"Ten Thousand Men of Harvard" is the most frequently performed of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

fight songs 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 ...

. Composed by A. Putnam of

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

's class of 1918, it is among the fight songs performed by the

Harvard Glee Club The Harvard Glee Club is a 60-voice, Tenor-Bass choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1858 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the United States. The Glee Club is part of the H ...

at its annual joint concert with the

Yale Glee Club The Yale Glee Club is a mixed chorus of men and women, consisting of students of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1861, it is the third oldest collegiate chorus in the United States after the Harvard Glee Club, founded in ...

the night before the annual Harvard-Yale football game, as well as at the game itself. It is also played or sung at other athletic meets or other intercollegiate contests, usually by the

Harvard University Band The Harvard University Band (HUB) is the official student band of Harvard University. The Harvard Wind Ensemble, the Harvard Summer Pops Band, and the Harvard Jazz Bands also fall under the umbrella organization of HUB. Currently, the band plays f ...

. To acquaint incoming freshmen with the song, early each academic year the band performs it in

Harvard Yard Harvard Yard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest part of the Harvard University campus, its historic center and modern crossroads. It contains most of the freshman dormitories, Harvard's most important libraries, Memorial Church, sever ...

, where most freshmen live. The football team sings it after wins, and new players are required to memorize it in both English and Latin. In 1991, this song was one of the songs played by Mission Control to awaken the

STS-37 STS-37, the thirty-ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the eighth flight of the Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'', was a six-day mission with the primary objective of launching the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), the second of the Great Observ ...

crew. In the 2018 film ''

On the Basis of Sex ''On the Basis of Sex'' is a 2018 American biographical legal drama film based on the life and early cases of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was the second woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Directed by Mimi Led ...

'', which portrays the life and early cases of United States Supreme Court Justice

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by Presiden ...

, "Ten Thousand Men" plays as Ginsburg begins the first day of classes as one of only nine women among five hundred incoming Harvard Law School students.

Lyrics

The original lyrics are: In 1953 a verse in

dog Latin Dog Latin or cod Latin is a phrase or jargon that imitates Latin, often by "translating" English words (or those of other languages) into Latin by conjugating or declining them as if they were Latin words. Dog Latin is usually a humorous devi ...

was composed by Allan R. Robinson (Harvard College class of 1954), Edward Upton (class of 1953), and Charles Lipson (class of 1954), consisting of a nonsensical sequence of Latin clichés: ('' Illegitimum non carborundum'' is the Harvard Band's motto.) Other verses have lewd dog Latin lyrics (obscured by loud drumming), or just the syllable ''la'' repeated over and over.

References

{{Ivy League fight song navbox

External links

A video of the Harvard University band performing the songaudio and lyrics to Harvard fight songs
Harvard University Band Ivy League fight songs American college songs Harvard University

Lyrics

See also

References

External links