The Notre Dame Victory March is the fight song for the University of Notre Dame.
The chorus of the song has been considered one of the most recognizable collegiate fight songs. It was ranked first among fight songs by Northern Illinois University professor William Studwell [1] and fifth-best on a Sports Illustrated fight song ranking. [2]
The Notre Dame Victory March was originally created by Michael J. Shea and his brother John F. Shea. Michael wrote the music while John served as the original lyricist. Both of the Shea brothers were alumni at Notre Dame, with Michael graduating in 1905 and John earning degrees there in 1906 and 1908. Michael was an organist at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. At the behest of his former music teacher, Professor William C. Hammond of Mount Holyoke College, Michael Shea would first perform the song publicly on the organ of the Second Congregational Church of Holyoke, Massachusetts, where Hammond was music director, soon after completing the composition with his brother in the winter of 1908. [3]
The wording of the song is as follows. [4]
Rally sons of Notre Dame,
Sing her glory and sound her fame,
Raise her Gold and Blue,
And cheer with voices true,
Rah! Rah! For Notre Dame.
We will fight in every game
Strong of heart and true to her name.
We will ne’er forget her
And we’ll cheer her ever,
Loyal to Notre Dame
Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre Dame
Wake up the echoes cheering her name,
Send a volley cheer on high,
Shake down the thunder from the sky.
What though the odds be great or small
Old Notre Dame will win over all,
While her loyal sons are marching
Onward to Victory!
Many books and other sources have erroneously reported that the song was first performed on Notre Dame's campus on Easter Sunday, 1909, in the rotunda of the Main Building. However, the song made its debut on the Notre Dame campus on December 1, 1908 in Washington Hall at an event honoring the University president, the South Bend Tribune reported on the front page in the next day's issue. "New Notre Dame Song Making Hit, Shea Production Sung First Time at President's Exercises,” the newspaper headline announced. The tune was sung by the Notre Dame Glee Club, accompanied by the University orchestra. “The song made a decided hit in the hall and at dinner, where it was also given,” The Tribune reported.
The lyrics were revised in the 1920s; Notre Dame Victory March first appeared under the copyright of the University of Notre Dame in 1928.
Joseph Casasanta, the University of Notre Dame's Director of Bands from 1923 to 1942, wrote an arrangement of the Victory March which became "the basis for what the Marching Band and Glee Club still perform today." The original composers, John and Michael Shea, believed their composition to be "amateurish" and hoped it would be improved upon. Michael Shea praised Casasanta's arrangement, remarking that "the coming of Mr. Casasanta was evidently the realization of our hopes, and to him I express my hearty appreciation of a good work admirably done for the best University in the land." [5]
The lyrics to the Victory March were modified in June 2022 to mark Notre Dame's 50th anniversary of undergraduate coeducation. The second verse had "daughters" added in recognition of the university's female students: [6] [7]
Original ending lines
When her loyal sons are marching
Onward to victory
Revised ending lines
While her loyal sons and daughters
March on to victory
A glee club is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs by trios or quartets. In the late 19th century it was very popular in most schools and was made a tradition to have in American high schools from then on.
A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand, these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated with collegiate sports, fight songs are also used by secondary schools and in professional sports.
"(I'm a) Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech" is the fight song of the Georgia Institute of Technology, better known as Georgia Tech. The composition is based on "Son of a Gambolier", composed by Charles Ives in 1895, the lyrics of which are based on an old English and Scottish drinking song of the same name. It first appeared in print in the 1908 Blueprint, Georgia Tech's yearbook. The song was later sung by the Georgia Tech Glee Club on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1953, and by Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev during the 1959 Kitchen Debate.
Bow Down to Washington is the official fight song of the University of Washington. It was written by Lester J. Wilson in 1915 while partaking in a competition requesting a new song for the university. The competition was sponsored by the campus newspaper, The Daily, and had a grand prize of US$25.
Athol Murray College of Notre Dame is a private, co-educational boarding high school located in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, Canada. It was founded by the Sisters of Charity of St. Louis in 1920 as St. Augustine school when they established Notre Dame of the Prairies Convent. The school was later renamed to honor Father Athol Murray.
"Hail to Old OSU" is the fight song of Oregon State University. It is extracted from a song written by Harold A. Wilkins in 1914 and is played mainly at sporting events like football and basketball games. The lyrics have been slightly altered since being written "to conform to a changing culture", changing to conform to new initials, and the use of a more gender-neutral version.
“The Minnesota March” is a march for wind band written by John Philip Sousa in 1927 for the University of Minnesota. Sousa received an informal request for the march from Minnesota football coach Clarence Spears, and agreed to a request from a committee of university officials in October 1926. Sousa used Indian themes in this march, and later added field drum and bugle parts. The march was published by the Sam Fox Publishing Company and was premiered by Sousa and his band on September 3, 1927 at the Minnesota State Fair. It was first performed at the University of Minnesota the next month, on October 26, with a performance by the university band.
"Minnesota Fight" is one of several school songs of the University of Minnesota. Responding to a 1925 contest to find an additional fight song for the school, university graduate Truman E. Rickard entered a piece entitled "Minnesota! Let's Go!". Rickard shared the contest's hundred-dollar prize with another entry, Marion Bassett's "Our Minnesota". Rickard's fight song can still be heard at Minnesota Golden Gopher athletic events, but is now known as "Minnesota Fight".
"On, Brave Old Army Team" is the fight song of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. It was composed in 1910 by Philip Egner, the then-director of the West Point Band.
"ISU Fights" is the fight song of Iowa State University. It is often played at sporting events, and otherwise it is mostly only sung by the Iowa Statesmen, the official men's choir of Iowa State, which generally sings the song at the end of their concerts, as part of a collection of school songs, starting with "Rise, Sons of Iowa State," "For I, For S, For Ever," the alma mater "Bells of Iowa State," and then finally "ISU Fights." These songs are often collectively referred to as the Iowa State Fight Songs, though "ISU Fights" is the official fight song." The song was written in the 1930s by Paul Gnam, a brother of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
Kentucky Fight is a fight song at the University of Kentucky. It is a fairly traditional-sounding march, and the lyrics are almost never sung. The song has three verses: one is generic, one is for football, and one is for basketball.
The Band of the Fighting Irish is the marching band of the University of Notre Dame. Over 300 members of the band represent nearly every field of study, and include students from across the United States as well as from overseas. The Band of the Fighting Irish is composed of students from the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's College, and Holy Cross College. Founded in 1845, it is the oldest university marching band.
"Hail to Pitt" is the most traditional fight song of the University of Pittsburgh, which is commonly referred to as Pitt. The saying "Hail to Pitt!" is also the most traditional and commonly used slogan of the University of Pittsburgh and its athletics teams. The slogan is frequently used in promotional material, printed on merchandise and souvenirs. It was also the title of a 1982 history of Pitt athletics by author Jim O'Brien. The slogan is often used among alumni as a statement of affiliation, including as a closing signature in conversation or correspondence between alumni, and is sometime abbreviated as "HTP" or "H2P", the latter of which is a registered trademark of the university and is frequently used on official university signage and merchandise.
The alma mater of the University of Pittsburgh was adopted soon after the University changed its name in 1908 from the Western University of Pennsylvania to its current moniker. Lyrics were written by George M. P. Baird, class of 1909 and were set to the tune of what was then the Austrian National Anthem. A new tune for the "Alma Mater" hymn was composed by Charles W. Scovel, class of 1883, but it was not widely adopted and was either lost or became obscure.
North Clay High School, also called Louisville-North Clay or just Louisville, is a public high school serving students in grades 9-12 in northern Clay County, Illinois, USA. It is the only high school in the North Clay Unit School District #25.
The Notre Dame Glee Club is a 75-voice, all-male choral ensemble at the University of Notre Dame. Founded in 1915 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest Glee Club at a Catholic University in the United States.
Catholic University of America's intercollegiate sports teams are called the Cardinals after the northern cardinal, and they compete in the NCAA's Division III. They are members of the Landmark Conference, the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (football) and the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference (rowing). The team colors are red and black.
"Varsity" is a fight song of the University of Michigan.
From the beginning of the city's history as the western bank of Springfield, Irish families have resided in and contributed to the development of the civics and culture of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Among the first appellations given to the city were the handles "Ireland", "Ireland Parish", or "Ireland Depot", after the village was designated the 3rd Parish of West Springfield in 1786. Initially occupied by a mixture of Yankee English and Irish Protestant families, many of whom belonged to the Baptist community of Elmwood, from 1840 through 1870 the area saw a large influx of Irish Catholic workers, immigrants to the United States, initially from the exodus of the Great Famine. During that period Irish immigrants and their descendants comprised the largest demographic in Holyoke and built much of the early city's infrastructure, including the dams, canals, and factories. Facing early hardships from Anti-Irish sentiment, Holyoke's Irish would largely build the early labor movement of the city's textile and paper mills, and remained active in the national Irish nationalist and Gaelic revival movements of the United States, with the Holyoke Philo-Celtic Society being one of 13 signatory organizations creating the Gaelic League of America, an early 20th century American counterpart of Conradh na Gaeilge.
William Churchill Hammond was an American organist, choirmaster, and music educator. He is noted for being one of the founding members of the American Guild of Organists, and for a lengthy tenure on the faculty of Mount Holyoke College.
They[, the Congregational church's deacons,] were not a little shocked to see a man wearing a Roman collar energetically thumping away on the keys of their organ. One deacon had a remark to make when the recital was finished. 'Brother,' he said, 'you've got something there'"