It’s official — 50 years after Notre Dame welcomed the primary cadre of feminine undergraduate college students to its campus in 1972, the college has formally modified the struggle music, Victory March, to replicate the addition of ladies.
Can take heed to it right here.
Solely took 5 many years (type of).
The road “whereas her loyal sons are marching onward to victory” has been modified to “whereas her loyal little children march onto victory.” This small tweak has truly been round for many years — throughout my undergraduate years at Notre Dame between 2017 and 2021, I knew a number of individuals who sang the “daughters” model of the music loud and proud, and I additionally know a number of alumni who sang the “new” model way back to the early Eighties. The earliest recorded suggestion of the change dates again to 1976, in a letter to the varsity newspaper from a feminine pupil who tossed out the suggestion, writing, “is it an excessive amount of to rewrite a easy however very conventional struggle music and admit that ladies are right here to remain, or would this be the straw that broke the alumnus’ again?” (Sadly, the identical query needs to be requested at the moment.)
The “Notre Dame Victory March” has been round since 1908, and its present tune was composed in 1928, per Notre Dame Journal. It’s performed by the varsity’s marching band, in fact, in the beginning of each house soccer sport, after each landing, discipline purpose, and additional level, and on the finish of every sport. It’s omnipresent at each pep rally, official college occasion, sports activities sport, from freshman orientation proper as much as commencement. Suffice it to say that it’s ubiquitous, in addition to one of the well-known struggle songs in faculty athletics, joined by Michigan’s “The Victors,” which was composed in 1898.
For a college that borders on rabidity about custom, and that always finds it difficult to embrace change (the soccer discipline didn’t change from grass to turf till 2014, and didn’t have a Jumbotron till 2017), this can be a fairly main adjustment for the Preventing Irish. It’s a small change that doesn’t damage anybody — although, you wouldn’t comprehend it to have a look at a number of the Twitter and Fb replies to the announcement, the place complaints of “woke pandering” and cries about “custom” abound — and, if something, in all probability simply ought to have been carried out among the many huge modifications that accompanied, you recognize, letting girls into the varsity in 1972.
Is it monumental? No. Would possibly it make some girls, particularly those that had been early graduates of the college in addition to present feminine athletes, really feel completely happy and included within the college’s tradition? Sure. And, most significantly, is anybody forcing you at knifepoint to sing this? No — so for many who care soooo a lot about “custom,” simply sing it the previous method. Keep away from Glee Membership performances or no matter makes you not wish to shit your pants about including a phrase in a music. And cease complaining within the remark sections — it makes you look previous and crotchety.
