Bruin Warriors, also known as "Sons of Westwood" and "Big C", 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 ...

of the

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 ...

(UCLA). The tune comes from

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 ...

, a school fight song for 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 ...

. The UCLA Bruin Marching Band plays the song as part of their football pregame show as they move into the script UCLA formation. The song has been updated since 2016 with the new title "Bruin Warriors", and lyrics that include "daughters" as well as "sons".UCLA History: Songs
UCLA Alumni Association (Retrieved June 2017)

Lyrics

When sung, usually at the end of a game, the UCLA Band plays the song the first time, followed by the UCLA 8-clap. The first two lines are sung in 3/4 time. The singers wrap arms around their neighbors' shoulders and sway in time to the music, somewhat in the manner of a German '' Schunkeln''. After the "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!", the song concludes in 4/4 time.

History

"Big C"

" was composed in 1913 by Harold P. Williams, with lyrics by Norman Loyall McLaren. It was written to commemorate the construction of the large concrete "C" in 1905 on the "rugged Eastern foothills" of the Berkeley campus. The song was the winning entry in the

Daily Californian ''The Daily Californian'' (''Daily Cal'') is an independent, student-run newspaper that serves the University of California, Berkeley, campus and its surrounding community. History 20th century ''The Daily Californian'' became independent fro ...

school song competition in 1913.

Adoption by UCLA

From the late 1940s until the 1960s, UCLA and Cal alternatively hosted a college football doubleheader game as part of the "All University Weekend". The first game featured

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

vs.

UCSB The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joine ...

. In one of the last "All U Weekends", Kelly James, then associate director of the

UCLA Marching Band The Solid Gold Sound of the UCLA Bruin Marching Band represents the university at major athletic and extracurricular events. During the fall marching season, this 250-member band performs at the Rose Bowl (stadium), Rose Bowl for University of ...

and alumnus of the

Cal Band The University of California Marching Band, usually shortened to Cal Band, is the marching band for the University of California, Berkeley. While it is administered under the auspices of the university, the Cal Band is almost completely student- ...

, wrote an arrangement of "Big C" for a halftime show performed by the combined marching bands from UCLA,

, and Cal. Afterward, UCLA continued using James' arrangement of "Big C" as its fight song, adding their own lyrics and renaming it "Sons of Westwood". It was soon adopted as UCLA's fight song.

Controversy

Cal fans, most notably Cal band director James Berdahl, were enraged over James' theft of their song. A bitter exchange ensued between Berdahl and James for the next several years concerning the legal and ethical grounds for James' adaptation of the song. Finally, on February 18, 1969, UCLA lawyers were told by the

Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that registers copyright claims, records information about copyright ownership, provides information to the public, and assists ...

of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

that "Big C" had never been copyrighted, and therefore was in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

. However, whenever Cal plays UCLA and "Sons of Westwood" is played, Cal fans sing a parody ending, "but damn you, it's 'Big C. Likewise, whenever Cal plays "Big C", UCLA plays their signature "tag" at the end, which is a part of "Sons of Westwood" but not "Big C". On the UCLA Band CD ''True Blue'', in 2009, it was named "Big C CLA Fight Song. It was again renamed to Bruin Warriors and new lyrics were written, as the song did not reflect the demographic makeup of the band, which has included women since Title IX in 1972.

References

External links

Sons of Westwood
{{Big Ten Conference fight song navbox UCLA Bruins University of California, Berkeley University of California, Los Angeles Big Ten Conference fight songs