Big Bertha celebrates 100 years of cheering the Longhorns

Big Bertha, UT Austin’s 500-pound drum, celebrates one century of booming + banging at sports games this year — so there are some surprising facts about her history:

• Bertha was named after the Big Bertha Howitzer, a World War I-era German cannon

• When Bertha was built, she was so large that a part of the wall had to be removed for her to leave the factory

• Because her first football stadium was once a testing site for the Manhattan Project, Bertha has been exposed to heavy amounts of radioactivity (don’t worry — she’s safe now)