Nebraska changes lyrics to ‘Hail Varsity’ with visions of Husker fight song sing-alongs

It turns out there are lyrics to the tune of “Hail Varsity,” the brassy blast of esprit de corps that the Cornhusker Marching Band plays after touchdowns at Memorial Stadium, and before NU games in several sports.

It’s also an official University of Nebraska fight song. But while it’s often played, it’s rarely sung, except when wags warble, “We don’t know the wo-o-ords, we don’t know the words!”

Now, Husker marching band and alumni leaders have dusted off and tweaked the lyrics. They want to add fans’ voices to the fanfare of “Hail Varsity” at football, volleyball, basketball games and lots of other sporting events. They hope the historic fight song can become a rousing sing-along.

“We just want people to sing the fight song,” said Tony Falcone, Cornhusker Marching Band director.

Before we go any further, it’s important to note that “There Is No Place Like Nebraska” is not going away. The square boys and fair girls of our above-average state need not worry. The band will keep playing that dear old song, too.

It’s just going to give Husker fans another opportunity to croon and crow for the women and men in red.

The idea to give popular voice to “Hail Varsity” came about a few years ago. Falcone had noticed that fans at several other Big Ten Conference universities rocked their stadiums with rollicking renditions of their school fight songs. The topic came up while he and Andy Washburn, a friend and NU band alumnus who works at the Nebraska Alumni Association, were helping with a project to refurbish the marching band’s original Big Bertha big bass drum.

“While we were working on that we kind of brought up that people don’t sing the fight song,” Falcone said. “And especially since joining the Big Ten, you know, it’s a big deal. You go to Michigan and people sing ‘(Hail to) The Victors.’ We kind of thought that would be really nice, cool, college-y thing to be doing, to be singing our fight song.”

People do sing “There Is No Place Like Nebraska” some, he said. But “Hail Varsity,” though the official school fight song since at least the 1940s, had never caught on.

“So we thought let’s bring that back,” Falcone said.

But the old lyrics needed a little work. They included two lines cheering on “mighty men,” which doesn’t apply to many athletes at a university with 13 women’s teams among the 22 varsity intercollegiate sports.

The Nebraska Alumni Association joined the chorus to update the lyrics and give Nebraska fans a chance to start a new tradition with an old song that, even without words, pumps up Husker spirits from the first notes.

“It’s a little bit of energy that, if you’re at an athletic contest, makes you want to stand up and clap and cheer,” said Shelley Zaborowski, executive director of the Nebraska Alumni Association. “If you’re at an event and you hear it, you immediately just feel immediately a sense of Husker pride. It just kind of makes you want to celebrate.”

The association worked with UNL Bands’ leadership and University Libraries Archives and Special Collections staff to study the original lyrics and adaptations to “Hail Varsity.” It was originally written in 1936 by an NU music professor named Wilbur Chenoweth and Warren Joyce Ayers. It had a long introductory verse as well as a chorus. It became an official school song soon after. But it was difficult for the masses to sing as written. The lyrics were rewritten in 1946 to make it easier to sing.

Here’s that 1946 version: 

“Singing on, mighty men maybe feels a little bit out of place at a volleyball game, for instance,” Zaborowski said.

The alumni association consulted with generations of alumni to find a solution to that lyrics issue. The team working on the project found a solution that the alumni association says adapts and updates existing lyrics and gives “a nod to the song’s history and the original songwriters’ intent.”

The new “Hail Varsity” goes like this:

Plans are afoot for the NU band to creatively roll out the song as something to be sung this summer, via social media, band camp and possibly other events. It could make its big public debut this fall at Memorial Stadium.

“Then when next football season starts, we thought that would a good thing to do in conjunction with the 100th birthday of Memorial Stadium,” Falcone said.

If the Husker faithful says, “Hail yes,” they’ll be singing it not only at Memorial Stadium, but at the Devaney Sports Center and Pinnacle Bank Arena too.

“I think it’ll be really cool,” Zaborowski said. “I think it’ll be embraced, and hopefully fun for people.”