Why do Mississippi State fans ring cowbells?

Mississippi State’s mascot has nothing to do with cows, so why do Bulldog fans ring cowbells?

Mississippi State University is known for a few different things: an incredibly passionate baseball fanbase, making amazing cheese and ice cream, a sporadic football program, being located in a small and often overlooked town, and cowbells.

Mississippi State fans love their cowbells. It’s a tradition that has become nearly synonymous with the school and its athletics programs. Mississippi State fans have been bringing them to games (even when the SEC banned them from being used at games for decades) since sometime in the 1930’s or 1940’s (it’s not totally clear when the tradition started).

But why is that?

Why are folks in Starkville ringing cowbells? What’s the history behind it? They’re the Mississippi State Bulldogs, right?

What’s going on with the bells?

What’s the history behind Mississippi State fans ringing cowbells?

There’s a lot of tradition here and a lot of lore and then probably some things that aren’t so true that became accepted as true as time wore on.

Again, the tradition got started up sometime surrounding the World War II years. It hasn’t been disproven and many will claim the origin started when Mississippi State was facing Ole Miss in their annual rivalry game (the Battle for the Golden Egg, a.k.a. the Egg Bowl). Mississippi State is an ag school in a small, rural town and, according to legend, a cow from a nearby pasture somehow got lost and plodded onto the football field.

In this origin story, Mississippi State went on to beat Ole Miss and State fans quickly adopted it. Some Mississippi State professors later started welding bicycle handles to the bells to make it easier for folks to ring them during games.

Ever since then, the odd sound of thousands of bells ringing for hours on end has dominated the gameday atmosphere in Starkville.

Many complained about the noise over the years and from 1974 up to 2010, the cowbell was technically banned from events by the SEC. But of course, this is college football and it’s not as if people aren’t breaking rules regularly with this sport.

So, bells still made their way into the stadium.

What else do you need to know about this unique (or really odd, depending on who you ask) tradition?

First and foremost, you’re not supposed to buy your first cowbell, that’s supposed to be a gift. If you’re not superstitious, this may not be a big deal, but it’s generally said to be bad luck to buy your first bell. An easy way around this is to go to a store with a friend (or some stranger) and then you each buy a bell to give to the other. Problem solved.

And hey, you can even buy expensive, ornate, and custom cowbells made specifically to be gifted. Some families pass them down for generations.

It’s admittedly a fairly goofy tradition, but it’s fun and it’s become something that is cherished by many. While many will write this one off as annoying or bizarre, this tradition is close to the hearts of a lot of folks in Mississippi (and those who lived there for a period of time).

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