School Songs

Hail To Old O.S.U.

 

Lyrics

Here we come with a toast and song for the college up on the hill

We love its shady slopes and trees its mem’ries cheer and thrill

But fondest thoughts when the years have run

Will be of teams and vict’ries won

Each man a loyal son

Hail to old O.S.U.


O.S.U. our hats are off to you

Beavers Beavers fighters through and through

We’ll cheer thoughout the land

We’ll root for every stand that’s made for old O.S.U.

Watch our team go tearing down the field

Those of iron, their strength will never yield

Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail!

Hail to old O.S.U

 
 

Hail To Old O.S.U. is our primary campus traditional, and serves as the OSU fight song. Written in 1914 by OSU alum Harold A. Wilkins, it was originally titled Hail To Old O.A.C. to reflect the then-name of the university - Oregon Agricultural College.

Hail appears in performance in three different forms:

  1. The full version of the song, called up to the band as Hail, or Fight Song, Long, is comprised of the full verse and chorus, taking the third ending instead of the second after the chant. This version is heard most often at community performances, in Gill, and as the musical underpinnings of the Beaver Spellout during Pregame.

  2. Just the chorus of Hail, beginning with the lyrics O.S.U. our hats are off to you is what Beaver Nation would recognize as the fight song. This version is the one people know by heart, and the one who’s lyrics are inscribed above the team locker room door to the field. It’s most often performed after touchdowns and after team introductions.

  3. The third version of Hail starts on the repeat after the B.E.A.V.E.R.S. chant, and takes the second ending. It’s called up as Fight Song Short and is used as a tag on timeouts, between-play hits, and other times when time is short.

Carry Me Back

 

Lyrics

Within a veil of western mountains

There’s a college we hold dear

Her shady slopes and fountains

Oft’ to me appear

I long to wander by the pathway

Down to the Trysting Tree

For there again I see in fancy

Old friends dear to me

Carry me back to O.S.U

Back to her vine-clad halls

Thus fondly, ever in my mem’ry

Alma mater calls

 

Carry Me Back was written in 1919 by W. Homer Maris, and serves as the Oregon State Alma Mater.

It is a beautiful piece of music, and holds a longing and nostalgia for our university and campus embedded in its melody and lyrics. Students of the Spirit and Sound learn Carry Me Back by heart, both their instrumental part and their voice part.

The song references the Trysting Tree, an old, gnarled tree at the bottom of the hill southeast of the primary campus building. The Trysting Tree suffered from serious decay which prompted removal in 1986. A cutting was taken from the original Trysting Tree and replanted in the same place. Today the Trysting Tree II grows strong though smaller in its place. As campus life has moved to the west since those days, few students today know about the Trysting Tree II, which still grows strong just northeast of Furman Hall.

The Trysting Tree is named such after an admission of defeat from then-university-president Thomas Gatch. The tree was known as a place for students in love to meet. It was useful in this context because its wide trunk cut line of sight to the university, much to the dismay of the administration. Lights were installed on then-Benton hall to dissuade this trend, which of course only made the location more significant. Admitting defeat in 1901, Gatch likened these meetings to those of Pyramus and Thisbe, who met in secret to veil their love from their disapproving families. From the poet Ovid:

Fearful to wander in the pathless fields,
they chose a trysting place, the tomb of Ninus,
where safely they might hide unseen, beneath
the shadow of a tall mulberry tree.

Carry Me Back is dedicated to “Mother Kidder”. Ida Kidder was the campus’ first professional librarian and operated the library on the second floor of what is now Community Hall, OSU’s first building. She lobbied the campus to build a dedicated library building, and in 1918 the university and community obliged. That building sits directly across the east quad from the current Valley Library, and in 1964 was renamed Kidder Hall.

Mighty Beavers of Oregon State

 

Lyrics

Mighty Beavers we are proud to claim you

Orange and Black are the colors we proudly hail

Beavers are never down

Beavers will win the crown of vic-tor-ry!

Fighting Staters always show their courage

Honor and fame to our college we’ll bring today

Beavers evermore we’ll always know the

Best in the west is our O! S! U!

 
 

Mighty Beavers was written by OSU music professor Joseph Brye as part of a faculty songwriting contest in the mid-century. References to the song can be found in the Oregon Stater magazine as early as 1952

Brye was head of piano studies and music theory at OSU. He served as organist and choir director at Grace Lutheran Church for 35 years.