If you step into the 10 acres known as The Grove on the Ole Miss campus during a Saturday in the fall, you’re likely to hear the following shouted numerous times:
Are you ready?
Hell yes! Damn Right!
Hotty Toddy, Gosh almighty
Who in the hell are we – Hey
Flim Flam, Bim Bam
Ole Miss By Damn!
But how did the phrase get started and why the term “Hotty Toddy”?
Short answer? No one has any idea.
Gerald Walton, a graduate of Ole Miss in 1956, did a historical study of his own for Hotty Toddy website. While he found similarities to the song from Virginia Tech’s Highty Tighty band, and even World War I battle cries, nothing officially dates as far back as when the chant was used in the Ole Miss student newspaper The Mississippian in 1926.
However, back then, they used “Heighty Tighty” and not the commonly known Hotty Toddy. It would take nine years before that term would replace the former “Heighty Tighty.”
For Ole Miss fans, using the phrase Hotty Toddy is more than cheer or simply saying “Go Rebels.” It’s a camaraderie among the fan base that represents everything that’s great about attending school in Oxford, Mississippi.
And while we may never know where it originated, Hotty Toddy has forever been ingrained in college football lure and tradition.
