The Mississippi State University Police Department this week released photos of a suspect wanted for assaulting another man with a cowbell at the Egg Bowl in late November.
The images, taken inside Davis Wade Stadium, show a college-aged male, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing between 150 and 160 pounds, with dark hair. He was wearing blue jeans and a gray MSU hooded sweatshirt and had a blond female in a white jacket by his side.
After the Mississippi State football team defeated the University of Mississippi 41-27 in the Egg Bowl, some verbal sparring between the suspect and the unidentified 21-year-old victim took place in the student section bleachers near the north end zone. The victim was an MSU student but was in the stands with some friends from Ole Miss, MSU PD Chief Georgia Lindley said at the time.
“It started as a verbal argument and it ended with a gentleman getting struck in the head with a cowbell,” MSU Police Department Detective Brad Massey said Tuesday.
The victim was taken to Oktibbeha County Hospital, where he was treated for a mild concussion and received several staples in his head. The suspect could face an aggravated assault charge, which carries a sentence of one to 20 years.
Cowbells have been a mainstay at MSU football games for decades, but they haven”t been legal at Southeastern Conference games since the mid-1970s, when the SEC adopted a rule against artificial noisemakers at football and basketball games.
Still, the tradition of ringing cowbells at games has remained popular, and Bulldog fans risk confiscation by bringing the noisemakers into the stadium.
In 2002, presidents of the SEC member universities voted 11-1 to add penalties to the rule banning noisemakers. Then-Interim President Charles Lee, who later was named president, voted against the move.
“Cowbells have been a symbol of Mississippi State spirit and pride for more than 75 years, and we understand the deep attachment that many alumni and friends have for this unique tradition,” Lee said after the decision, according to a memo issued by MSU in June 2002. “Efforts over the past 25 years to enforce the Southeastern Conference ban on artificial noisemakers inside the stadiums have met with limited success. This has led now to a provision that our teams can be penalized on the field if our fans disregard the long-standing rule.”
Game officials are supposed to enforce the conference ban with a verbal warning on the first offense, a 5-yard penalty on the second offense and a 15-yard penalty on any subsequent offenses. The amendments also extended the ban to all conference-sponsored sports.
Mississippi State police have not released any additional information about the Egg Bowl incident. Anyone with information about the suspect or the female in the photo is asked to call MSU police at 662-325-2121.
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