Teaching "Hail To the Victors" in school

Submitted by FL_Steve on

I was just at Barnes and Nobles in Fort Myers, Florida, when I heard an announcement  that an elementary school band would be performing in part of the store. Shortly there after I hear a tune, a wonderful fantastic melody that overwhelmed me with joy. Low and behold it was Hail to the Victors. I promptly and swiftly moved to the location of the band and as they finished I gave a Arm Pumping "GO BLUE!"

jaggs

May 6th, 2010 at 5:16 PM ^

Ok I'm a dick. I actually do think its cool that they are doing that but my web-insecurities lead me to attempt to use humour as a self defense mechanism a la Michael Scott.

joeyb

May 6th, 2010 at 5:30 PM ^

I know that it's called "The Victors" but I will occasionally add the "Hail to" when speaking with lesser fans who wouldn't know it by its name. It's kind of like people who don't know that "The Big Butt Song" is actually "Baby Got Back" or "The Mammal Song" is "The Bad Touch". It's just what it is referred to as.

oldcityblue

May 6th, 2010 at 6:45 PM ^

of the bloodhound gang.

"Yeah I'm hung like planet Pluto hard to see with the naked eye,
But if I crashed into Uranus I would stick it where the sun don't shine,
Cause I'm kind of like Han Solo always stroking my own wookie,
I'm the root of all that's evil yeah but you can call me cookie"

 

jvblaha

May 6th, 2010 at 5:24 PM ^

It is pretty common.  In 6th grade, my first year of band, it was one of the first recognizable tunes we got to play.  This happened in North Carolina.  It's a pretty simple melody that is fun to play.

HAIL 2 VICTORS

May 6th, 2010 at 5:32 PM ^

I went to my oldest daughters High School orientation for her first year and the band played that piece of crap OSU fight song.  Next chance it was hang on sloopy.  I think to myself GREAT the freaking band teacher is an OSU grad only to find out that the school uses all the music from OSU for everything and anything.  This is in Kansas.

Section 1

May 6th, 2010 at 6:09 PM ^

violate the "no establishment" of religion clause of the First Amendment?

We are talking religion here, are we not?

(Funny, my high school's fight song used to crib the tune for "On Wisconsin," with different words...)

cjm

May 7th, 2010 at 9:52 AM ^

We moved from Ann Arbor to north Houston when I was growing up.  I was in slated to attend a local high school that used ND's song.  One year before I was to begin, they opened a new high school that I ened up going to.  First day of school I heard The Victor's and knew the heavens had smiled down upon on me.

oldcityblue

May 6th, 2010 at 6:56 PM ^

my six year old and her younger brother were debating exactly when the lyrics state "leaders and best" and "champions of the west" .

He was very confident, but she had it right.

Daddy was very proud.

PhillipFulmersPants

May 6th, 2010 at 10:07 PM ^

son was singing the Victors the other day and said "Hail to the Concrete Heroes."

I said, "Wait, what was that? Concrete heroes?" thinking maybe I just heard him wrong--he's a bit of a mumbler. He said, "You know, the guys that build the buildings. Is that right?" So of course I had him drop and give me twenty.  [not really]

My wife's an Indiana grad. I often rub the Victors in her face by saying, "Okay kids, sing the Michigan song." And when they're done with that, I say, "Okay, now sing Mom's Indiana song." They've got nothing. Crickets. She can't even get them to remember the tune let alone a lyric. Victory is mine.

oldcityblue

May 6th, 2010 at 10:34 PM ^

.. my boy was with me at the Jewel over the weekend and he loves to talk to people. Well, he saw an older guy with a Michigan sweatshirt on and as we walked by, he gave his loudest "Go Blue!"

Once the man regained his composure, he muttered a somewhat softer "yeah, go blue" back.

Gotta love the passion.

Tim Waymen

May 6th, 2010 at 7:25 PM ^

It's pretty awesome.  Although I do think that part of it has to do with The Victors being such a memorable tune.  For instance, I knew the tune of ND's fight song before I even knew a thing about CFB.  I think that The Victors, much to Louis Elbel's credit, is also that memorable a tune.  John Philip Sousa would certainly agree.

Maceo24

May 7th, 2010 at 12:27 AM ^

The only reason I can carry the tune of the ND fight song is that my high school math teacher taught us to memorize the quadratic equation to that horrible song.

x equals negative b

plus or minus the square root of

b squared minus 4 a c

all divided by 2 a

rah, rah, rah

OHbornUMfan

May 6th, 2010 at 8:34 PM ^

I taught a group of kindergarteners everything I could about Michigan. They learned the fight song, they drew pictures of the block M (some of the more talented artists moved on to drawing the whole field), and story time featured great moments from Wolverines games.  One of the kids, a UVA fan, said he didn't think it was right, because all of the kids had been Virginia fans and now some were changing allegiance.  I explained to him that it was like introducing chocolate cake to a group of people who had only had vegetables to eat before.  He seemed skeptical, but didn't push the argument further.

We must all educate as many of the infidels as we can, so that their souls may enjoy a wonderful eternal rest, and their lives may be enriched on autumn Saturdays.