This article is about the type of song used in sports. For the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest entry, see Fight (song). For other uses, see Fight Song (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with school songs, a song used to represent a school or university.
In several countries’ sports, a fight song is a song associated with a team. In both professional and amateur sports, fight songs are a popular way for fans to cheer for their team, and are also laden with history; in singing a fight song, fans feel part of a large, time-honored tradition. Although the term "fight song" is primarily used in the United States and Canada the use of fight songs is commonplace around the world, but they may also be referred to as team anthems, team songs or games songs in other countries, including Australia, Mexico and New Zealand. Fight songs differ from stadium anthems, used for similar purposes, in that they are usually written specifically for the purposes of the team, whereas stadium anthems are not. In Australian Rules Football it is tradition for the song to be sung by the winning team at the end of the game.
Hundreds of colleges have fight songs, some of which are over a century old. The oldest collegiate fight song in the United States is Boston College's "For Boston", composed by T.J. Hurley in 1885.
One of the oldest games songs in Australia is Melbourne Grammar's 'Play Together, Dark Blue Twenty', which is sung to the tune of 'The March of the Men of Harlech'.[note 1][3] It was composed by Ambrose John Wilson who was principal of the school from 1885-1893.[4] This is not to be confused with the school hymn 'Ora et Labora' which is now sung to the tune of 'Jerusalem'.
