Ohio State University has named a cow as the grand marshal of its 2026 homecoming parade. The honour marks 100 years of a campus legend.

In 1926, a Holstein cow named Maudine Ormsby was elected homecoming queen. The election saw 12,000 votes cast by fewer than 10,000 students. The College of Agriculture had entered the cow as a joke candidate.

Maudine was crowned queen. She rode in the parade but was not allowed at the dance. The story became one of the great college pranks in American history.

This year’s Maudine is a one-year-old Holstein from the university’s Wooster campus. A tractor will pull her in a decorated trailer along the parade route on October 9.

“They took the original Maudine in the parade then, so we are taking her in the parade now,” said Buckeye Dairy Club president Karissa Ayers. The cow is easily bribed with grain, she added.