Most of you know the song, but many don't know know the story behind the fight song.The 1898 Wolverines were the first great Michigan team. They went 10-0 and won the Western Conference (now known as the Big Ten) championship. They outscored their opponents 205 - 26. They won their first meeting with what would become Michigan State (39-0) and they also shut out Notre Dame (23-0). The team finished the season by traveling to and beating Amos Alonzo Stagg's University of Chicago team 12-11. The winning touchdown was scored on a 65-yard run by Charles Widman (2nd row, 2nd from the right).
For such an important game, the Michigan Central Railroad set up special trains to take fans to Chicago for the game. One of those was a Michigan Music student named Louis Elbel. After the game everyone was going crazy and Elbel recalled, "somehow I had the presence of mind to write down the notes of that song. And, when I got to South Bend the next day, I not only tried out the song on my piano, but finished the entire refrain. Then the idea of a big march came to me, and I completed the whole work on the train that took me back to Ann Arbor for Monday's classes."
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3 comments:
It is only fair to tell the story of how the Ohio State fight song was written. Some OSU football players were sitting in prison, coming down off a coke binge, and they made up some music by burping.
Soon after, a freshman at OSU arranged their song in the basement of his mom's house and the rest is history.
*LOL*
excellent Phil....excellent
Ah, the good 'ol days when UM used to win . Ahh meeeeeee...
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