La Salle College High School Football: In Retrospect

NOTE: This is the third of, I hope, many retrospectives highlighting some unique history of the football program at La Salle. The topics to discuss seem endless at this time. Hope you enjoy these.

Bill Wasylenko, ‘69 Issue Number Three: La Salle Football Music & the Alma Mater

In the summer of 1965, my parents convinced me to join the La Salle Marching Band as I entered freshman year in the fall. I had taken piano lessons, but being bright, I knew right away that a marching band would require use of a different instrument. After weighing all the options, I chose the nice, light clarinet.

This activity was, of course, in lieu of going out for freshman football, which I wasn’t allowed to do. But it did get me on campus prior to the start of school, and I learned both how to march and how to play the clarinet starting in August of that year. In our dress-blue uniforms with epaulets and our white hats, we almost looked like Marines. But I ended up marching like Gomer Pyle and playing the licorice stick like Benny Badman instead of Goodman. And although I left the band early in sophomore year, I learned a lot about marching band music. To this day, I have a strong affection for Sousa marches and college fight songs.

The band played a lot of marches while on the field and a lot of rally and charge sequences between plays. And of course we played “Fling Out” as the team charged out from the locker room onto the field and after each touchdown, and also the Alma Mater, although there seemed to be no formal spot during the game to play it.

Well, time marches on. I left La Salle in 1969 and didn’t return to an Explorer sporting event for 32 years when, on Labor Day Friday of 2001, I took my then young sons to the La Salle/Plymouth-Whitemarsh game at P/W. It was an eerie feeling, coming back “home” and somehow hoping you wouldn’t see someone you remember, or someone who would remember you.

Those of you in attendance at that game may remember a 7-7 tie, where overtime was Sounds of brass in 2005 called off due to lightning. But I was back in a setting I had left decades earlier, and a lot had changed, though some things remained the same. The formal marching band was gone, replaced by a pep band resplendent in T-shirts, shorts, and jeans; no one could even spell “epaulets” anymore. I had recently found out that the marching band was dissolved sometime in the early '70s. And the pep band didn’t seem as though they knew who John Philip Sousa was, because there were no marches in the songbook that day.

After more than a decade of watching 21st Century La Salle football, I realize that new music traditions had taken hold. If you show up to a game early, you’ll hear the pep band first clear their collective throats with Deep Purple's “Smoke On The Water,” circa 1972. And you’ve heard “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne and maybe “Thriller” and “Jesus is Just All Right With Me,” and a song played right before half-time that makes me think of one of those old NFL Films songs. Other songs have been woven into the musical offerings each year. “Fling Out” is still there, right after a touchdown, followed by “The 1812 Overture” after the extra point. As we leave the stadium after a win, we’re serenaded with that Kingsmen chestnut, “Louie, Louie.” And there are other songs that I can’t yet identify by name or just can’t remember right now.

Traditional? Maybe not. But tradition? I now say yes. If you go to the games often enough and listen to the pep band, these songs become interwoven with La Salle football. And John Philip Sousa is now but a distant memory.

But I’ve come to really appreciate the great music program that La Salle offers, and the talented musicians that come to play at the football games under the guidance of Mr. Ciccimaro and Mr. Vettori. The La Salle pep band is the best by far in the Catholic League, and they seem to get better each year.

Lots of Sax in 2007 But “Fling Out” isn’t the only song that was salvaged from the marching band days. Our Alma Mater has been given a rightful place of reverence twice at the games. Once, just before the battle is to start, the whole team comes in front of the pep band, removes their helmets, and somewhat mumbles (sing, boys!!!) while the pep band plays the ancient hymn. The alums stand up, remove their hats and sing those old lyrics, along with the student body. Solidarity of a unique and powerful foursome: team, students, band, and alums. And, at the words “high we’ll hold your memory,” the helmets are raised high and pumped in the air three times during “Hail, all, hail.” After the game is over and handshakes are exchanged with the enemy, that scene is repeated, win or lose.

I believe this tradition was instituted by Joe Colistra around 1984. When I saw and heard this at that P/W game in 2001, I got a lump in my throat, and I knew that the Alma Mater was the siren song that was bringing me back to La Salle.

And you players may not understand what I mean for a long, long time, but I’m hoping you’ll someday get that lump in your throat when you hear the Alma Mater years from now.

Our Alma Mater is very simple. But years ago, the Alma Mater was different. Here are the words: In the 1937 yearbook are these lyrics:

Hail, La Salle, we praise thee, Old La Salle. My Dear La Salle, Honor and tribute true, Your sons will ne’er forget, Great and bright your splendor, The golden haze of student days, Banner of gold and blue. Cling round our memories yet; Those days of yore will come no more, Loyal sons we’ll ever be, With joy our hearts enthrall, High we’ll hold your memory, Through all my days I’ll sing your praise, Hail, La Salle, our Alma Mater, And cheer for you, La Salle. Hail, all, hail!!

Players raise their helmets while singing the Alma Mater after a 2005 game Frankly, I’m glad they changed it! But I don’t have any proof of when it happened nor when it was “married up” to the melody.

That's because the melody was “borrowed” from somewhere else! About 8 years ago, while downloading college fight songs from the Internet, I came across a song on the University of California at Berkeley website called “Hail To California.” After downloading the song, I played it and sat right up when I heard it for the first time. It is – note for note -- the melody to our “Hail, La Salle”!

“Hail To California” was written in 1907 by a man with the great name of Brick Morse, who wrote several other songs for use by the University of California, whose colors are, by the way, are blue and gold. Somewhere along the line, we selected Brick’s melody to be paired up with our new Alma Mater, and the rest, as they say, was history. Here is the melody for “Hail To California,” with link attached below: http://calband.berkeley.edu/public/audio/hailtocal.mp3

And here is the link to the school website, and our version: http://www.lschs.org/cf_media/index.cfm?g=1288

A few final pleas about our Alma Mater:

Freshmen: Learn this song ahead of time; you’ll be learning it the first day of school. Realize that, 40 or more years from now, you may be singing it again, maybe with a lump in your throat; happens to me every time.

Varsity: Don’t stand like a bunch of silent slugs in front of the pep band while the Alma Mater is being played. Join in the singing! This is also a great show of solidarity with the band, the football alumni, and your fellow students in the stands singing with you!

Football Alumni and All Alums: Stand up and make your presence felt; let that team know they are your legacy; this is a special tradition that we have, and we should treasure it by actively participating in it with the team.

Band: play it sacredly, like a Church hymn; it stirs our souls.

Hail, La Salle, we praise thee, Honor and tribute true, Great and bright your splendor,

Banner of gold and blue. I welcome your comments, corrections, and additions. Go La Salle!! Loyal sons we’ll ever be, Bill Wasylenko, ‘69 High we’ll hold your memory, [email protected] Hail, La Salle, our Alma Mater, Hail, all, hail!! July 7, 2010, revised April 5, 2013