College Fight Songs…Music To My Ears!

Well, College Football (American) is underway! And I’m loving it big time. There’s something about College Football that officially starts the Fall season and ignites a certain excitement from young to old. I experienced it this Labor Day weekend. The only bad thing about our season opener is that my team was totally creamed. Beat bad. But, I can live with that…you see, we had a wonderful time tailgating before the game with the kids and with friends who are bona fide football fans.

Although Professional American Football is also starting, College Football is a totally different experience as college marching bands provide the music to cheer and sing to. From here on out, College Football Fight Songs will be played every weekend across the country (States)…in every College town.

So, whether you’re a Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Ball State, Texas, Penn State, Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame or even USC, the fight songs are so important and part of your College Football experience and have a deep university history. Here’s a little history of some of the most notable College Fight Songs.

Two brothers who were University of Notre Dame graduates wrote one of the most recognizable collegiate fight song in the nation, the “Notre Dame Victory March” just past the turn of the century. Michael J. Shea, a 1905 graduate, wrote the music and his brother, John F. Shea, who earned degrees in 1906 and 1908, wrote the words. The song was copyrighted in 1908 and a piano verson, complete with lyrics, was published that year.

In 1898 the University of Michigan's football team won its first conference championship by scoring one more point than the Chicago Maroons, then the heaviest team in college football history. So impressed was Louis Elbel that after celebrating with other U-M fans in Chicago's streets, he realized that U-M did not have the "right" celebration song. On the train back to Ann Arbor, Elbel took his original melody jottings and turned them into a big march. He called the final musical piece "The Victors" after a U-M football win in Chicago.

USC dental student Milo Sweet as an entry to inspire fans and players in a Trojan spirit contest composed the University of Southern California’s fight song, Fight On, in 1922. According to legend, Fight On blared from the deck of a transport ship as the Americans stormed an island held by the Japanese during World War II. On hearing the song, the troops let out a tremendous roar -- and eventually won the Aleutian Campaign.

I would love to mention so many more neat fight songs, even one that might be the song of your alma mater, but I just don’t have the space. What I wanted to point out, was that fight songs are pieces of music that were passionately composed and have endured, in some cases, almost 100 years! Amazing isn’t it?

If you want to hear clips of College Fight songs, here’s a wonderful link that you’ll love!

http://www.fightmusic.com