Nick Perry, Seattle Times, May 9, 2008
The University of Washington is offering $1,000 and a place in history to someone who can come up with a new school anthem.
{snip}
The current alma mater, or school song, has never proved popular since it was written in the early 1900s. It even contains a potentially offensive line: “You’re the mother of a mighty race.”
So now the UW is looking for someone to write the lyrics for a new alma mater, preferably a student, faculty member or alum. The words will be put to music by composer Bill Conti, who wrote one of the most recognized film scores ever: “Rocky.”
{snip}
McDavid said the only people at football games who know the words to the alma mater are the band members and the cheerleaders—and only because they are required to learn them. For everyone else, the lyrics are flashed up on the big screen.
Even the 1915 fight song, with its reference to the Dardanelles, a strait in Turkey that became pivotal in WWI battles, is a mystery to most fans.
“I think most people know the very beginning, ‘Bow Down to Washington,’ but after that it becomes a lot of ‘Watermelon, watermelon, watermelon,’” McDavid said. “Most students today don’t know what the Dardanelles are.”
{snip}
Original article
Email
Nick Perry
at nperry@seattletimes.com.
(Posted on May 9, 2008)
Comments
“Most students today don’t know what the Dardanelles are.”
That’s really pathetic considering I learned about it in a middle school history class. Shortly after World War II, the old Soviet Union threatened to invade Turkey over the control of this passage to the Black Sea. I’d be willing to bet many of these students couldn’t pick out the state of Washington on a map but they could tell you alot about the Black experience in genre film.
Posted by at 8:20 PM on May 9
I don’t think universities should have sports teams or anthems, but that’s just me.
Posted by at 9:00 PM on May 9
Every day I read the Seattle Times (I know…the definition of insanity…) and each day tops the day before in terms of their rabid love for multicultural diversity drivel.
If it isn’t pro-immigration (legal and illegal), or sob stories about illegal mothers and their illegitimate children deported to Mexico, or the other day it was a group of Mexican high school kids in Bellevue working together for better grades, then it is this - a beautiful University of Washington with a lovely fight song and the stirring words:
University of Washington alma mater:
To her we sing who keeps the ward
O’er all her sons from sea to sea.
Our Alma Mater WASHINGTON
A health, a health we give to thee
Child of the mighty western lands
You’re the mother of a mighty race.
Silent her gentle vigil holds
In strength, purity and grace
Chorus:
All hail o Washington
By sons and daughters sing glad acclaim
Through years of youth and loyalty
And still in age we sing thy fame
In honor thy towers stand
Thy battlements shine in dawning light,
And glow again in sunset rays
All hail o Washington
(Lyrics by Riley Allen, class of 1903, music by George Hager, class of 1909)
Love of self, love of country, love of race. It makes me so sad to see this.
Posted by Renae at 12:21 AM on May 10
“Most students today don’t know what the Dardanelles are.”
Is this surprising? The governing elite don’t do educated in the strict classical sense of the word. What they do is dumbed down pc pablum in order to mass-produce contented voting fodder thus retaining a permanent hold on power for themselves. And most centres of learning seem happy to comply.
Posted by dr dees brainwashing elixir at 4:54 AM on May 10
To her we sing who keeps the ward
O’er all her sons from sea to sea
Our alma mater Washington
A health, a health we give to thee
Child of the mighty western land
You’re the mother of a mighty race
Silent her gentle vigil holds
In strength, purity and grace
All hail! O Washington!
Thy sons and daughters sing glad acclaim
Through years of youth and loyalty
And still in age we sing they fame
In honor thy towers stand
The battlements shine in dawning light
And glow again in sunset rays
All hail! O Washington!
Posted by A. White at 5:00 AM on May 10
If I was an alumnus and saw that the University of Washington is offering $1,000 for nonsense like this, when I receive the next annual request for a donation to the school it would meet the shredder. It obviously doesn’t need donations if it can waste money in this fashion.
Posted by factualist at 8:30 AM on May 11
This sounds like something the National Council of Race would say is unfair to illegal (criminal) immigrants. Any other policy of the post office would only aid terrorist efforts.
Posted by factualist at 8:36 AM on May 11
Excuse me if I am wrong, but these lyrics parse as if they were meant to be sung to the tune of “Garry Owen”. Does they really want to replace it? Michael knows all sorts of other lyrics for Garry Owen, many of them quite uprintable, but replacing a whole song seems mistaken.
Posted by Sayaka N. Scott at 4:02 PM on May 11
