Hump Day Rankings: The Fight Songs

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Hump Day Rankings is a weekly look at some of the other topics that make the City Six great. It will be published each Wednesday and will include a poll at the end of each story to get your thoughts. You can see other rankings here.

As always, we encourage interaction through comments at the bottom or you can email your thoughts to [email protected].

We open Hump Day Rankings with a look at fight songs. If you are a graduate of a Philahoops school (and are reading this), chances are you know your fight song. Knowing the song could mean screaming the words as the band pumps out the tunes or just humming along while looking around at your fellow students and graduates. A fight  song is a rallying cry. When a team wins, it is shared in jubilation. As if to say to the world, “Take that, other team.” It is a source of pride and a proclamation of dominance.

When a team loses, the fight song serves as a reminder of the pride that ones feels to have attended a particular institution. So what if my favorite squad is in the middle of a terrible season and just lost by 26 to the worst team (second worst team?) in the conference?

Boom. Fight song makes it better. You guys might have just beaten us soundly, but some guy (or girl) decades ago wrote a couple of lines that make us come together as an alumni base. We’ll get you next time.

So that in mind, here are the Philahoops’ school’s fight songs, ranked.

#6 Drexel – “Drexel Fight Song”

Fight on for Drexel,
We’ve got the stuff we need to win this game.
We’re gonna fight on for Drexel,
Take the Dragon on to fame.
Fight on for Drexel,
The gold and blue is on another spree.
We’re gonna fight, fight, fight, fight for Drexel U.
On to victory!

D-D-D-D
R-R-R-R
E-E-E-E
X-EL-X-EL
DREX-EL-DREX-EL
FIGHT-TEAM-FIGHT

I know that some people might think that I’m picking on Drexel here, but their fight song is the worst. It starts out pretty normal as far as fight songs go, but hits a dead end at line two. “We’ve got the stuff we need to win this game”? It sounds like something Miley Cyrus would have sang five years ago. Truly horrible. Too many syllables. What is this stuff? Just out of place and terrible.

But as truly hard as it to get past that second line, as you move further down the verse, it gets a little better. We got Dragons. We got the word “spree.” Some good rhyming convention. If it ended there, at “victory” then DU might have popped up a few spots. Instead, they whipped out a chant that sounds like that kid from Billy Madison was their lead cheerleader. I’m sure when this is sung at Drexel games, all the smart engineering students look awkwardly at each as if to say, “Five years of co-op for this?”

Now you stalwart Drexel alums might be saying, “Wait a minute here, this isn’t the song I sang!” That would be true. Drexel tweaked its fight song not so long ago to edit out some talk of them marching down the field and references to the since universit-ized “Drexel Tech.” They still had that second line and god-awful cheer though, so congrats Dragons fans on having the worst fight song in the city.

#5 La Salle – Fight Song

So being a La Salle graduate, I walked into this list thinking that, undoubtedly, La Salle had the worst fight song in the city. Thanks Drexel. Every student that is an actual college student knows the La Salle fight song, and by knows I mean can hum repeatedly. I’d wager a guess that only 1% of students at 20th and Olney actually know the words to the fight song, up from 0% until they put it on some t-shirts. It is my guess that La Salle has, BY FAR, the most generic fight song in the country. They went right through the checklist when they drew this one up.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

That is how it starts. Cannot get any more fight-songy than that.

Fight on Explorers

Got the nickname in there and an obligatory other “Fight.”

Fight on for L.S.U. 

School initials. This is the part that really gets to me, as there is a much, MUCH more well known L.S.U out there. I always laughed at it because nobody at La Salle calls it L.S.U, or L.U. or anything with initials. Throw in there the fact that in the 11 words that we have, six of them are “Fight.”

Give ‘em “L”

Here comes the chanting. More on this line in a bit, because it runs parallel with another tradition that I’ll get to.

Give ‘em “a”

I guess they figured this was getting a little long, so run through it all right here.

Give ‘em “S-A-L-L-E”

First off, ending any line with an “ee” sound should punishable by death, unless it rhymes with another “ee” sound that is. Famous poets and songwriters are rolling over in their graves. Secondly, what exactly are we giving someone. La Salle? We’re giving them the name of the school? The Saint? Doesn’t make any sense.

Finally, I have the sinking feeling that the “L” in the fourth line is a G-Rated version of “Hell.” The La Salle screamer, who you’ll hear at a key moment at any La Salle home game, gives the following chant:

WE FIGHT HARD, WE FIGHT WELL

WHEN WE FIGHT WE FIGHT LIKE…”L-A-S-A-L-L-E”

I actually like this. It works once, in a game, by the same guy. The same concept doesn’t work in the fight song.

So fight on to victory!

Cue generic ending to go with generic fight song. Again, terrible. Makes my skin crawl in the worst way. And this isn’t some self-hatred from a La Salle alum. I think the alma mater is fantastic. The fight song, however, seems like it was scrawled on a napkin at a lunch before the game. If I was king of the world, that would be like the third thing I changed.

#4 St. Joseph’s – “Oh when the Hawks go flying in” OR “Mine Eyes”

First off, congrats to St. Joseph’s for not having terrible fight songs. That aside, they basically took a gospel song and a battle cry and changes two words. Changing nouns to “Hawks” of a previous tune does not a fight song make. I’m going to look past the first one because it is like two seconds long and the only difference is the word HAWKS in place of the more traditional (and appropriate) SAINTS.

Oh when the Hawks, go flying in
Oh when the Hawks, go flying in,
Oh when the Hawks go flying in,
I want to be in that number,
When the Hawks go flying in.
(Repeat above)
Let’s Go St. Joe’s!
Lets Go St. Joe’s!
Let’s Go St. Joe’s!

Mine Eyes (Battle Hymn of the Republic)
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Hawk,
He is flying through the doorway ’cause he never, ever walks,
He is flying through the rafters like a loyal, loyal Hawk,
The Hawk will never die.
Glory, glory what a helluva way to fly,
Glory, glory what a helluva way to fly,
Glory, glory what a helluva way to fly,
The Hawk will never die!
We’ve been to Carolina and we’ve been to Buffalo,
And we’ve been to Cincinnati flying high and flying low,
And when we get to Maryland(substitute current year’s Final Four destination) we’ll let everybody know,
The Hawk will never die.
Glory, glory what a helluva way to fly,
Glory, glory what a helluva way to fly,
Glory, glory what a helluva way to fly,
The Hawk will never die!

I’m not going to knock Hawk Hill for these, because the crowds love them and they are easy to remember. They are good fight songs, they are just both knock-offs. If I was them, I’d keep the “Oh…” and do away with the other one. Come up with something original. You have “The Hawk will never die!”, which is powerful, but no mechanism other then a 161-year-old civil war cry that is a little bit much.

#3 Villanova – V for Villanova

V for Villanova
“V” for Villanova, “V” for Victory
“B” for Blue and “W” for White

For the Blue and the White we will fight!
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Fight for Villanova, Fight for Victory

1. For we’re out to win the fray;
Villanova leads the way,
With a capital “V” for Victory.

2. For we’re out to beat the foe
Show the en-e-my we know
how to win with a “V” for Victory.

Vill-a-no-va, V-I-L-L-A-N-O-V-A
“V” for Vic-tor-y, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y
It’s a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye,
and a “V” for a V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

Moving down City Line a bit, the Wildcats come in at a strong number three on this list. Like most things Villanova, pretty standard fight song. We got letters. We got “Victory.” What is different about this one, however, is that we also have instructions. The melody is good, very early 1900s big band style with some tempo changes. Where it falls off a bit is using words like “fray.” I also have a little bit of a problem with that second to last line, going a bit too far into the body parts, but it is a Catholic school and I know my bible.

Villanova has an advantage because it starts with the letter “v”. Outside of schools in Virginia and Vermont, only two other schools (Valparaiso and Vanderbilt) begin with that letter. If this was a list of school names that begin with the letter V, Villanova wins hands down. Well, maybe not. It might be between them and this school. Their fight song must be AWESOME.

All and all, not bad. Middle of the pack. Good job Nova Nation.

#2 Penn – They have like 100 of them.

Did you go to Penn? If you did, could you tell me which song is their fight song. The Quakers have seven songs listed on their band’s website. That is way too many, but I’m sure they don’t do them all. Some of them are great, like this one:

Dring a Highball
Drink a Highball at nightfall
Be good fellows while you may
For tomorrow may bring sorrow
So tonight, lets all be Gay!
Tell the story of Glory
Of Pennsylvania
Drink a highball And be jolly
Here’s a toast to dear old Penn!

It is a song about drinking. At college. And it isn’t banned or wiped from the depths of the world wide web.

If you crawl Youtube for examples of “Penn Fight Song” there are little Ivy League fights about whether the actual title of “Fight Song” belongs to Fight On, Pennsylvania or Red and Blue. They are both better the most other schools fight songs, but I understand the problem. Since this is a basketball website, there is an issue with the former.

Fight On Pennsylvania
Fight on, Pennsylvania!
Put the ball across that line.
Fight you Pennsylvanians!
There it goes across this time.
Red and blue we’re with you
And we’re cheering for your men.
So it’s fight, fight, fight Pennsylvania
Fight on for Penn!

Check line two. This is a football fight song so it is immediately disqualified from contention. Still, if this was an Ivy League football website (One Exists!), I think this might move Penn to #1. Instead, we have to review the latter song.

The Red and Blue
Come all ye loyal classmates now
In hall and campus through,
Lift up your hearts and voices
For the Royal Red and Blue
Fair Harvard has her crimson
Old Yale her colors too,
But for dear Pennsylvania
We wear the Red and Blue.

Hurrah, hurrah Pennsylvania!
Hurrah for the Red and the Blue!
Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah,
Hurrah for the Red and Blue!

Such gentlemen, the Ivies. They throw Harvard and Yale out there, but not in a derogatory way. If this song was written today (by, I don’t know, an SEC fan), it would just be two words: “(Expletive Deleted) Auburn” and would be titled Fight Song (Roll Tide). Thanks Internet.

Back to this song above us, it really is a good tune. It has some age to it, as seen by using the word “ye” in the first line, but it is just an all around excellent fight song. Not one that will have you ready to rip someone’s head off, but it gets the point across. Why is it not #1 on this list, you ask? It is the inordinate amount of “Hurrah’s” in the chorus. Eight of them to be exact.

Oh, and it has five verses. Fight songs are allowed two verses, tops, and every verse past that just bores people. It was a simpler time.

#1 Temple – “T for Temple U” and “Fight, Temple, Fight”

This was a tough one, as Temple has their “official” fight song that is on their website. T for Temple U is sung at basketball games and is probably the one to base it on. If that was true, they might not be number one and Penn would surely hop ahead with their jingles. Here is that one.

T for Temple U
“T” for Temple “U”
U-ni-versity!
Fight, fight, fight!
For the Cherry and the White,
For the Cherry and the White,
We’ll fight, fight, fight!

Pretty bland, but still a top two finish if this was all it was based upon. Extremely simple with all the elements, but it doesn’t make any mistakes and it is extremely catchy. I was all set to put the Quakers at this spot, until I caught this on a Sunday night.

One of my favorite shows had a character that sung Temple’s fight song on TV. You might say that is an unfair way to rank the best fight songs, but it was good enough for a bump for the Owls. Some sources have this as the second part to the first and that is how I am going to rank it.

Fight! Temple, fight on!
Fight with all your might!
Fight for the Cherry and White,
Keep our colors high!
Roll that ball and hit the line,
All the Temple stars will shine,
Skill and courage win the game
Fight on, Temple, fight!

Just excellent. And on HBO.

So what do you think?


Why I believe Jerrell Wright will be the best player in the city

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By JOE FEDOROWICZ
LaSalleHoops.com
@joefedorowicz

His face and demeanor in post game pressers is always so unassuming, almost aloof to those that haven’t experienced it before. Hesitant to speak and always talking in generalities, it is hard to believe that Jerrell Wright had just gone for 20 points and over a dozen rebounds, but it doesn’t seem like a big deal to him.

At the end of last season, with La Salle in the midst of a torrid run to the Sweet Sixteen, Wright was a marvel to watch. With frontcourt-mate Steve Zack sitting down due to injury, Wright shined brighter when the lights went up. Against Boise State, a team whose talent was mostly in the form of speedy guards, Wright played defense through an uptempo pace.

When Kansas State was the opponent, the Markward Award winner showed that he could hold up against the bigger, more athletic Big 12 body. Down the stretch in that game, John Giannini’s game plan was clearly to just dump it to his big man and let the then-sophomore go to work. And work he did, scoring La Salle’s final nine points, while going 7-8 from the line.

And when Mississippi stood in the way of a Sweet Sixteen berth, Wright continued his consistently above-average play. While the mass scoring and rebounds did not appear in the box score, Wright battled with the SEC big men and disrupted their ability to score effectively, putting more pressure on the talkative Marshall Henderson.

For me, Wright’s coming out party started in March and I do not think he is done.

The matriculation of Jerrell Wright has been gradual. As a freshman, he showed flashes of brilliance but struggled to stay on the floor in a guard-dominated lineup. When fouls weren’t an issue, Wright scored in bunches. A left-handed big man is a rarity, but with a hook shot from the other side that seems unblock-able, the 6-foot-8 freshman stepped in for recently departed Aaric Murray and averaged 9.8 points per game. Over the final 15 games, which made up most of the conference schedule, Wright upped that number to 12.3 points. 

Much praise has been showered on La Salle’s guards in the past few years. Tyreek Duren, the Explorers’ sure-handed point guard, was named to the preseason Atlantic 10 first team, of which Wright appeared on the list’s third team with speedy guard Tyrone Garland. Duren has also been mentioned as the preseason City 6 player of the year by some lists, touting the senior’s improved shooting and ball security. And while that looks to be a conservative choice that will be echoed by many, I still think this year belongs to Wright.

La Salle lost just one player to graduation, with Ramon Galloway now playing in Bosnia for Igokea. That loss is great in terms of scoring, defense and athleticism, but I believe the effect of a Galloway-less lineup is increased touches for La Salle’s big men. Garland and Duren are both slashers, but are limited in height and have just a percentage of the athleticism that Galloway had, leading to an interior offensive game that has a gaping hole.

Couple this with reports that Zack has improved greatly in terms of skill and muscle this year and you could see less defensive pressure on Wright. While Fraschilla’s tweet below might be hyperbole in some sense of the word, Zack has improved each year and with a great interior passing game, look for a Zack to Wright finish throughout the season.

What could slow down Wright? For starters, the concussion that has him sitting out practices in the past week. Concussion awareness is at an all-time high, so there is no telling whether this is a lasting problem or just a short setback. Giannini also has a habit of going small when the team is struggling, but I believe this may change with the improvements in his frontcourt.

Is Jerrell Wright going to grab the Big 5 player of the year award when it is announced in March? Nobody can say for sure, but the soft-spoken big man is oft-overlooked and slightly under appreciated in La Salle’s guard dominated world. If the four NCAA tournament games are any indication of what is to come, Wright, and the Explorers, are in for a great season.

What do you think?

Explorers picked third, three named to A-10 preseason All-Conference teams

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Following a season that featured an NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen run, the La Salle Explorers were picked to finish third in the new look Atlantic 10, coming in behind VCU and Saint Louis.

In a poll that features the head coaches and select media members, La Salle received 265 points in the vote, behind 307 for the Rams and 288 for the Billikens. Immediately behind La Salle was the perennially overhyped Massachusetts and fellow Big Five member St. Joseph’s. La Salle did not receive any first place votes, with VCU garnering 19 to win and Saint Louis a mere five.

The Explorers also finished with three members of the preseason All-Conference teams, with senior point guard Tyreek Duren leading the way as a first teamer. Duren finished averaging 14.2 points and 3.3 assists per game last year, capped off with a 19-point effort against Ole Miss to move his team into their final game. Duren leads a backcourt that, despite losing Ramon Galloway to graduation, is chock full with speed and talent on both ends of the court.

One of those teammates is Tyrone Garland, a senior transfer from Virginia Tech who was selected to the third team. Garland became eligible in the second semester last season, and immediately impacted on the scoring side of the ball. Averaging 13.1 points per game in only 24.5 minutes of action, the Philadelphia native became famous for his “Southwest Philly Floater”, as described by Garland to CBS’s Craig Sager. Lightning quick and great at the rim, Garland should immediately be injected into the starting lineup as a smaller replacement for Galloway’s athleticism.

Joining Garland on the third team is Jerrell Wright, the 6-foot-8 sophomore big man who was dominant towards the end of last season. With a great left hand and excellent touch, Wright is a a perfect compliment to the speedy guards in the backcourt. The Dobbins Tech graduate enters his junior season off a 10.8 point, 6.7 rebound campaign that included a 14.2 point scoring average in the NCAA tournament. Wright is on the cusp of being dominant and when he is sinking free throws, can put up points in bunches. He is also a good compliment to big man Steve Zack, who added muscle in the off season and can pass from the post.

Stick to LaSalleHoops.com for all your Explorers coverage. We will have a season preview and more coming shortly.

 Official A10 Release

Philadelphia 76ers to sign Khalif Wyatt, per report

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The 76ers just got a scorer.

Following a summer league in which he torched teams for over 20 points per game, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that the Philadelphia 76ers has signed Khalif Wyatt to a guaranteed contract.

The undrafted rookie free agent out of Temple agreed to terms Thursday night to play for his hometown team. He will sign a partially guaranteed, mutli-year contract on Friday. The guard will be on the team’s roster when it opens the season against the Miami Heat on Oct. 30.  But there’s a chance Wyatt could spend a portion of this season with the Delaware 87ers, the Sixers NBA Development League affiliate.

Wyatt is a proven scorer and, perhaps more importantly, he is cheap. As the 76ers rebuild, it seems that he is the perfect option to put the ball in the basket and perhaps sell a few tickets.

One thing I will not miss at the Explorers’ Big 5 games: Those Rollouts

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BY JOE FEDOROWICZ

LASALLEHOOPS.COM Editor

It had been 20 years since an Explorer squad played deep into March, as John Giannini‘s team did last season when they stormed to the Sweet Sixteen only six months ago. And as someone who has followed La Salle for over a decade, and known of their history my whole life, this season brings a whole bunch of new feelings.

But I’m most happy that one theme of rollouts is dead.

It is not that La Salle is on the national radar before the season, for the first time in forever, that has me most excited for this season. Or that prognosticators like Joe Lunardi, Jason Wells and every other bracketologist have La Salle firmly in the 2014 tournament?

No, the biggest change will come December 15th, when La Salle goes cross town to take on Villanova. Or on January 4th, when they’ll take on Penn. Or finally, when the Explorers battle Temple with ESPN College GameDay in the house. When they can’t hold this one up:

“Boyz II Men topped the charts the last time you made the tourney.”

Cute. I remember Boyz II Men and I was little. Must have been a long time ago.

That gem was from a Temple game in 2012. La Salle throws a couple back, and some of them are pretty good, but it is the tournament burns that really hurt the student / graduate in me. And it seemed like it would never end. Even Penn would jab every now and then (though theirs were slightly more polite.)

The rollouts go back about as far as the Big 5 does. This excerpt is from a Sports Illustrated article from 1965:

One memorable St. Joseph’s banner observed that LA SALLE IS AN ARMPIT. When another St. Joseph’s roll-out proclaimed, LA SALLE IS YELLOW AND BLUE BUT MOSTLY YELLOW, the La Salle fans quickly unfurled: IS THAT WHAT THE JESUITS TEACH YOU? The clerics of the three Catholic schools in the Big Five frequently find themselves perplexed over the banners, and call upon their lay friends for translations. Last year Villanova students harassed St. Joseph’s star Steve Courtin with a rollout saying, STICK IT IN YOUR EAR, COURTIN! 

La Salle has started to cut it.

This is one from St. Joe’s fans.

These were the kind of rollouts that needed to be screened by faculty members because they had gotten out of hand. I personally did not mind the tasteless ones. In fact, when students showed up in jumpsuits following the 2004 mess, did not mind it. Or this one:

“400K…not enough for Dunphy….or bail.”

It was bad, but it was bad for all the other reasons. And as unruly as those rollouts got and whether it was St. Joe’s or Villanova, Temple or Penn, none of them stung as much as the ones about the “NCAA”, or “Dancin’” or harped back to 1992.

Now they are gone and when La Salle faces a Big 5 opponent, I hope the students keep in mind the torture that the last 20 years of graduates had to face. When they unfurl that first white sheet of paper, with fans and alumni waiting patiently to see what the Explorer Entourage, they should remember all of those games when opponents chided La Salle’s bad luck. It is terrible in that position and one day, the school on Norther Broad could be back in that place.

Remember that, students.

And bury them.

***

What is your favorite La Salle rollout, whether you are an Explorer fan or not? Leave it in the comments below!

La Salle to appear on national TV a record 14 times

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By Joe Fedorowicz

EDITOR • LASALLEHOOPS

La Salle announced today that their schedule would include a school record 14 national television appearances. The release had this to say:

The Explorers will appear on the ESPN family of networks five times, CBS Sports Network five times and NBC Sports Network four times. Additional television opportunities will be announced when they are available.

It was previously announced that the Explorers would be facing Quinnipiac in the Tip-Off Marathon, an annual event that has become a favorite amongst college basketball fans. The ESPN event will take place November 12th.

In addition to that game, La Salle will face VCU and Saint Louis at home, two games that will be featured on ESPN and ESPN2. respectively.

“Our 2013-14 schedule provides many challenges and opportunities,” head coach Dr. John Giannini said. “The national exposure our program will receive is important for many reasons. Personally, I am eager for basketball fans around the country to see the incredible enthusiasm of our students and the exciting atmosphere of a packed Gola Arena.”

I guess this is what a Sweet Sixteen appearance will do for you.

Official Release

La Salle’s full schedule