< Back to front page Text size – +

Harvard unleashes a historic sacred cow

E-mail|Link|Comments () September 10, 2009 06:34 PM

By David Abel, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- The skinny beast with the enormous ears and bell around its neck served three purposes this afternoon as it roamed about a cordoned-off patch of grass on Harvard Yard.

It allowed retiring Harvard professor Harvey Cox, who for 44 years has held the oldest endowed chair at a US university, to finally lay claim to the Hollis Professor of Divinity’s centuries-old right to graze his cow in Harvard Yard, which a colleague of his said was the equivalent of parking privileges in the 1700s.

It provided a way to attract attention to his new book, “The Future of Faith.”

Cox also used the occasion to promote a pet cause.

“We are reclaiming a very old and valuable tradition that should not go lost – namely, that animals and vegetables belong in the yard,” he said. “We should be back in touch with where our food comes from.”

The 5-year-old female Jersey cow, brought in from The Farm School in Athol, didn’t seem to mind being used, or the reference to her being called food. She also put up with having her name changed for the day, from “Pride” to “Faith.”

And she played the part, showing a lot more faith than pride. In fact, she seemed to revel in the attention, and the well-groomed grass.

She licked cameras, bowed her snout before laughing children, and put up with the long-winded speeches – even one in Latin – by plopping on the ground and not mooing too much.

Before Cox escorted her off to the Divinity School – where she would undergo a public milking – Bradley Teeter, who brought her to town, described his furry livestock this way: “She’s a good sport.”