Strange but true: Homecoming cow and kazoos

Lily Pace, Leon Rubin, Lantern Alum - 1977
Thu, 02 Oct 2025 01:54:27 +0000
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A shirt from the Faculty/Staff Homecoming Kazoo Band and Maudine the Cow. Credit: Courtesy of Leon Rubin and The Lantern Archives

The faculty kazoo band

For several years in the mid-1980s, a few dozen otherwise reasonable Ohio State employees showed their school spirit by marching in the Homecoming Parade as members of the Ohio State Faculty/Staff Kazoo Band.?

In a 1987 memo to participants from Philip W. Ballinger (who now appears to be a professor emeritus of allied medicine), he stated that it was the third year of the Kazoo Band and that “our fame continues to grow.”

Participants, each of whom received a souvenir t-shirt and a kazoo shaped to look like a trumpet, clarinet or trombone, were given kazoo-playing tips (“You hum the melody in the end”) and were advised that the band would not be doing Script Ohio or any formations. Practicing the kazoo in advance was encouraged – but not in front of the classroom.

For the parade, “I have requested not to be placed adjacent to the OSU Marching Band. We don’t want them to look bad!” Ballinger wrote.

“Homecoming is a time to have fun,” he said, “and here’s our chance to let the students know we also like to have fun.”

The cow that became homecoming queen

No homecoming election stands out as much as that of 1926, in which Maudine Ormsby was declared the official homecoming queen.?

Following voting corruption and a college prank, the original winner, Rosalind Morrison, stepped down. That’s after the university counted 12,000 ballots placed in the election despite only having 10,000 students enrolled at the university, according to the Ohio State Archives.?

The Election Committee then declared Maudine the official homecoming queen, justifying that they were unable to count the ballots accurately. But why does this win stand out so much?

That’s because Maudine wasn’t a student, but a cow—and not just any cow. She was an award winning Holstein, able to produce 743.5 pounds of milk and 28.7 pounds of butter fat in a one-week period, which earned her a world record.?

Despite winning the election, Maudine’s handlers would not allow her to attend the homecoming events, since she was considered “too valuable” and that the excitement would “curdle her milk,” according to prior Lantern reporting. Two students dressed in cow costumes attended the homecoming parade in her honor.?