Alma Mater

by Archibald Croswell Weeks 1872 & Wilmot Moses Smith 1874

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Far above Cayuga's waters,
With its waves of blue,
Stands our noble alma mater,
Glorious to view.

Refrain: Lift the chorus, speed it onward.
Loud her praises tell;
Hail to thee, our alma mater!
Hail, all hail, Cornell!

Far above the busy humming
Of the bustling town,
Reared against the arch of heaven,
Looks she proudly down.

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(Give my regards to) Davy

by Charles E. Tourison 1905

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Give my regards to Davy
Remember me to Tee Fee Crane
Tell all the Pikers on the Hill
That I'll be back again.

Tell them just how I busted
For lapping up the high high ball
We'll all have drinks at Theodore Zincks
When I get back next Fall!

Click here for the Davy FAQ

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This is the traditional call-and-response from First Night explaining the lyrics to our fight song, Give My Regards to Davy.

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Band: What is this Davy thing anyway?
Davy is Cornell's fight song and was written by Charles Tourison '05.
Announcers: Give my regards to Davy...

Band: Who is Davy?
Davy was David Fletcher Hoy 1891, who was the registrar and secretary for the commitee on student conduct. He had a great deal of disciplinary contact with students, and was known for his ferocity. He was bad.

Announcers: Remember me to Tee Fee Crane...
Band: Who is Tee Fee Crane?
Tee Fee Crane was Thomas Frederick Crane, an Ithaca lawyer and a language professor. He served as the first dean of the Arts School, and was much beloved on campus. He was good.

Announcers: Tell all the pikers on the hill that I'll be back again...
Band: What's a piker?
A piker is a freshman.

Announcers: Tell them just how I busted...
Band: What's busted?
Busted is getting kicked out of Cornell.

Announcers: For lapping up the high highball...
Band: What's a highball?
Why, alcohol, of course. He busted out because he spent too much time drinking.

Announcers: We'll all have drinks at Theodore Zinck's when I get back next Fall.
Band: What's Theodore Zinck's?
Theodore Zinck's was a Downtown bar in the old Ithaca Hotel and is still remembered with the continued tradition of local and international Zinck's nights.

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My Old Cornell

by Will A. Dillon 1917

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Oh I want to go back to the old days
Those good old days on the Hill.
Back to my Cornell, for that's where they all yell
CORNELL! I yell Cornell (CORNELL!)
Far above Cayuga's waters I hear those chiming bells
For I'm longing and yearning and always returning
To my old Cornell!

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New Cornell Fight Song

by Prof. Marice Stith

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C-O-R-N-E-double-L,
Win the game and then ring a bell.
What's the big intrigue?
We're the best in the Ivy League. Rah! Rah! Rah!
Score the point that puts us ahead
Knock 'em dead Big Red!
1-2-3-4, who are we for?
Can't you tell?
Old Cornell,
GO RED!

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March On, Cornell

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Onward Cornell, to the top where you belong
Yours is the glory history has made in song
March with your classmates to the heights this honored day!
We're proud to be Cornellians, we're behind you come what may!
March on, Cornell! While your children sing out this song!
Over the top we lead to glory, Alma Mater must stand strong!
March On, Cornell!
Mem'ries far above Cayuga waters will cheer our hearts to victory!
March On, Cornell!

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Fight for Cornell

by Theodore Julius Lindorff 1907 and Kenneth Roberts 1908

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From rocky height, we come to fight, for the name Cornell has made
And here we cheer, without a fear that her good name will never fade.
Fight to the end, don't break or bend, until our team has won the game;
And fight for might, for right, for Cornell's name for the glory that brings us fame.
Make all advances, strong and sure today, take all the changes fate throws in the way.
Fight for the glory, that is earned so well;
Victory makes history, so fight for Cornell.

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The Big Red Team

by Romeyn Berry 1904 and Charles Edward Tourison 1906

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See them plunging down to the goal, see the ruddy banners stream;
Hear the crashing roll, as we cheer for the Big Red Team.

Yea! Yea! Yea!

Cheer til the sounds wakes the blue hills around;
Make the scream of the North wind yield,
To the strength of the yell from the people of Cornell
As the Big Red Team takes the field!

Yea! Yea!

Ten thousand strong as we march, march along,
From our home on the grey rock height
Oh the victory is sealed, when the team takes the field
As we cheer for the Red and White.

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Evening Song

by Henry Tyrrell 1880

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When the sun fades far away
In the crimson of the west
And the voices of the day
Murmur low and sink to rest

Refrain: Music with the twilight falls
O'er dreaming lake and dell
'Tis the echo from the walls
Of our own, our fair Cornell.

Welcome night and welcome rest,
Fading music fare thee well.
Joy to all we love the best
Love to thee our fair Cornell.

(Refrain)

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"A Marching Mishap in Montreal"

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On September 10, 2000, the Big Red Marching Band performed for the Montreal Alouettes (a tradition that, I understand, continues into the present). We left Ithaca the day before, and by some miracle of divine proportions, crossed the international border without losing any of our members. I don't know how the trumpets found sufficient restraint to refrain from exposing themselves to the Canadian Border Patrol. After arriving in Montreal and enjoying a night of luxurious accomodations on the gymnasium floor of a local high school, the band made its way to Stade Percival-Molson for the game.

I don't recall whether it was during pre-game or halftime, but one of the formations was a generic block "CU". Sounds simple enough, right? Of course, anyone who has marched on a CFL field knows that it's a little...different. The left side of the "U" was supposed to be on the 53-yard line to the drum major's right. It was at least partially composed of horns. Well, they found the 53-yard line all right... the OTHER one. That also happened to be the location of one of the ends of the "C". The net result was that the band did form two letters. They just happened to be "OJ". I thought the historians of that time might have destroyed all photographic evidence of this, but a picture did make its way onto bones.org.

Was it intentional? Perhaps the horns were making a shout-out to a high profile murder defendant (this was only five years after the O.J. Simpson trial). Or maybe they wanted to express their love of a particular citrusy drink. Then again, it was probably just an accident. One of the horns sent the picture to Tropicana, who sent them t-shirts.

The "OJ" incident was just the start of an eventful 2000 season. Cornell won three Ivy games by one point, including coming back from 28 points down during the "renegade band" trip to Harvard. They beat Columbia by 4 when the Lions mismanaged the clock at the end of the game. This set up a winner-takes-the-Ivy-title game against Penn (SUCKS) on Schoellkopf... in which the Big Red were destroyed. Oh well, whatever... the band still won, as it always does.

- Matt Carberry '03

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"The Finger" 1969

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I was a freshman in the fall of 1969, and joined the BRB (Rank 4, clarinet) as soon as I got to campus. The all-male band maintained the proud tradition of marching from formation to formation as we executed theme shows planned out by the Show Committee made up of band members. A key feature of these theme shows was that each formation was meant to represent something, i.e., it was not merely a geometric formation. Our first away game that fall was at Rutgers, and the show theme was student life. One of our formations was a giant hypodermic needle, with the sousaphones inside the barrel of the syringe. The narrator (Bob Anspach '70) talked about Gannett Clinic as we marched into formation. After we played out piece (sorry, I don't recall what it was), we marched into our next formation, and the way we did it was that the men forming the movable part of the syringe marched so as to push the "plunger" down, and the sousaphones marched (or, I think, ran) out the needle. Pretty neat!

However, one alum who was at the game didn't think so, and he was Jansen Noyes '06 (as in Noyes Lodge, Noyes Student Union [now gone]) -- you get the idea. He wrote a letter to President Corson claiming we were advocating use of drugs, and of course this brought down the wrath of the administration on Professor Stith, the band advisor. Well, now a confrontation was set up between the band and the administration, and as you know from your ancient history, that time in America in general and Cornell in particular was nothing if not confrontational. The Daily Sun played it up big, and the band was seen as just the latest victim of official oppression. So what do victims of oppression do? They stick it to The Man -- and that's what the show committee decided to do.

The last home game of the season was Fall Weekend, then one of the big three social weekends on the annual student calendar. The band had done some practicing in secret, away from the view of Prof. Stith. When we took the very muddy field that November Saturday afternoon, a huge roar went up from the stands as we kicked off our show, which was a salute to the Ivy League. One of our formations was a big fist (knuckles toward the Crescent, wrist toward the West Stands), and the narrator saluted Harvard for its riot the previous spring. Our next formation was a chapel, representing Dartmouth, with the steeple tip toward the Crescent. Standing in the fist, the sousaphones formed the lines representing the clenched fingers. As we played "The Chicago Police Band March", the band marched in position while the sousaphones started to march to the next formation -- forming a giant raised middle finger. The stands went absolutely wild. I never heard such a noise in my life. The whole thing was beautifully captured on film by Nick Krukovsky '65.

Needless to say, the shit hit the fan after that. From that day to this, the Big Red Band has generally confined itself to geometric formations. In my personal opinion, Greg Pearson was brought on as assistant director precisely to see that this sort of thing never happened again.

As for me, I played in the band the next year and became head manager in my junior year. An interesting postscript happened in the summer of 1980. My wife and I were visiting Cornell en route back from a business trip and stopped in at my old fraternity, Kappa Delta Rho. I went up to my old room and there was a brother there studying. We got to talking, and I asked him if there were many brothers in the band, as there had been in my day. Yes, he said, he was in the band himself. I proceeded to tell him this story, and as I got to the punch line, he stopped me and said, almost in tones of awe, "You were in The Finger? We watch that every year at the band banquet!" He ran into the hall and called, "Hey, Ted! C'mere! Here's a bro who was in The Finger!" "What? You were in The Finger! Cool!" It's the nearest I've ever come to being famous.

- Paul Cashman '73

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Cornell at Princeton 1957

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My name is Dave Williams. My Father, Frank W Williams Jr., was a Graduate of Both Cornell Under Grad 1934 and Cornell Law School 1936. Today Law School is 3 years, but back then he was able to start his first year of Law School during his Undergraduate Senior Year. Dad, my Mother, My Uncle and many Family Members and Friends attended Big Red Football games regularly throughout the 1930's,40's and 50's. They enjoyed the Football and loved the Big Red Marching Band. In that era, attending an Ivy League football game was equal in sport's entertainment prominence to attending a NFL game today.

My Father used to relate a story about Cornell Football from the Late 1930's. It seems that Cornell was to play (I believe he said) Ohio State on a Saturday Afternoon in the Late 1930's. At that time, there was a nationally prominent sports writer named Grantland Rice. Mr Rice was considered to be the Dean of the Sports Media, at that time, in the same way John Madden or Chris Berman would be in today's media. Mr Rice wrote that the winner of the Cornell Ohio State game would be considered to be the consensus "National Champion" of College Football for that year.. Cornell Won!!

I attended my first Big Red Football game in 1954 vs Colgate at Ithaca. At that time, they released red balloons after the First Cornell touchdown.

In the late 50's we attended Cornell (away) games at Princeton. I distinctly remember one game in 1957 (Cornell at Princeton):

When the Cornell Band was on the field, The Princeton Tiger mascot walked through the Cornell Band's line of Marchers and did everything he could to disrupt the Cornell Band's Program. Among other things, the Tiger had a large "hand squeeze horn" which he played throughout Cornell's half-time program. When the Princeton Band took the field for their half-time program, The Cornell Bear Mascot started to do the same things that the Tiger Mascot had done. The Cornell Bear Mascot had been at it for about ten seconds when a "Well Dressed" older gentleman from the Cornell sideline ran out onto the field and ushered the Cornell Bear back to the Cornell Sideline. Observing this, My Father and Uncle were quick to point out that this demonstrated that Cornell and the Big Red Marching Band were a Class Act, while Princeton Band entourage and their "Mascots" were not.

I am proud of Cornell and the Big Red Marching Band for continuing such a fine program and tradition.

- by Dave Williams

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The Great Paint Caper of 1946

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In 1945, the Ivy League was formally established. These eight traditional football competitors no longer ruled the national scene as they did at the turn of the century, but their rivalries ran as deep as ever. It seems that on several occasions in this era, rowdy visiting fans would travel to Ithaca, sneak onto the Arts Quad the night before a big game, and paint over our statues of A.D. White and Ezra Cornell with their own school's colors.

This did not sit well with the Big Red Marching Band.

Their revenge would be exacted on November 28th, 1946, the night before the season closer at Penn. At 1:00 AM under a new moon, Cornell bandies took to the mean streets of Philadelphia with cans of red paint. Casualties, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, included "former Provost Edgar Fahs Smith with his face red ... and Benjamin Franklin standing his stone vigil with a bright red sash befitting an Ambassador to France." Regarding Smith, "The face had been painted red as well as a book held in one hand, while on the base was lettered 'C.U.' in brilliant red." Several other spots around campus were hit, including the medical school and Franklin Field's ticket office.

Unfortunately, these insurgents weren't as well-trained in criminal activity as the people who had earlier vandalized Cornell. A total of ten were chased from the scene and arrested by Penn's campus police ... caught red-handed, if you will. These gentlemen spent the rest of the evening in prison. By a first-hand account:

The ten expendables spent much of the night singing Cornell songs from their cells while carving initials into the bars with nail files and regretting the fact that they weren't given time to use their 'secret weapon,' a sack of lime which was to have been spread on Franklin Field into a great C.

Penn authorities declined to press charges and the Cornellians were released the next day, just in time for the football game.

Rest assured, band members of the modern era would never dream of causing a ruckus at another school's campus (especially Penn's), and have never had any confrontations with law enforcement officers. However, the Big Red spirit exmplified by these bandsmen continues today, both on and off the field.

By the way, Cornell lost that game 26-20 to finish the season at 5-3-1, which just goes to show: the band always wins.

- Kyle Preston '06

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JOIN THE BAND!!!

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To join our ranks, send an email to our publicity chairs, Emily Grigg (eng22@cornell.edu) and Shan Parikh (ssp237@cornell.edu) with your name, preferred contact method, and instrument. We always welcome new members, no matter your experience or year in school. Our section leaders can even help you learn a new instrument!

The band plays in front of RPCC during its annual early morning march to north campus.

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