I still remember, vividly, my first few days at Georgetown. Sleeping without sheets and using a stolen towel the first few weeks because the Corp screwed up my linen order. Using a toothbrush from the Marriot and carrying books by hand because I left my backpack on the Super Shuttle. Slowly realizing my roommate was an obsessive-compulsive, passive-aggressive maniac, roving about the school in a herd of 40 other freshmen.
I also remember the first time I heard the Georgetown “Fight Song,” and just how very, very confused I was. There I was, in McDonough, with all of the other members of my class during orientation. We were surrounded on all sides by our red-clad OAs, who suddenly raised their voices in some sort of discordant, off-key, poorly timed chant.
I’ll admit it: I was scared. Not econ-midterm scared. Confused scared. But I was even more horrified to learn, once the last OA had finally trailed off, muttering something about blue and grey, that this Frankenstein’s monster of words, phrases and what I suppose could count as rhythm was my new school’s fight song.
Never mind that it’s far too long. Never mind that it’s actually three different songs effectively smashed together in some unnatural wedlock. Never mind that no one, including the OAs that day, actually knows the lyrics (with notable exception to the Georgetown Band).
First of all, it’s completely outdated. Why the hell does our fight song mention Yale, Navy, Cornell, Harvard, Holy Cross and Princeton when the only one of those schools that we still actually play against is Holy Cross? Shouldn’t we be more concerned with Syracuse? Doesn’t anyone think there’s a problem with the fact that roughly 25 percent of our own fight song is not only dedicated to other schools, but also completely fails to insult them, instead simply lists off the various ways in which those schools cheer their sports teams?
Furthermore, it seems as though, in the first part of the song, at least, the sport of focus is football. Georgetown football sucks, always has sucked and always will suck. We are not a school known for our football team. To be perfectly honest, the only thing that generally makes those games even remotely interesting is the Georgetown Band. We are a basketball school. We’re probably going to make it to the NCAA tournament this year. Our alumni include Iverson, Ewing, Mourning and Mutombo. How many football stars have come out of Georgetown?
Obviously, the song makes no real sense after you put all three songs (each having their own completely different melody) together. But even considered separately, the first part makes no sense. To this day, no one has provided me with a reasonable explanation of our obsession with lying down. I mean, I guess if luge were ever a sport here that would make sense.
A fight song should be easy to learn and even easier to cheer in unison while remaining remotely intelligible. Furthermore, a fight song should be something a student can take pride in shouting out at the top of his or her lungs. Finally, and most importantly, a fight song should, when yelled by hundreds of students all at once, instill some sense of intimidation, or preferably fear, in the hearts of the other school’s players and fans. Unfortunately for Georgetown, our school’s song does none of these things.
