What better symbol of a college known as “Moo U” than a cowbell?

This noisemaker, tension easer, and sometime lethal weapon, is present in quantity at all of State’s football games and was formerly to be seen at State’s basketball games. Its use at basketball games has has been discontinued by school policy, much to the chagrin of the “raise hell loudly” faction of the student clank of the cowbell has been replaced by silent signs proclaiming to the officials, DING DONG DAMMIT, DING DONG.

The cowbell has been put to several uses on the State campus. Several members of the “raise hell quietly” faction of the student body have stated, “There is no better way to wake up your roommate at 3:00 A. M., incur the wrath of an entire dormitory, and develop a tremendous headache at the same time than to vigorously ring a cowbell in the halls.” or should it be said, echo chambers of our dorms.

It can easily be recognized that when the need arises, a cowbell can do infinitely more damage to an opponent in a fight than a mere bare fist. Inverted, the cowbell also makes an excellent triple martini glass. Above all, the cowbell, when used at pep rallies and football games, makes for an unsurpassable show of school spirit.

There is no factual information readily available pertaining to how the cowbell first came to be used at our athletic functions or who introduced it. A prominent student leader who swears that this term will conclude his twenty-first semester as a freshman, however, has ventured an opinion as to how we came to adopt its use. “It seems that, in the early history of our football team,” he said, “during a home game between State and Ole Miss, a jersey cow wandered onto the playing field. The effect was completely demoralizing to the Ole Miss team. The Bulldogs ran over the Rebels and won the game. State students immediately adopted the cow as good luck talisman and brought a cow to each of the games that State played.

This practice was discontinued after a time due to sanitation problems and eventually the entire cow was replaced by a cowbell. After all, it is rather difficult to clobber someone with a cow.

The care and feeding of a cowbell also opens new realms of possibility to the co-eds of the university. A cowbell could be used to summon help on a date, or to summon a dare if the need were to arise. This handy gadget, when carried on their person or in a purse could be used in dire emergencies, as a means to handle overzealous suitors. The most often considered way to use the cowbell, when tied around the neck of a female, is to give her date a point of reference or director of advance in the dark.

It is assured by campus officials that many new ways to use a cowbell will most likely be devised, but until such time, the old means will continue to flourish.

Whenever and wherever the students of Mississippi State University congregate to demonstrate the school spirit that they are noted for, there will be found State’s symbol of enthusiastic loyalty, the cowbell.