"Hail State" is the

fight song A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand, these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...

and rally cry of

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, Un ...

. The words and music were written by Joseph Burleson Peavey in 1939. The title of the song was adopted as the official domain name for Mississippi State athletics and for all social media platforms of the athletic department in 2014.

Rally Cry

Hail State, as the rally cry of the athletic program at Mississippi State, began to rise in popularity around 2010. With the rise in prominence of the football team under Coach Dan Mullen and a major marketing push from the Athletic Department, the phrase began making its way into the everyday lexicon of the Mississippi State fan base.

Social media

Hail State became the official hashtag of Mississippi State Athletics and Academics around the 2010 football season. It has trended nationally and internationally at different momentous moments in the recent athletic history of the university. Mississippi State was the first university to paint a hashtag (#hailstate) onto a playing surface. The football program painted #hailstate in the north end zone at Davis-Wade Stadium. This act and future hashtags was later banned by the NCAA for all institutions.

Use in football games

Hail State is played by the Famous Maroon Band at the start of each home game and after each time the team scores. There are several abbreviated versions that are played as stand tunes or in combination with the full theme.

Lyrics

Hail dear ol' State! Fight for that victory today. Hit that line and tote that ball, Cross the goal before you fall! And then we'll yell, yell, yell, yell! For dear ol' State we'll yell like H-E-L-L! Fight for Mis-sis-sip-pi State, Win that game today!

Alternate last line

Many Mississippi State fans replace the last line "Win the game today!" with "Go to hell Ole Miss!", a tongue-in-cheek jab at their rivals. Fans have also been known to shout this at the end of the

U.S. National Anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort ...

, regardless of the game, sport or team playing.

References

External links

Song recording
*Lyrics: "Hail State." 8/10/06

Mississippi State University. Retrieved on March 5, 2008. {{authority control Mississippi State University Southeastern Conference fight songs 1939 songs