Maudine Ormsby

In its history, The Ohio State University has crowned over one hundred homecoming queens. However, none have achieved the undying fame of Maudine Ormsby. This is because of the fact that Maudine Ormsby was a cow.

In 1926, a group of students at Ohio State’s College of Agriculture were disgruntled that the Law School’s candidate for homecoming queen had won election several years running. (Editorial comment: You have to watch those law students!) So they entered a prize-winning Holstein cow named Maudine Ormsby as their candidate for Homecoming Queen. Maudine won the election and was duly honored with a tiara and a ride on a homecoming float in theparade. (Don’t ask me how they got the critter on the float, or how they got her off of it.)

I recently learned that the Law School’s candidate for Homecoming Queen that year had withdrawn her name from consideration after learning of the bovine’s candidacy. However, she managed to have a sense of humor about the whole thing. She had a fine career teaching school for more than half a century and lived to a very advanced age. I’m sad to report that the spoilsports at the cemetery where she is buried turned down her and her family’s request to have a headstone placed on her grave that would have read: “But For Maudine, Here Lies a Queen.”