"Mighty Oregon" is the
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 ...
for the
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...
. Written in 1915 and officially known as "The Mighty Oregon March," music was written by Albert John Perfect with words by journalism student DeWitt Gilbert.
Perfect led the Eugene Municipal Band in the first performance of the song on January 7, 1916.
[
For the song's most popular section, Perfect fashioned a new melody to fit into the harmony from " It's a Long Way to Tipperary", a hit 1912 ]World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
march. The catchy popularity of the harmony was not lost on Perfect, a man well-educated in music theory, who originally subtitled the song "The Tipperary of the West." Over the years there have been several changes to the lyrics and, today, the middle stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...
is generally the only one sung and it is done so using more modern lyrics than the original.[
The song is played during all home football and basketball games as well as from speakers atop the Erb Memorial Union (the school's student union) weekdays at noon and 6 p.m. In addition, it is played from atop the EMU on Commencement Day.][
The song is used as the fight song for several high schools: Aberdeen High School, Bellevue West High School, Cane Bay High School, Canyon View High School, Cleveland High School, North Canyon High School, North Douglas High School and Okeechobee High School.
"Mighty Oregon" was also the fight song of Elkhart Memorial High School, which closed when it merged with Elkhart Central High School, and was the fight song for Frankfurt American High School, which closed in 1995 when US forces left Frankfurt, Germany.
]
Lyrics
Music
See also
* O (gesture)
References
External links
* American Quartet
"It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary,"
Victor Talking Machine Co., c. 1914. (Audio track.)
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University of Oregon
Big Ten Conference fight songs
1916 establishments in Oregon
1916 songs
Songs about Oregon