"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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

sports teams. Composed by

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-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. He is best known for his film scores, including ''Rocky'' (1976), '' Rocky II'' (1979), '' Rocky III'' (1982), '' Rocky V'' (1990), '' Rocky Balboa'' (2006), '' The Karat ...

(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 Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, with the school

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...

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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

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

Big C Big C, operated by Big C Supercenter Public Company Limited under Big C Retail Corporation Public Company Limited, is a grocery and general merchandising retailer headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2016, Big C was Thailand's second-largest hy ...

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 (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. 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 was born in San Francisco. He began his career in New York in the mid 1910s as a Tin Pan Alley composer, writing tunes for t ...

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

leitmotif A leitmotif or () 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 a partial angliciz ...

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

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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 ...

in 1936. *Go On Bruins written by Milo Sweet and copyrighted in 1944.Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. United States: n.p., 1972. Milo also composed the USC fight song Fight On in 1922 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 "Hail to the Hills of Westwood" is the school song or alma mater of the University of California, Los Angeles. It was written by Jeane Margaret Emerson a 1929 graduate of UCLA, and adopted by the school in 1960. The current arrangement performed ...

- UCLA Alma Mater song * Rover (song) - UCLA Victory song *

Strike Up The Band (song) "Strike Up the Band" is a 1927 song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin with the collaboration of Millie Raush. It was written for the 1927 musical '' Strike Up the Band'', where it formed part of a satire on war and militar ...

- UCLA official song * Bruin Warriors

References

External links

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