Outside of being part of the answer to the question 'Are You Ready?,' 'Hotty Toddy' is also a way one Ole Miss fan greets another. Most importantly, it's the answer to 'Are You Ready?'

Today, only the spelling is different than it was in 1926. In the newspaper that day, the following words appeared:Įver since the first print appearance in 1926, the Ole Miss cheer has just been passed down from generation to generation of Rebels fans. Southwest Virginia slang had supposedly turned this into Highty-Tighty.Īctually as an official Ole Miss reference, the first documented evidence of the phrase (then written as 'Heighty! Tighty!') appeared in a Novemcopy of the student newspaper, The Mississippian. Supposedly the drum major had dropped and then recovered his baton while rendering a salute in front of the reviewing stand and someone in the crowd yelled hoity-toity. The origin of the name has been hotly debated for years - some claimed it was part of a cheer, others claimed it sprang from a trip to Richmond where the Corps and Band marched in honor of Field Marshal Foch, the supreme allied commander of WW-I. The Virgina Tech Regimental Band website states:īy 1919, the Regimental Band began to be known as the Highty-Tighties. While The Highty Tighties didn't officially receive their name until 1919, the regimental band actually dates back to 1892.

To many Rebel fans, the possible Virginia Tech connection may be a surprising one. That's right, there's no concrete answer that explains what 'Hotty Toddy' truly means.Īmong some of the more popular 'suggestions' of origin floating around are that it was developed after the Virginia Tech Regimantal Band called The Highty Tighties, derived from a cheer used throughout World War II, associated with the description of a warm alcoholic drink or a term that referred to the perceived sentiment of the Ole Miss student body.

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