The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 47, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, November 13, 1959 Page: 9 of 14
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NOVEMBER IS, 1959
THE THRESHER
Nina
Alumni Wrote Hymn for Rice
Girard, Ross Also
Did 'Fight Song'
By MARJORIE TRULAN
Thresher Managing Editor
"We played with the idea of
writing another song for Rice,
more on the order of a hymn;
and after several tries, we came
up with the song now known as
'The Rice Hymn'."
This came out in an interview
we had with Dr. Louis Girard
at his home a few weeks ago to
find out the song's history. We
found the man quite amiable and
willing to do all he could to help
us revive "The Rice Hymn."
The "Fight Song"
We first asked Dr. Girard about
how he and Dr. Nealie Ross hap-
pened to write the "Fight Song."
"We realized that Rice had
only one fight song, 'Old Gray
Bonnet'," he explained. "So after
lifting a peppy tune from an op-
eretta my father had written, we
took it to a Rally Club meeting,
where the words were born."
Dr. Girard went on to say
that they all gathered around an
ancient piano, played the song
over and over, "and people just
chipped in words until we had it."
Accompanying Yell
What about the yell that goes
with it, we asked, meaning the
"Rice . . . Fight . . . Never Dies,"
etc. chanted while the band plays
the song a second time.
"That I thought up one morn-
ing as I was driving to school,"
Dr. Girard grinned.
Soon after the song was writ-
ten and just before a game ,a
meeting of students was called in
the Physics Amphitheater, where
it was taught to the student body.
Cheerleaders on Desks
"The cheerleaders were stand-
ing on the desks and the band
was backing them up," Dr. Gi-
rard recalled. "We must have
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sung it twenty times," he
laughed; "but they loved it!"
Then the nation entered World
War II and the war of course
preceeded anything else. It was
immediately after the war that
the song really caught on, he said,
and the students have used it ever
since.
Somehow, however, "The Rice
Hymn" failed to get attention
like this; and we talked about
this next.
"Hymn" Born in 1947
It might have been because
Dr. Girard and Dr. Ross were
alumni a long way from Rice
when they wrote the song. "It
was 1947, and we were together
in medical school at New York
University," he explained.
Nostalgia for the old school
must have prompted them to
write another song, a serious one
this time, we decided.
At informal get-togethers in
Dr. Girard's apartment, they
would frequently play the piano;
and it was several sessions like
these which produced "The Rice
Hymn."
Original Words
Feeling that new words for
the song might be a rather touchy
subject, we cautiously asked Dr.
Girard how the original words
were written. It was no Rally
Club meeting this time, we found
out.
"Dr. Ross and I simply listed
memorable things about the Insti-
tute," he smiled; "and fit them
in to the tune."
What happened to the song
then, we asked.
"It was put away for about a
year," he said.
Alums Meet
Thn Mr. Brant Rawson, who
was president of the Alumni As-
sociation, was visiting in New
York. The men met through mu-
tual friends and began talking,
as alumni will, about the Insti-
tute. Finding out that Dr. Ross
and Dr. Girard had written the
"Fight Song," Mr. Rawson be-
came quite enthusiastic when he
(Continued on Page Fourteen)
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Thresher Offers $25 For New Words
This is a rough manuscript copy of
"The Rice Hymn," drawn up by Lawrence
Ragan, sophomore band member, from a
conductor's copy.
As it has been pointed out in the past twro
issues of The Thresher, "The Rice Hymn"
is a song with which the student body
should certainly be familiar, but a song with
which they are not.
For this reason, The Thresher is offering
a $25 prize to the person or persons, prefer-
ably Rice students or exes, who can write
fitting words to "The Rice Hymn."
The contest will run as follows:
1) Submit all entries to The Thresher
office no later than Monday, November 23.
Copy must be typewritten, double-spaced.
2) Judging will take place over the
Thanksgiving holidays and the winner or
winners, as well as the new words, will be
announced in the following week's Thresher.
3) Judges are Dr. Louis Girard, class of
'41 and composer of the song; Mr. Holmes
McNeely; band director; Buddy Herz, editor
of The Thresher; and Mike Bennett, coun-
cilman-at-large of the Student Association.
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 47, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, November 13, 1959, newspaper, November 13, 1959; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth231130/m1/9/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.