Sophomore industrial engineering major Andrew Mills and mechanical engineering major Eric Currier said the Bradley fight song is outdated and virtually unknown throught campus, and they are hoping to change that.
The current lyrics refer to football with lines such as “march down the field,” and Mills said it does not relate to students at all.
“It was written before World War II,” he said. “We’re trying to get it changed because it doesn’t excite students and I feel like it doesn’t really inspire school spirit as much as a fight song should.”
Both students said they want to change the song because nobody on campus seems to know about it.
“I heard it at one point last year, but I noticed it wasn’t very well written,” Mills said. “It was just the tune that stuck.”
Currier said he was looking through his planner when he saw the words ‘Hail Red and White’ and it dawned on him that he didn’t know the words to the Bradley fight song.
“To be honest I didn’t know the lyrics,” he said. “I know they play it at basketball games, but they only play the tune, not the lyrics. [That] is why we want to change the lyrics. Most of the band members can hum it but if you ask them how the lyrics go, they don’t know.”
Mills said one of the main reasons for the change is to inspire more school spirit.
“I want people to sing along, and know the words, to be patriotic about our school,” he said. “It makes me less proud of the school. It’s not just because of football but because of school spirit in general, there is a complete lack of it.”
“I feel like the school spirit for sports is kind of low-key,” Currier said. “I’m hoping that once it gets changed and once [the fight song] gets out there and people start knowing about it, hopefully we get that passion for these sports and excitement bringing everyone together.”
The two set up a resolution and proposed it to Student Senate. It was approved, and plans were put in place to create the song.
“We’re setting up a committee with alumni on it, athletes, some faculty and representatives, just to get a well rounded group of people that actually decide what the lyrics should be,” said Currier.
He said they want support from alumni to maintain the tradition of having a fight song while tailoring it to current student interests.
“It’s not that we’re trying to change tradition or do away with tradition, it’s just that we’re trying to be a progressive school,” Mills said. “We will still have ‘hail red and white,’ that’s the traditional side of it, but we also need to show the progressive side and update things.”