Did Auburn players ring cowbells during a Mississippi State game in the late 1960s?

Share on Facebook

Email this

Save

Custom

cowbellspainting — Be there with bells on? It may have kind of happened before. (Photo: Ann Adams.)

All the talk about Auburn fans giving Mississippi State a taste of its own artificial medicine by bringing their own cowbells to the MSU game? Auburn fan Ann Adams says it’s nothing new, and she decided to have a little show and tell at work Friday morning to prove it.

Adams’ brother, Billy Erwin, played wide receiver and safety for Auburn in the late 1960s under legendary cowbell hater Shug Jordan, who led the charge to have cowbells banned from SEC football games as artificial noisemakers after the din from fans ringing the bells repeatedly delayed Auburn’s 1974 game against Mississippi State in Jackson. But Shug had had problems with the Bulldogs’ tradition for years. And his players apparently knew it.

“Some of the Auburn players knew that Shug was not happy about those Mississippi State cowbells so a few of the Auburn players decided to get some ‘Auburn cowbells’,” Adams says. “When Mississippi State came to play at Auburn, they could do the same thing against Mississippi State.”

One of those players was her brother, Billy Erwin. Erwin died of cancer nine years ago. Adams says her family kept the cowbells he had on the sideline for at least one Auburn-Mississippi State game (likely the 1969 game in Auburn, which Auburn won 52-13).