A game official can now call a 15-yard penalty if cowbell noise is not silenced.
So, why did they wait so long to enforce this new ruling? Because the chancellor of Ole Miss wrote a letter to the SEC commissioner concerning last year’s Egg Bowl. He alleged that Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning could not call audibles at the line of scrimmage because cowbell noises were too loud, and that’s why they lost the game.
I tend to disagree with the Ole Miss chancellor on that one. I really don’t think Ole Miss lost because of our cowbells, but they might have lost in result of Eli Manning throwing three crucial interceptions. Or maybe because Mississippi State’s offense racked up a total of 462 yards against the Rebel defense.
Just because we prohibited Ole Miss from going to a bowl game with that 36 to 28 Egg Bowl victory doesn’t mean that they can take away a 70-year-old tradition from us! And MSU students tend to agree.
“I believe it is a very foolish decision,” sophomore Jeffery Ellis said. “It is very sad when the SEC dismantles a school’s deeply loved tradition, in our case the cowbell.
“I think this was just an attempt by Ole Miss to get revenge for the SEC’s ban on their ‘rebel’ flag. Go to Hell, Ole Miss!”
Ellis grew up around Mississippi State football; his father served as the Bulldogs’ kicker from 1969-75, and his grandmother has a cowbell that dates back 30 years. “When you think of Mississippi State you think of cowbells,” freshman Kristin Uribe said. “If they think they are going to take my cowbell away from me, they have another thing coming!”
In response to the SEC’s new ruling, the MSU Athletic Association recorded cowbell noises at this year’s fan day. They will play them over the loud speaker during home games.
Remember, cowbells are only banned from SEC games, meaning that cowbells are allowed in games between Jacksonville State, Memphis and Troy State.
Cowbells are just as much a part of Mississippi State football as tailgating is to LSU, as the tiger walk is to Auburn and as the walk of champions is to Ole Miss, but there is a difference-our tradition is being taken away from us.