Sing and Cheer for Georgetown
As a companion exhibition to There Goes Old Georgetown: A History of Football on the Hilltop from 1830-1951, Sing and Cheer for Georgetown highlights a selection of songs and school spirit from the University Archives.
According to Georgetown historian R. Emmett Curran, Collier wrote Sons of Georgetown as a fight song to be sung at football games. It wasn’t until 1906 that these words first appeared in a football program, though. The phrase “Sons of Georgetown” was used because, at the time the words were penned, there were no women students at Georgetown.
In 1981, Carol Hession Powers (N’ 1941) led a campaign to change the lyrics to the Alma Mater to be more reflective of the large number of women who made up the student body. The phrase “Sons of Georgetown” was replaced with “Hail, Oh Georgetown” in the opening line and “May Georgetown live forever!” was substituted for “Georgetown’s sons forever!”
