This all started with a cowbell.
If you don’t believe it, Mississippi State University president Mark Keenum will walk to his wall of memorabilia and show you the cowbell his daddy gave him in 1973. About 14 inches in length, the maroon-painted metal noisemaker shows its age, scuffed and scarred from years of furious clanging, the metallic handle chipped and the faded white sticker on its exterior barely legible. “I’m from Bulldog country,” it reads.
He doesn’t necessarily look like your normal Southern college football fan. Dressed in a blue plaid suit, black pants and loafers, a white handkerchief peeking from his breast pocket, his hair perfectly manicured and face clean-shaven, Keenum stares through thin-rimmed glasses looking as dapper and tidy as his surroundings. His fourth-floor university office is a lavish labyrinth of a half dozen rooms—including a hidden meeting space, a marbled foyer, a mahogany-themed boardroom, all set on a maroon-carpeted canvas surrounded by white crown-molded walls.
