"Mighty Bruins" is a

fight song A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

sports teams. Composed by

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-winning

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

Bill Conti William Conti (born April 13, 1942) is an American composer and conductor, best known for his film scores, including ''Rocky'' (and four of its sequels), ''The Karate Kid'' (and all of its sequels), '' For Your Eyes Only'', ''Dynasty'' (and its ...

(with lyrics from UCLA students Barbara Lamb and Don Holley), the song was commissioned by the UCLA Alumni Association on its fiftieth anniversary. It debuted in 1984 at the football game against

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, with the school

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, o ...

conducted by Conti himself. UCLA uses the song as its "victory march"; it is usually played whenever the team scores. As with UCLA's other fight song, Bruin Warriors, the Mighty Bruins prominently features the UCLA Eight Clap cheer.

Other UCLA fight songs

One of the reasons for commissioning the song was to give UCLA its own fight song, separate from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

. UCLA has used Sons of Westwood, taken from the Cal

Big C Big C ( th, บิ๊กซี ซูเปอร์เซ็นเตอร์), is a grocery and general merchandising retailer headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. Big C is as of 2016 Thailand's second-largest hypermarket operator after Lotus' ...

tune, as its best known fight song since the All-California football weekends. Another of the reasons for the commissioning was to replace some other lesser known UCLA fight songs such as "Sing U.C.L.A.", "By the Old Pacific's Rolling Waters", "Team, Hear our Song", and "Fight on Men of Westwood". *"Fight on Men of Westwood", simply known as "Fight", uses the tune " Fight on, Pennsylvania!", a fight song of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

. It was written by David B. Zoob. Until the 1986 football season, "Fight" was played following a UCLA touchdown. *"By the Old Pacific's Rolling Waters", or more simply "By", was written in 1948 specifically for UCLA by Thomas V. Beall. *"Sing UCLA" was written by

Irving Bibo Irving Bibo (August 22, 1889 – May 2, 1962) was an American composer, songwriter, and publisher. Biography Bibo composed the songs "Those Panama Mamas", "Am I Wasting My Time on You", "My Cutey's Due at Two-to-Two To-Day" and "Sweet Lit ...

and appears on a number of recorded college football song compilations. *"Team, Hear Our Song", simply known as "Team" has words by Don Davis, music by

Harry Fillmore Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

. *" Strike Up the Band for UCLA" was another

leitmotif A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglic ...

of the school teams from the time it was donated to the school by George and

Ira Gershwin Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 2 ...

in 1936. Although the UCLA Band no longer performs "Fight on Men of Westwood", "Team, Hear Our Song", or "Sing UCLA" ("By The Old Pacific" is still heard occasionally, and is featured on the official band CDs), they are a part of the musical repertoire performed by the UCLA Alumni Band as part of their pre-game concert during every home game.

Other UCLA school songs

* Hail to the Hills of Westwood - UCLA Alma Mater song * Rover (song) - UCLA Victory song * Strike Up The Band (song) - UCLA official song * Bruin Warriors

References

External links

Lyrics
{{Pac-10 Fight Songs UCLA Bruins Pac-12 Conference fight songs American college songs