- The Egg Bowl is set for November 29th. Are you ready?
The unified holler of Ole Miss fans, “Hotty Toddy,” can be heard around the world, but where did the cheer actually come from?
According to history, Hotty Toddy may have been a meme, born of word of mouth, long before the internet was even a thing. Here’s the story. Are you ready? Hotty Toddy!
The history of Hotty Toddy
The first published proof of Hotty Toddy appeared in The Mississippian, the student paper now known as The Daily Mississippian, in November 1926. This is the only “official” documentation of the original cheer, which was “Heighty Tighty” instead of “Hotty Toddy.”
Now, nearly 100 years later, the words are only slightly different, but the essence of the response to “Are you ready?” remains:
Hell, yeah! Damn right!
Heighty Tighty, Gosh Almighty,
Who The Hell Are We? Hey!
Flim Flam, Bim Bam
Ole Miss By Damn!
No one knows why the words morphed over time to “Hotty Toddy.” Some say it is because of the iconic drink, known as the Hot Toddy. Others have claimed it is because maybe it was thought that Ole Miss was “hoity-toity” and fans leaned into it.
Ole Miss news reported in 2014 that perhaps it was in reference to the Virginia Tech Regimental Band called “The Highty Tighties.”
Either way, the iconic cheer is as part of the Ole Miss fanbase as red and blue.
Hotty Toddy trendsetters?
Call-and-response cheers at sports events are nothing new. Southern Miss has been shouting “To the Top” since Robert Hays first penned the fight song in the 1950s. “Hail State” has been the fight song of Mississippi State University since 1939, but it wasn’t until 2014 that it became the brand for all things Bulldog athletics.
But Ole Miss fans take delight in knowing that Hotty Toddy might have been the inspiration for Alabama’s Rammer Jammer. And while it has never been declared fact, Rammer Jammer didn’t make its first appearance until the 1970s, when Dr. James Ferguson became the director of the Million Dollar Band at Alabama. After departing from Ole Miss.
Infer what you will.
“Rammer Jammer” isn’t just a fight song chant, the phrase has been known as “fighting words” in the past and the chant has been banned a couple of times in its career.
That’s never happened with Hotty Toddy. Enjoy singer/songwriter Beau Davidson’s version of Hotty Toddy here.
Hotty Toddy spirit lives on
Hotty Toddy isn’t just a local rallying cry – Hollywood has joined in with a variety of celebrities leading the chant via recordings in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Betty White, Snoop Dogg, Katy Perry, Jack Black, and Mississippi native Morgan Freeman are just a few of the celebrities that have hyped the crowd with recorded messages.
Today, Hotty Toddy is more than a chant–it is a brand for all things to be celebrated at Ole Miss. From “Hotty Toddy Holidays” in the winter to emboldened letters on t-shirts, there is an eternal element to Hotty Toddy.
And for Ole Miss alumni, Hotty Toddy is synonymous with saying “Welcome Home.”
Cue the Cowbells
Over in Starkville, the sound of clanking cowbells signals the beginning of football season. It most likely harkens back to State’s early beginnings as a rural agricultural college. Legend has it that the cowbell tradition at Mississippi State dates back to the 1930s. The Clarion-Ledger reported a story about a game in Starkville where a jersey cow wandered onto the football field. The Bulldogs beat their rival, Ole Miss, and students adopted both the cow and the cowbell as good-luck charms, according to the newspaper. The moniker “Cow College” has evolved into a point of pride for State fans for obvious reasons.
The metal noise makers, an actual cowbell welded onto a handle, were effective for whipping a crowd into a frenzy, although it was a nuisance to the coaches and officials, not to mention the other team. A cowbell ban went into effect at State football games from 1974 to 2010, but you can’t keep a good Bulldog fan down.
The Great 2011 Cowbell Compromise
The Southeastern Conference prohibited fans from ringing the bells with a hard and fast rule that “from the time the offensive center is over the football until the play is whistled dead.”
But how do you control the over-zealous frat boy in the stands?
Ring Responsibly
In his article about the history of the cowbell in Mississippi State’s student newspaper, The Reflector, Noah McCord states, “tradition says that the fan must not purchase their first cowbell or bad luck will come to them. It must be gifted.”
And with that gift comes a stipulation that you must ring the bell responsibly. It all comes down to being considerate. You can ring all you want to cheer on the ‘Dogs but never disrupt the other team.
Chants of Hotty Toddy and the sound of ringing cowbells will both be heard on Friday when The Mississippi State Bulldogs take on the Ole Miss Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford.
Listen carefully. It’s the sweet sound of Mississippi football. If you can’t make it to the game, tune in to your local ABC station at 2:30 p.m. on November 29th.
Susan Marquez
