According to the March 6, 1951 Targum, back on December 11, 1873 a Glee Club member, Edward E. Colburn, went to the home of student Howard N. Fuller, Class of 1874, living at 41 Schureman Street in New Brunswick about 3:00 pm and requested a song for an exhibition in Flatbush (Brooklyn, NY) that evening. It took Fuller two hours to write the seven stanza lyrics set to the music of “On the Banks of the Old Dundee.” It was later published in the 1875 February Targum. John Opier ‘74, the college organist,scored the song for publication afterwards according to the January 25, 1922 Targum. The alma mater line “for has it not stood since the time of the flood” does not refer to any particular storm but may have been a reference to the Biblical flood. And at the time of its writing, "flood" was pronounced in such a way that it actually rhymed with "stood." At football games, the singing of the alma mater is usually shortened to stanzas one, two, seven and a repeat of stanza two. The long version has been revised over time. Rutgers-Camden sings “On the Banks of the Old Delaware” while Rutgers-Newark says “On the slopes of the Academic Hill.” Both schools use different lyrics and there is even a statewide University version. Fuller won football letters in 1872-73 and his brother Perry in 1870, 72-73.
Happy 142nd Birthday - For have you not stood.....
- Thread starter Source
- Start date
Another Flood post? Hehe, actually another piece of useless, but fascinating trivia. Thanks.
Let me be clear. My complaint with the new lyrics is not that they are PC, and not even that there was a change. They have been changed before, although that change was done by Howard Fuller himself.
My issue with the new lyrics in the first verse is simply that they are poor songcraft.
The song was always written in the first person of a single Rutgers student.
Now it uses a plural "we". "We came to Rutgers"; "We resolved to learn all that we can" (this part sounds like we never took expository writing). The use of the plural "we" weakens the song in my opinion.
My issue with the new lyrics in the first verse is simply that they are poor songcraft.
The song was always written in the first person of a single Rutgers student.
Now it uses a plural "we". "We came to Rutgers"; "We resolved to learn all that we can" (this part sounds like we never took expository writing). The use of the plural "we" weakens the song in my opinion.
