With five quadrillion computations per second, MSU’s Orion system is the nation’s fifth-fastest academic supercomputer site.
Even today, it's unclear exactly when the cowbell became a staple of Mississippi State athletic tradition. The most well-known legend is that, during a home football game between Mississippi State and archrival Mississippi, a jersey cow wandered onto the playing field. The best records have cowbells gradually introduced to the MSU sports scene in the late 1930s and early 1940s, coinciding with the 'golden age' of Mississippi State football success prior to World War II. That Saturday, Mississippi State crushed the Rebels handily, and the cow was instantly taken up by State College students as a lucky charm. It is reported that students used to bring cows to football games, but finally the practice was abandoned in favor of bringing only the cow's bell.
Mississippi State is one of the few universities to house presidential papers. In May 2012, on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, Mississippi State University was selected as the permanent location for Ulysses S. Grant's Presidential Library. President Grant's artifacts are to remain permanently at the Mitchell Memorial Library on the MSU campus. These include Grant's letters and photographs during his presidency, from 1869 to 1877. The MSU library catalogued and cross-referenced 15,000 linear feet of material. Grant's letters have been edited and published in 32 volumes by the Ulysses S. Grant Association and the Southern Illinois University Press.
