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IN 2002, COLLEGE FIGHT SONGS WERE PRAISED AND BERATED
You like college football?
That means you might like college football fight songs.
Will you glow if someone likes the fight song(s) you like?
Will you fight if someone does not like your fight song?
Meet Norm Maves Jr.
In 2002, he was a reporter for the Oregonian, Portland’s daily morning newspaper. Now, in 2023, he's retired and lives in Hillsboro, Oregon.
On September 1 of 2002, his “Top 10 Fight Songs” (and 10 honorable mentions) and “Bottom 10 Fight Songs (and 10 dishonorable mentions) ran in the Sunday Oregonian, the best-read of the newspaper's daily editions.
Maves says, “I’ve always had an ear for music, but no formal training. … Whenever I went to football and basketball games, I was swept up in the whole scene — the game, the fans, the cheerleaders and the bands. I’ve always seen high school and college sports as a celebration of life for entire communities, not just a contest between two teams. I’m pretty romantic that way.”
Some are hard pressed to remember the words and recollect the music to their fave fight songs. Not Norm Maves.
He recalls going to basketball games at Beaverton High School as a fourth grader. BHS used the ‘Washington and Lee Swing’ as the primary fight song. "I started high school at Beaverson’s Sunset High School, which used Washington State’s (and had a better version of it). I transferred to Beaverton, which by then had changed to an original. A terrible original.”
He restarted college (after a hitch in the Air Force) at Portland State University. Its fight song “used the bridge from a common march — Men of Ohio.” Then, he “finished at Mighty Oregon,” meaning the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Repeating a fact: His “Top 10” and “Bottom 10” hit print in the Sunday Sept. 1, 2002, Sunday Oregonian.
“The reaction was immediate and opinionated. The opinions paralleled people’s team preferences, as opposed to their musical tastes, so you can imagine they were pretty passionate. And often rude. Almost all were reactions to the Bottom Ten, rather than the top ten. I was pretty sarcastic about those.
(There was no internet or social media in 2002. If his “Top 10” and “Bottom 10” had debuted now the response would likely have been a tidal wave or, at least, a flood.)
“I heard from all over the country. I even got it pretty harshly from the University of Michigan grad in the Oregonian newsroom. That person “confronted me quite offended by it.”
Maves says, “I worked in the newspaper business for 42 years and wrote many sensitive stories — police, political, social, sports — but I only got one death threat. From Ann Arbor, Michigan, about my opinion of “The Victors.”
“I have pretty good musical memory and had been able to identify and categorize many fight songs based on games I’d attended. I researched those pretty thoroughly in my own idle time. Yeah, it was kind of an obsession,” he said.
For example, Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis uses “Go Vandals,” the University of Idaho fight song tune. The Crescent Valley band “played it at a dramatic moment in the 1979 state high school girls basketball tournament. I was impressed, so after the game I hunted down the band director and found out the song’s Idaho origin. I did that a lot.”
The “Universities of the Palouse” are neighboring land-grant colleges. Washington State University is in Pullman, Washington. About seven miles away, across the state border, is the University of Idaho in Moscow (“Moss-coe”).
Maves says he “hit the jackpot” in a January 1987 men’s basketball road trip to Pullman to cover a University of Oregon at Washington State University game for the Oregonian. WSU’s sports information department had two LPs (phonograph records) of just about “every” college fight song. He paid a student assistant to make a tape of those two albums and mail them to Maves.
“I played those cassettes over and over and over in my car on long trips. That pretty much finished the research process. I still get on YouTube now and then to hear fight songs,” he said.
For Norm Maves, when a college fight song goes in one ear does not go out the other.
............
What follows are the two stories referenced above.
FIGHT SONG FEVER
By Norm Maves Jr., Oregonian, Sept. 1, 2002
College football's return has everything from "Mighty Oregon" to "Go Vandals" ringing on campuses.
Hot dog! It's college football fight song season again!
Fight songs? We all have our reasons for preferring college athletics to the pros. You like the cheerleaders, the marching bands, the mascots, the rowdy students in the stands -- all the things that add up to the unique college experience.
Me, I listen to the fight songs. It's my peculiar little corner of fascination. I've heard most of them; I've memorized at least half of them.
OK, so many more of the songs are lousy than good. Most of them were written (adapted, or stolen) in the era before radio and phonograph technology brought quality music to the American ear.
But there's no denying that much of a school's athletic identity is defined by what the band plays when the football team streams (or stumbles) out of the locker room. Much of the beauty of the college sports experience springs from the musical traditions. If you're a real fan who thinks beyond the point spread, you know what I mean.
I'd personally love to see Notre Dame's band snaking through campus to the Friday night bonfire, Kansas State's band rowdies ripping off "Wabash Cannonball" and the Texas A&M team and coaches gathering in front of the band and alumni before a game to sing "Spirit of Aggieland." Cal athletics bore me to tears, but I love the Straw Hat Band.
My personal favorite: Ohio State's fabulous "Script Ohio," in which the band spells out "Ohio" on the field, marching single file like a pencil point to the French National March, then breaking into the "Buckeye Battle Cry"-- at the end of which a sousaphonist high-steps up to dot the "i."
Everybody has his or her favorites. My pal Huey in Clark County (a Yalie) and I used to argue this stuff as if it really mattered. I was right, he was wrong.
Most colleges have several traditional songs they play during the games; many of the secondaries are better than the primaries, which makes it difficult.
So we're really left with personal opinions about which are good and which, well, stink. Here are mine.
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TOP 10 FIGHT SONGS
By Norm Maves Jr., Oregonian, Sept. 1, 2002
1. Idaho -- "Go, Vandals" is the once and future king of college fight songs, with a fanfare lead-in that could motivate a successful infantry charge. Whether it will motivate the Idaho football team to do the impossible Sept. 14 against Oregon in Eugene is suspect (trombonists generally can't block). If you don't have tickets and don't want to drive to Moscow, Idaho, (can't blame you) go to Corvallis for a Crescent Valley High School game to hear it.
2. Texas A&M -- The "Aggie War Hymn" isn't a fight song at all. It's exactly what it says it is -- a war hymn, and there's nothing quite like it. It was invented, the legend goes, by Pinky Wilson, who was on guard duty in 1918 during the post-World War I occupation of Europe and was motivated -- presumably by boredom -- to write it. It's an odd medium-tempo march that is equal parts original music, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" and "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" -- and it's wonderful.
3. Notre Dame -- The legendary "Victory March" makes the list because it's bulletproof. With the possible exception of "On, Wisconsin" and the "Washington & Lee Swing," it's the most copied fight song of all. It's been insulted by some of the worst bands in the world -- I heard it beaten senseless by a six-piece band in Fort Jones, Calif., in 1970 -- but still retains its clear, inspiring and rhythmic force. The Portland area? Only (this figures) Jesuit High School.
4. Army -- No, no, no -- not "The Caissons Go Rolling Along." That's the regular Army. The West Point cadets have been using the stirring "On, Brave Old Army Team" since their music director, Capt. Philip Egner (a lifer), wrote it sometime around World War I. When it's done as intended, it includes an interlude in which the cadets whistle five notes, then somebody touches off a cannon. It, like Army football these days, fires blanks.
5. Columbia -- The oldest fight songs in the country are from the Ivy League schools. "Roar, Lion, Roar" is the best of a mediocre Ivy pack (Dartmouth should have a ritual burning of the sheet music to all its songs), and it measures up with just about any other fight song in the country. If the football team could do the same, it would have something really good going. But don't hold your breath.
6. Washington State -- From the intro to the "W-a-s-h-i-n-g-t-o-n S-t-a-t-e" spellout at the end, this one is terrific. And no wonder: It was written in 1919 by two music majors -- Zella Melcher (words) and Phyllis Sales (music). Yes, both women, a fact that should put a few testosterone-borne myths to rest. Lots of local high schools use it. Around Western Oregon, you can hear it at Sunset, Benson and West Albany athletic events.
7. Houston -- There is no cute story to go along with the best fight song from the old Southwest Conference (the unique Aggie War Hymn doesn't count). It was written by two students, Marion Ford (that's a name, not an Ohio car dealership) and Forest Fountain (that's a name, not a landmark) and didn't become well-known outside Texas until the mid-1960s, when the independent Cougars got good at football and later when the school joined the SWC. Too remote for a local high school to use it? No! Get up to Battle Ground, Wash., some day and hear the Tigers play it.
8. Michigan State -- The best fight song in the Big Ten has a nice origin, something akin to the Abe Lincoln myth about how he wrote the Gettysburg Address on an envelope during the train ride. In 1917, yellmaster F.I. Lackey supposedly wrote it on the train on the way back from the Aggies' (they were the Michigan Agricultural College Aggies then) game at Wisconsin. It's so good the Spartan band usually plays both the refrain and chorus. It didn't wander too far west, but someone in the 1950s thought it would be good at David Douglas High School. And it is.
9. Arizona -- Jack K. Lee was named the school's director of bands in 1952, and on the way home saw the words "Bear Down" on a U. of A. rooftop from his plane. There's a story for another time and place there about the expression, but it inspired Lee to write "Bear Down, Arizona." A great one if not everyone agrees. In 2000, a columnist in the Arizona Daily Wildcat panned it in favor of the older "Fight, Wildcats, Fight." Hey, kid! All fight song words are dumb. Listen to the music! Sheesh!
10. Central Michigan -- The second-best fight song in Michigan, "Fighting Chippewa" was written by one Howard Loomis. The school's Web sites don't say who he was or when he wrote it, but he did an excellent job. The words actually fit the music, too. The school nickname and the name of the song have withstood the objections of those who (like me) don't like the insult to Native Americans; even if they succeed in changing it, it's still a great song. Barlow High School in Gresham uses it.
Honorable mention:
1. "Indiana, Our Indiana" (now that Bobby Knight's gone, it's safe to say).
2. "Fight for California" (at least they beat Stanford at something).
3. "Buckeye Battle Cry" (No. 2 at Ohio State, No. 1 in your hearts).
4. "Texas Fight" (they jazzed up "Taps" -- and it works).
5. "On, Wisconsin" (wildly overused, but good nonetheless).
6. "Go, U Northwestern" (used to be the only reason to attend Wildcat football games).
7. "Fight On, Pennsylvania" (the only other Ivy worth mentioning).
8. "Fight, Team, Fight" (Ball State -- really!).
9. "Roll Along" (Ay-ziggy-zoomba, Bowling Green!).
10. "War Eagle" (Auburn's real southern-fried rouser).
Locally: "Mighty Oregon" is one of the best in the country. The chorus, anyhow. The whole package would be definitely Top 10 stuff if they detached that meaningless copy of Yale's "Down The Field."
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BOTTOM 10 FIGHT SONGS
By Norm Maves Jr., Oregonian, Sept. 1, 2002
1. Wyoming -- This one's both stupid and stolen. The original "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," written in 1912, is an old radio country western favorite. It isn't even ragtime. And that Cowboy Joe is from Arizona. Wyoming speeds it up and changes the words. Do your teeth hurt yet?
2. Utah -- "Utah Man" is a triple threat: It's stupid, stolen and sexist. Any Canadian schoolkid knows the real words to "Old Solomon Levi." Why they bother with "Utah Man" in Salt Lake City when they have the perfectly serviceable "U-Pep" is a complete mystery.
3. Texas-El Paso -- Country legend Marty Robbins died in 1982. His classic "El Paso" died when somebody thought it could be played as a march and used to inspire the Miners. Sure. If you were born after 1967, you haven't lived when they went to a bowl game.
4. Alabama -- It's hard to tell what they had in mind when they adopted "Yay, Alabama." It isn't a march, it isn't jazz, and it ain't got that swing. Supposedly, this college has a good school of music. Coulda fooled me.
5. USC -- "Fight On" . . . and on and on and on. This piece of junk never ends.
6. Nebraska -- "There's No Place Like Nebraska" is a waltz played as a march. It is why most non-Nebraskans cheer for somebody to shut the Cornhuskers out. Fewer touchdowns, fewer renditions.
7. New Mexico State -- Just about every college has a version of "We'll Win the Game or Know the Reason Why" gathering dust in its music department. The Aggies are the only ones to use this loser as the primary fight song.
8. Oklahoma -- It's hard to make Yale's "Boola Boola" any worse than it already is, but somehow an otherwise decent band manages with "Boomer Sooner." Congratulations?
9. North Carolina -- Bet you that if they went far enough back, they'd find that "Rah-rah for Carolina" was written by a Montessori kindergarten class in Gastonia -- then stolen by a UNC fraternity.
10. Tennessee -- "Rocky Top" has nothing to do with sports, doesn't even mention the University of Tennessee and actually tries to make Tennessee sound like a backward state, which it ain't . . . uh, isn't. What's really disturbing, though, is how cranked up they get in Knoxville when they hear it.
Dishonorable mention:
1. "Here's To Wake Forest" (a drinking song masquerading as music).
2. "Sons of Westwood" (UCLA -- stolen from Cal, and petty theft at that).
3. "Minnesota Rouser" (Gophers never win the Big Ten football title -- what does that tell you?).
4. "The Victors" (I can name that Michigan tune in two notes).
5. "Harvardiana" (if you think the name is weird, just try the music).
6. "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia" (repeat that three times and spell the name of the school -- if you can -- to the chorus from "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and you'll understand how the South lost the Civil War).
7. "Glory, Glory Colorado" (fair's fair; the Buffaloes do it, too).
8. "Dynamite" (you'd think Vanderbilt would settle for having the worst football program in the Southeastern Conference, but no . . .).
9. "For Boston" (if they really wanted to do something For Boston College, they'd tank this turkey).
10. "I'm A Jayhawk" (It isn't such a bad song and Kansas is a pretty good school, but Kansas won one Big 12 Conference game last season).
Locally: "Hail to Old OSU" is actually pretty good, easily better than the old "Mighty Beavers." And the bands play it well. That should make up for the fact that it's nearly identical to Eastern Michigan's fight song, but it doesn't.
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(Note: This Oregonian page includes a URL for a website. But, it's hard to read. Here is a readable version: https://www.1122productions.com/fightsongs/)
1. Idaho -- "Go, Vandals" is the once and future king of college fight songs, with a fanfare lead-in that could motivate a successful infantry charge. Whether it will motivate the Idaho football team to do the impossible Sept. 14 against Oregon in Eugene is suspect (trombonists generally can't block). If you don't have tickets and don't want to drive to Moscow, Idaho, (can't blame you) go to Corvallis for a Crescent Valley High School game to hear it.
2. Texas A&M -- The "Aggie War Hymn" isn't a fight song at all. It's exactly what it says it is -- a war hymn, and there's nothing quite like it. It was invented, the legend goes, by Pinky Wilson, who was on guard duty in 1918 during the post-World War I occupation of Europe and was motivated -- presumably by boredom -- to write it. It's an odd medium-tempo march that is equal parts original music, "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" and "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" -- and it's wonderful.
3. Notre Dame -- The legendary "Victory March" makes the list because it's bulletproof. With the possible exception of "On, Wisconsin" and the "Washington & Lee Swing," it's the most copied fight song of all. It's been insulted by some of the worst bands in the world -- I heard it beaten senseless by a six-piece band in Fort Jones, Calif., in 1970 -- but still retains its clear, inspiring and rhythmic force. The Portland area? Only (this figures) Jesuit High School.
4. Army -- No, no, no -- not "The Caissons Go Rolling Along." That's the regular Army. The West Point cadets have been using the stirring "On, Brave Old Army Team" since their music director, Capt. Philip Egner (a lifer), wrote it sometime around World War I. When it's done as intended, it includes an interlude in which the cadets whistle five notes, then somebody touches off a cannon. It, like Army football these days, fires blanks.
5. Columbia -- The oldest fight songs in the country are from the Ivy League schools. "Roar, Lion, Roar" is the best of a mediocre Ivy pack (Dartmouth should have a ritual burning of the sheet music to all its songs), and it measures up with just about any other fight song in the country. If the football team could do the same, it would have something really good going. But don't hold your breath.
6. Washington State -- From the intro to the "W-a-s-h-i-n-g-t-o-n S-t-a-t-e" spellout at the end, this one is terrific. And no wonder: It was written in 1919 by two music majors -- Zella Melcher (words) and Phyllis Sales (music). Yes, both women, a fact that should put a few testosterone-borne myths to rest. Lots of local high schools use it. Around Western Oregon, you can hear it at Sunset, Benson and West Albany athletic events.
7. Houston -- There is no cute story to go along with the best fight song from the old Southwest Conference (the unique Aggie War Hymn doesn't count). It was written by two students, Marion Ford (that's a name, not an Ohio car dealership) and Forest Fountain (that's a name, not a landmark) and didn't become well-known outside Texas until the mid-1960s, when the independent Cougars got good at football and later when the school joined the SWC. Too remote for a local high school to use it? No! Get up to Battle Ground, Wash., some day and hear the Tigers play it.
8. Michigan State -- The best fight song in the Big Ten has a nice origin, something akin to the Abe Lincoln myth about how he wrote the Gettysburg Address on an envelope during the train ride. In 1917, yellmaster F.I. Lackey supposedly wrote it on the train on the way back from the Aggies' (they were the Michigan Agricultural College Aggies then) game at Wisconsin. It's so good the Spartan band usually plays both the refrain and chorus. It didn't wander too far west, but someone in the 1950s thought it would be good at David Douglas High School. And it is.
9. Arizona -- Jack K. Lee was named the school's director of bands in 1952, and on the way home saw the words "Bear Down" on a U. of A. rooftop from his plane. There's a story for another time and place there about the expression, but it inspired Lee to write "Bear Down, Arizona." A great one if not everyone agrees. In 2000, a columnist in the Arizona Daily Wildcat panned it in favor of the older "Fight, Wildcats, Fight." Hey, kid! All fight song words are dumb. Listen to the music! Sheesh!
10. Central Michigan -- The second-best fight song in Michigan, "Fighting Chippewa" was written by one Howard Loomis. The school's Web sites don't say who he was or when he wrote it, but he did an excellent job. The words actually fit the music, too. The school nickname and the name of the song have withstood the objections of those who (like me) don't like the insult to Native Americans; even if they succeed in changing it, it's still a great song. Barlow High School in Gresham uses it.
Honorable mention:
1. "Indiana, Our Indiana" (now that Bobby Knight's gone, it's safe to say).
2. "Fight for California" (at least they beat Stanford at something).
3. "Buckeye Battle Cry" (No. 2 at Ohio State, No. 1 in your hearts).
4. "Texas Fight" (they jazzed up "Taps" -- and it works).
5. "On, Wisconsin" (wildly overused, but good nonetheless).
6. "Go, U Northwestern" (used to be the only reason to attend Wildcat football games).
7. "Fight On, Pennsylvania" (the only other Ivy worth mentioning).
8. "Fight, Team, Fight" (Ball State -- really!).
9. "Roll Along" (Ay-ziggy-zoomba, Bowling Green!).
10. "War Eagle" (Auburn's real southern-fried rouser).
Locally: "Mighty Oregon" is one of the best in the country. The chorus, anyhow. The whole package would be definitely Top 10 stuff if they detached that meaningless copy of Yale's "Down The Field."
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BOTTOM 10 FIGHT SONGS
By Norm Maves Jr., Oregonian, Sept. 1, 2002
1. Wyoming -- This one's both stupid and stolen. The original "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," written in 1912, is an old radio country western favorite. It isn't even ragtime. And that Cowboy Joe is from Arizona. Wyoming speeds it up and changes the words. Do your teeth hurt yet?
2. Utah -- "Utah Man" is a triple threat: It's stupid, stolen and sexist. Any Canadian schoolkid knows the real words to "Old Solomon Levi." Why they bother with "Utah Man" in Salt Lake City when they have the perfectly serviceable "U-Pep" is a complete mystery.
3. Texas-El Paso -- Country legend Marty Robbins died in 1982. His classic "El Paso" died when somebody thought it could be played as a march and used to inspire the Miners. Sure. If you were born after 1967, you haven't lived when they went to a bowl game.
4. Alabama -- It's hard to tell what they had in mind when they adopted "Yay, Alabama." It isn't a march, it isn't jazz, and it ain't got that swing. Supposedly, this college has a good school of music. Coulda fooled me.
5. USC -- "Fight On" . . . and on and on and on. This piece of junk never ends.
6. Nebraska -- "There's No Place Like Nebraska" is a waltz played as a march. It is why most non-Nebraskans cheer for somebody to shut the Cornhuskers out. Fewer touchdowns, fewer renditions.
7. New Mexico State -- Just about every college has a version of "We'll Win the Game or Know the Reason Why" gathering dust in its music department. The Aggies are the only ones to use this loser as the primary fight song.
8. Oklahoma -- It's hard to make Yale's "Boola Boola" any worse than it already is, but somehow an otherwise decent band manages with "Boomer Sooner." Congratulations?
9. North Carolina -- Bet you that if they went far enough back, they'd find that "Rah-rah for Carolina" was written by a Montessori kindergarten class in Gastonia -- then stolen by a UNC fraternity.
10. Tennessee -- "Rocky Top" has nothing to do with sports, doesn't even mention the University of Tennessee and actually tries to make Tennessee sound like a backward state, which it ain't . . . uh, isn't. What's really disturbing, though, is how cranked up they get in Knoxville when they hear it.
Dishonorable mention:
1. "Here's To Wake Forest" (a drinking song masquerading as music).
2. "Sons of Westwood" (UCLA -- stolen from Cal, and petty theft at that).
3. "Minnesota Rouser" (Gophers never win the Big Ten football title -- what does that tell you?).
4. "The Victors" (I can name that Michigan tune in two notes).
5. "Harvardiana" (if you think the name is weird, just try the music).
6. "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia" (repeat that three times and spell the name of the school -- if you can -- to the chorus from "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and you'll understand how the South lost the Civil War).
7. "Glory, Glory Colorado" (fair's fair; the Buffaloes do it, too).
8. "Dynamite" (you'd think Vanderbilt would settle for having the worst football program in the Southeastern Conference, but no . . .).
9. "For Boston" (if they really wanted to do something For Boston College, they'd tank this turkey).
10. "I'm A Jayhawk" (It isn't such a bad song and Kansas is a pretty good school, but Kansas won one Big 12 Conference game last season).
Locally: "Hail to Old OSU" is actually pretty good, easily better than the old "Mighty Beavers." And the bands play it well. That should make up for the fact that it's nearly identical to Eastern Michigan's fight song, but it doesn't.
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(Note: This Oregonian page includes a URL for a website. But, it's hard to read. Here is a readable version: https://www.1122productions.com/fightsongs/)
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