ND's Victory March transcends sports

From ESPN...

According to popular lore, it was in a Massachusetts church in 1908 that Michael Shea sat down at a piano to play a unique, yet-unheard song that he and his brother John had written in honor of their alma mater.



It's hard to argue with the fact that "The Notre Dame Victory March" is college football's most recognizable fight song.

The reaction of that first audience at the Second Congressional Church in Holyoke has been lost to history, but a century has passed and college football fans still can't get the tune -- the Shea brothers christened it "The Notre Dame Victory March" -- out of their heads.

The composition was declared "the greatest of all fight songs" in college football's centennial season of 1969, but it might even be more than that. "[The Victory March] is the fourth most well-known song in the country, behind only 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' 'Happy Birthday' and 'White Christmas'," says eminent college football historian Beano Cook.

While there are those in Ann Arbor, Atlanta, College Station and Columbus that will vehemently disagree with any such claims, there is no disputing the song's singular appeal, the fact that the "Notre Dame Victory March" is undoubtedly the most recognizable collegiate fight song.

The proof is that unlike other fight songs, one doesn't just hear the "Victory March" at halftime. Love it or hate it, the song has transcended sports for nearly its entire life, framing Irish conquests from South Bend to Yankee Stadium to Tokyo, as well as being heard everywhere from far-flung battlefields and White House parties to appearing in episodes of "The Family Guy" and "The Simpsons" and the movie "Airplane!" The song has also been covered by a wide variety of artists ranging from Glenn Miller to the Dropkick Murphys.

It's so catchy, so contagious, even Irish opponents have been unable to resist its siren-like lure. Legendary USC coach John McKay found himself humming the "Victory March" while walking off the field at Notre Dame Stadium after his defending national champion Trojans were defeated 23-14 in 1973. "There was nothing else to hum," quipped McKay.

The success of the song surprised Rev. Michael Shea, the 1904 Notre Dame graduate and priest who considered the song he co-wrote (Michael Shea wrote the music, John Shea, the lyrics) "very amateurish." Notre Dame officials might have agreed; the "Victory March" reportedly did not make its campus debut until Easter Sunday 1909, and was not played at an athletic event for another decade. But soon after Notre Dame band director Joseph Casasanta reworked the song into the jaunty, modern version known today, it became the soundtrack to the epic story of the rise of Notre Dame football in the 1920s.

And age hasn't caught up to the Sheas' song -- it's been a busy centennial-birthday year. The "Victory March" celebrated its Massachusetts birth in March when five marching bands, including that of the University of Massachusetts, played a stirring rendition during the Holyoke St. Patrick's Day parade. In May, the Notre Dame band performed the "Victory March" at the Beijing Concert Hall in the midst of a tour of China. And over 500 Notre Dame band alumni from the classes of 1941 through 2007 joined current band members on the field for a special commemoration celebration at the Notre Dame-Stanford game Oct. 4.

One can only imagine what the Shea brothers would have thought about those honors. John Shea became a Massachusetts state senator and lived in Holyoke until his death in 1965. In addition to being a pastor in Ossining, N.Y., Michael Shea would study music in Rome and serve as an organist at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral before his death in August 1940.

The priest who delivered Rev. Shea's eulogy in South Bend, Rev. Henry F. Hammer, could have been speaking of future decades and not just the fall of 1940 when he predicted that soon "Thunderous crowds will gather in great stadia throughout the nation to attend the intercollegiate football contests. Bands will play and pennants wave and through the radio will come the triumphant strains of a long familiar tune. You will pause and listen and say, 'It is the Victory March…"

Unlike those in attendance at tomorrow night's Notre Dame-Boston College game, those exiting Holyoke's Second Congregational Church that day in 1908 certainly did not recognize the tune, nor did they in all likelihood understand the significance of what they had just heard.

Yet, chances are, they were humming.

John D. Lukacs is the consultant to College GameDay.