Random Question

[Cybirdy]

Take this FWIW, but found this in a google search, came up in the history of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity:

"The purchase of the grand piano proved to be one of the fraternity's best investements. For it was during his college years at Iowa Gamma in the early 1930's that Brother Paul Gnam '32 and two of his friends composed the words for what would later become known as the ‘Fight Song' at Iowa State University."
Here is another reference to Paul Gnam and two others as original authors of Fights. The current arrangement was done by the director of bands here now.

Iowa State Fights / arr. by Michael Golemo and Jeff Prater ; words and music by Jeff Barker, Manly Rice and Paul Gnam

 

[besserheimerphat]

Well, in all my digging I didn't find anything about the current version of the fight song. But, there is a ton of history here: http://www.add.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/arch/index.html

If you're really interested in ISU history, this is great stuff. I learned that there was a three-day riot in Oct 1953 that required police from a half-dozen surrounding communities to quell, and they ran out of tear gas. The students were rioting because they wanted a day off from school to celebrate a big upset against Missouri for homecoming. Cars were flipped, fires were set, sheds were overturned, and Lincoln Way (which was still Hwy 30 at that point) was blocked off. There was a 3 page photo spread of the event in Life magazine.

 

[TensasCy]

Rodney Dangerfield wrote the fight song for us a long, long time ago.