So your parents are in town, you’re giving them the tour, and of course, they’re asking questions. Not one or two questions – but question after question after question. Instead of telling them to shut up or admit that you don’t know because you’ve spent the better part of the last two months drunk and unintelligible, here’s a few answers to some questions they’re sure to ask about Iowa State traditions.

Honey, why is the school mascot a bird, but you guys are called the Cyclones?

Like all good things, the nickname of Cyclones came from destruction. After the Iowa State team thoroughly dominated our privileged neighbor, Northwestern, in a 1895 football game, the Chicago Tribune published an article that ran with the headline “Struck by a Cyclone: It comes from Iowa and Devastates Evanston Town.”

The article went on to describe the thrashing laid down on the Wildcats by the boys in cardinal and gold. At some point during the recap, the article mentioned that if Evanston had played a cyclone, the result would have been the same. The monkier stuck.

Fast forward a half century later to 1954, when the members of Iowa State’s Pep Council decided to designate a new mascot to get Ames pumped up about the school’s athletic teams.

They decided a cyclone would be hard to make a costume for and looked no further than the school colors – cardinal and gold. Cardinal red, cardinal the bird – coincidence? The decision was easy – our beloved Cy was born. Well, it wasn’t Cy quite yet, the Pep Council held a contest to determine the name and with 17 votes, Cy was truly born.

Honey, what’s the significance of that bell tower in central campus?

Those lovely bells are the sounds of the Campanile. The campanile makes its presence known 48 times a day, ringing every 15 minutes. However there is more to the bells than just noise. During the day it may seem boring but when the sun goes down, the real action starts.

According to tradition, a student is not initiated into Iowa State until he or she manages to find a sexy counterpart to kiss underneath the Campanile at the stroke of midnight.

No she won’t turn back into a maid, but you will officially become a man and an Iowa State student.

The story behind the Campanile is simple. In 1886 a student, Edgar Stanton, fell in love with two things, a woman and Iowa State. After graduating in 1872, he spent the next 50 years on campus as a member of the faculty with his wife Margaret MacDonald Stanton. After her death in 1895 he decided to have a chime of 10 bells installed in central campus so that her memory would live on. The rest of the bells were added after his death in 1920 and the tower was designated the Edgar W. and Maragaret MacDonald Stanton Memorial Carllion.

Why are you still single? When are you going to bring a girl home?

Well, you have to get the date, but leave the test to Iowa State. One of the school’s longest standing traditions involves finding you “the one.” Legend says that if you and your significant other can manage to stroll around Lake LaVerne three times without saying a word, you’re apparently supposed to fall in love, get married and never have to worry about drafting a prenuptual agreement.

Don’t try anything funny after the third time around, however, because you’ll be under the constant eye of Lancelot and Elaine, Lake LaVerne’s two resident swans. Swans take a mate for life unless one dies or is moved away. How fitting that they would be the judges of eternal love.

There you have it, for the rest you’re on your own – but here’s a start. Thank us later.