Ranking the 10 best college football fight songs
By Phil Poling
No. 6: Alabama Crimson Tide
Maybe the most-played fight song of the last decade due to their on-field excellence, “Yea Alabama!,” is played after every Crimson Tide score on the gridiron. And other than Nick Saban’s first three seasons at Alabama, the Tide has averaged at least 34 points per game. That’s roughly five times per contest, assuming most scores were touchdowns, that Alabama fans get to hear their beloved tune.
Like other fight songs, “Yea Alabama!,” was written following a huge victory, something to commemorate their 1926 Rose Bowl performance against Washington. The prior fight song, adapted from, “Washington and Lee Swing,” was used by other schools; “Yea Alabama!,” was unique to the Tide and held actual meaning. The lyrics almost read as a diss track, referencing beat downs the Tide handed out around the time.
“Go teach the Bulldogs to behave,
Send the Yellow Jackets to a watery grave,” the song continues,
“Fight on, fight on, fight on men!
Remember the Rose Bowl, we’ll win then.”
Ethelred “Epp” Sykes wrote the lyrics after a campus newspaper asked readers for a new fight song. And later that fall, the Million Dollar Band finally performed their fight song of the next 100-plus years.