The Wolf Web is On Board

NCS Basketball NCS Football43

Yesterday’s entry about cheering at NC State games has picked up some attention at The Wolf Web in this thread.

Their conversation discusses the unfamiliarity of many NC State fans with the words to the University’s alma mater. We couldn’t agree more with this problem. This issue will not be fixed until (1) the Einstein’s who manage the scoreboards at Carter-Finley & the RBC start scrolling the songs’ words while the band plays and (2) the University makes the teaching of songs, traditions, and ‘intangibles’ a priority on campus.

While we are on this topic – I hope that realize that the “Red and White” (from State and we know we are the best…) is NOT the NC State fight song. The NC State fight song also has very good lyrics but no-one ever sings them because, again, the words are never shared with the masses. You can see the words to the fight song in the first comment posted under this entry,

I haven’t checked any message boards the last 24 hours, so if you don’t see anything out there then please feel free to take the time push the message through.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

NCS Basketball NCS Football

43 Responses to The Wolf Web is On Board

  1. BoKnowsNCS71 10/23/2007 at 10:51 AM #

    The words to the Fight Song were written by Hardy Ray, Class of 1926, and the music was written by Edward Gruber.

    “NCSU Fight Song
    Shout aloud to the men who will play the game to win
    We’re behind you, keep fighting for State—
    Hold that line, hold ’em fast,
    We’ll reach victory at last
    We’re behind you, keep fighting for State—
    Rise up to the fray and let your colors wave,
    Shout out for dear old N.C. State;–GO STATE!
    And where-e’er we go,
    we’ll let the whole world know,
    We’re behind you, keep fighting for State.”

    No offense but as a 58 year old alum, this didn’t even excite me as a “Fight song when I was at state. That is probably why I suspect J. Perry Watson, former Director of Music, wrote the Red & White Song with better lyrics and a tune that many Wolfpack fans cannot get out of their heads.

    “The Red and White Song
    We’re the Red and White from State
    And we know we are the best.
    A hand behind our back,
    We can take on all the rest.
    Come over the hill, Caroline.
    Devils and Deacs stand in line.
    The Red and White from N.C. State.
    — Go State!!”

    Now that should be our Fight song. But even it is a bit dated. There’s a fine line between respecting history and tradition and having something new and modern that gets the blood flowing.

    It begs the question “Should the red and White song be updated and modernized?”

  2. LRM 10/23/2007 at 11:01 AM #

    Our fight song music is the same as the Army anthem, and I always laugh on military appreciation day when the band honors the veterans by playing each branch’s anthem and all the unknowing fans start clapping along to it thinking it’s our fight song.

    As far as the crowd chanting in unision, no one does it better than SEC schools: Yea Alabama, Rocky Top, Glory, Glory Georgia, Hotty Toddy Gosh Amighty, Go Gators and “L-S-U, L-S-U.”

    I just realized I probably watch way too much college football.

  3. BJD95 10/23/2007 at 11:06 AM #

    I’m just distressed nobody but me yells “Go to hell, Carolina!” anymore.

    Do you mean to say that our alma mater has more lyrics than “da da da da da da NNNNNN CCCCCCC State!”

  4. DRW 10/23/2007 at 11:15 AM #

    I seem to remember them putting up the words to the alma mater at a game this year. Or did I dream that?

  5. joe 10/23/2007 at 11:17 AM #

    Do other fan bases know their alma mater? I don’t normally pay attention to that.

  6. beowolf 10/23/2007 at 11:18 AM #

    Now that should be our Fight song. But even it is a bit dated. There’s a fine line between respecting history and tradition and having something new and modern that gets the blood flowing.

    It begs the question “Should the red and White song be updated and modernized?”

    We should just retool the words from P.O.D.’s “Boom.”

  7. 4in12 10/23/2007 at 11:18 AM #

    I’m indifferent to NNN CCC State cheer. I can take it or leave it. What I’d like to see is a movement to deep-six the alma matter. I was in the chorus while at NCSU and even we couldn’t make it sound worth a damn in the music room. Sung by thousands in a stadium it hasn’t got a chance. Mixed with alcohol it’s painful. Does anyone else want a change?

  8. backinpack 10/23/2007 at 11:19 AM #

    BJD, you are not alone. I generally only shout “Go to Hell, Carolina” and don’t say much else. The volume of that phrase is generally proportional to how much I’ve had to drink or how bad of a mood I’m in. I especially enjoy shouting it as loud as possible wheneven UNC-CH fans are nearby.

  9. EverettBeez 10/23/2007 at 11:22 AM #

    I know State’s alma mater, and I didn’t graduate from there. I love the image of the winds of Dixie softly blowing. I did know Mississippi’s too, where I did graduate from, though its been so long . . . At my last graduation from there, we were out in the grove singing about the part about the wind, and damn if the wind didn’t come up. It was the 150th graduation, and both the Chancellor (alum, and all-american kicker) and Trent Lott (alum & head cheerleader) both teared up, lol.

    At Broughton, my first grade in high school was a test on the alma mater. I still know that one.

  10. BoKnowsNCS71 10/23/2007 at 11:23 AM #

    North Carolina State’s Alma Mater was written by two students in the early 1920’s. Dr. Alvin M. Fountain, a class of ‘22 alumnus and editor of The Technician, wrote the words, while Bonnie Norris, from the class of 1923, composed the music.

    The NCSU Alma Mater
    Where the winds of Dixie softly blow o’er the
    fields of Caroline,
    There stands ever cherished, N.C. State, as thy
    honored shrine
    So lift your voices! Loudly sing from hill to
    oceanside!
    Our hearts ever hold you, N.C. State in the folds
    of our love and pride.

    Thank goodness this was in the old poetic rhyming style. Had it been done in the 60’s it would have been written in the beatnik hip Alan Ginsburg style.

    Is is criminal to suggest or even think that maybe updating these tradional songs would a) be more meaningful to today’s students and b) get people more involved in a song that either gets people pumped up or makes them really want to sing it. Just because someone wrote some lyrics to fill a void in the post WWI era — doesn’t mean updating should not be considered.

  11. noah 10/23/2007 at 11:24 AM #

    Everyone should know their school’s alma mater. I don’t care if you sing it or not. Everyone should know the words to the alma mater for their school.

    What? You don’t like it? You don’t want it on your iPod? You’d rather listen to “Boom!”?

    I don’t give a damn. EVERYONE should know the words to their school’s alma mater.

  12. EverettBeez 10/23/2007 at 11:26 AM #

    My third grade teacher taught us “Red & White from State,” and the Craplina song. She also got one of the tv’s so we could watch the noon game on tourny friday. That was ’73.

    Clearly, there is nothing pressing on my desk this morning.

  13. EverettBeez 10/23/2007 at 11:30 AM #

    Agreed BoKnows – what is dated about any of these songs? Should we have a rap song? That would be a fine addition – but I don’t like changed the old songs. Add and enrich, don’t take away or detract.

  14. LRM 10/23/2007 at 11:35 AM #

    I think the Alma Mater has a subtle beauty to it; it’s simple but complete with nuance — we love State from the mountains to the coast, which is very “North Carolina” in its attitude. Add in a line about BBQ and it describes the State fan fairly succinctly, I’d say.

  15. BoKnowsNCS71 10/23/2007 at 11:40 AM #

    Sort of like the perfect country song — gotta have all the right references in it — like BBQ, tailgating, taking Hillsboro St after a big win, etc.

  16. BoKnowsNCS71 10/23/2007 at 11:45 AM #

    We don’t have to replace any of the old tunes — I mean America the Beautiful does not replace the Star Spangled Banner. Both are patriotic songs that serve the same purpose even though only one is the “National” anthem. Fight songs, patriotic school songs need to be added and updated often to stay relevant. Or they just linger in the dust……

  17. highstick 10/23/2007 at 12:07 PM #

    I’m with BoKnows. Leave these things alone cause I can assure you that by the time the politically correct crowd finishes with a new one, it will be awful!

    Last Saturday was the annual “Salute to the Military” in Williams Brice and my wife and I always finish the Army song with “Go State”. I did likewise when I was in the Army! You have to remember the military connections to State when this was written. I guess the Tuesdays and Thursday drill days at State when at least half of the students in class were dressed in either an Army or Air Force ROTC uniform are a thing of the past!

  18. BoKnowsNCS71 10/23/2007 at 12:16 PM #

    I was AF ROTC the first two years and AROTC the last two plus being in the PR’s so I remember those Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also remember a 10 to 1 ratio of guys to girls (bummer).

  19. EverettBeez 10/23/2007 at 12:25 PM #

    The guy to girl ratio any better?
    It helps that the Peace girls (women) are now in town for 4 yrs instead of two. Helps make up for the lose of the college girls at St. Mary’s.

  20. Spacewolf 10/23/2007 at 12:40 PM #

    I learned the Alma Mater during freshman orientation in 1980. J. Perry Watson played it over and over on a piano in Stewart Theater while exhorting 200 future engineers (well, maybe 70 future engineers; the others were destined for other things) to sing it at the tops of their lungs. I left there hoarse, but I damn sure knew the Alma Mater and have never forgotten it!

  21. PackerInRussia 10/23/2007 at 12:48 PM #

    We could do like that Saved By The Bell episode and have a competition to see who can write the best school song if people are wanting to update the Alma Mater (which I am personally against). I believe “Cool School” was either one of the finalists or the winner. What a stupid show. My friend who lived in Owen watched it every morning before class.

  22. tacobellmanager 10/23/2007 at 1:31 PM #

    We were taught the lyrics to Red & White and the Alma Mater at freshman orientation. This was 1991. We had to sing both, like, three times. The lyrics to both appear in media guides, game programs, all sorts of places. If our fans and students are that willfully ignorant, I’m not sure enabling their laziness with scrolling lyrics on the scoreboards will do much good.

    Second point, Red & White is terrible as a fight song. The melody sounds like it was written by a two-year-old and the lyrics reek of unimaginative teenage poetry with its strict AB rhyming couplet. Keep Fighting for State is much better, but is a completely stolen melody. Many other fight songs are — Missouri’s is from a World War One song. Colorado’s is a ripoff of Navy’s. Colorado State’s alma mater, I nearly threw up when I heard it, is a ripoff of Hark the Sound, and let’s not go there.

    Finally, our alma mater is excellent and will be played at my funeral. It is very, very emotional at the end, and would be much more powerful if people actually knew the words.

    Has the pep band stopped playing Old McDonald after the alma mater? I kind of liked that. Especially after a victory over our supposed moral betters in Winston-Salem, Charlottesville or elsewhere. Yep, you got beaten by the farmers. Suck on that for another year.

  23. tacobellmanager 10/23/2007 at 1:32 PM #

    By the way, Luke Winn and SI.com have a very nice treatment of Gavin Grant and the team’s prospects for 07-08 at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/luke_winn/10/23/ncstate/index.html

  24. newt 10/23/2007 at 1:53 PM #

    “I never liked it much, didnt really get it… thank god Oklahoma State doesnt do it, it would last 3 minutes Oooooo klaaaaaaa hooooo maaaaaa state, Oklahoma State!”

    Hysssss-terrrrrr-icallllllll, Hysterical!

    It’s just common sense that simplicity = loud and together.

    Marches are not complicated like symphonies for that reason.

    AC/DC = simple, loud, powerful Jazz = complex, intimate, quieter

  25. RochesterRedWolf 10/23/2007 at 1:56 PM #

    what is the theory behind a fight song..which you would think would be a little different than an alma mater song? Think about it, the kids that go to Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State…they are dying to go to those schools…they soak up everything about those schools, especially the players…and I really think TOB can do that here, i think he wants it, and that’s old school. Teams like USF come and go, we don’t wanna be like that.

    I’d say come up with some serious fight songs, at least 2-3 per quarter. Play them on the jumbotron with the words, for the rest of this year, teams will make fun of us because its lame, and it is to have to teach FANS the fight songs and other things they are supposed to know by heart.

    LET IN MORE CRAZY STUDENTS

    And in 2-3 years, you’ll have nonstop cheering.

    Comeup with some third down chants

    Some fourth down (go for it) chants

    Kickoff chants

    Punt return chants (could be kickoff as well).

    Some encouragment to the D chants.

    the stuff at timeouts that cheerleaders do (not to bash them, but no one is thinking outside the box here) is lame too. That stuff needs to be done during the game. If you can’t scream “Wolf” and “Pack” or “Red” and “white” during the game because you are “concentrating” then you should go back home because you can really concentrate at home.

    The whole point of going to the game is not just so you can go “man i love 50yrd line seats, i can see the whole field”. No no, it should be, “I love 50 yard line seats because my blood-curdled screaming has equal opportunity to affect my team and the enemy as one is about to cross into the other’s territoty.” or something like that.

1 2

Leave a Reply