WHENEVER I GO to DU hockey games, I get a great feeling that the only reason most of the people are there is to find out where the parties are that night, or what bar everyone is going to afterwards. People you are missing out on the action. Denver has one of the best teams in the country, and when you aren’t watching the game, you are missing a thing of beauty.
Now at most other schools, football is the sport that everyone comes to watch. Unfortunately DU canned the football team, and so now our homecoming games consist of a bad hockey game, usually against a team that will struggle to win even four games all year. So we have to settle for hockey to be our big sport; not a big deal, I can live with that.
This isn’t so bad, but the unity in the stands for a homecoming game just isn’t there. The drunk kids are yelling at people in the stands, the freshmen girls are talking about which hockey players they’ve hooked up with or are going to hook up with, the old people are watching quietly and never really sure if we are playing good or bad, and the smart asses are debating things that either have no relevance or are something they really know nothing about.
All of these problems can be traced to what happens after we score. Now they play that song and everyone sings along, a catchy little tune and in a way very much like DU: trendy, yet not traditional. Three years ago, a man with a microphone would sing the DU fight song, and the rest of us would cheer real loud, and then clap when it was over.
About the only thing I even remember from the song is that at the end the man goes, “University of Denver, for me and you” and then a drum goes bum-bom. This sounds like a plea from admission rather then a statement from the athletics department.
We have a terrible fight song; check that, an awful fight song. The tune isn’t catchy, the words stink, and I don’t think one DU student knows the words. Now that DU is on the rise, and every sport is becoming a Division 1 sport, we need to fix this problem.
Have you ever watched a Notre Dame football game, or a Michigan football game? When these teams score, everyone in the crowd breaks out into the fight song. With close to a 100,000 people singing this song, it almost brings a man to tears. Everyone goes crazy, the band begins to play, and the players get a boost of energy that can only be felt from a home field advantage. For DU, home field advantage really only means that they have a shorter trip home then they would if they were playing at CC.
DU just spent millions on building a new music school, one of these people must be able to come up with some kind of music to create a good fight song. Maybe throw in some cool words, and a catchy chant, and then all you have to do is flash the words on the scoreboard and you’ll be set.
If you need inspiration, just go to a hockey game at the University of Minnesota. When they score, everyone in the stadium breaks out into the Minnesota Rouser, and their sound is electric.
It lets the other team know that you’re there, and it tells your team you’re behind them. Something that chanting “oh” in long and different pitches doesn’t really accomplish.
