STARKVILLE. Miss. – Saturday afternoon fading to Saturday evening, the Mississippi State cowbells began ringing in advance of the Bulldogs’ Southeastern Conference football game against visiting Tennessee.
Thirty-five years ago the SEC viewed such noisemakers as an unfair advantage for the Bulldogs and a possible example of poor sportsmanship.
In 2010, however, the league lifted the ban on MSU’s cowbells because of their long history with the school.
“It means a lot to our fans,” said Jim Ellis, the radio voice of the Bulldogs. “And I think they’re mindful of the SEC’s guidelines for ringing them. I think they try to adhere to the rules.”
Yet if the unnerving power of the cowbells may have been worth revisiting, the impact of sportsmanship in general has taken quite a hit the past couple of weeks.