Fall has arrived on campus, the trees in the Arboretum are dropping leaves that crunch on the walks. The bench features a new coat of paint on a pretty regular basis, and the energy is building toward Homecoming. This means Chapel Sing is upon us! This photo is of Chapel Sing in 1961. Here are the men of the class of 1965 at the very beginning of their half century Wabash career. At the Big Bash of 2015, these guys returned to celebrate and remember their Wabash days. But in this photo, it is all still ahead of them. Their biggest worry at this time was whether they could do it, sing “Dear Old Wabash” to perfection and avoid the haircut. Although the days of the haircut are gone, Chapel Sing is still a big deal on campus. The students turn out in large numbers to support their fraternity or their independent brothers. Faculty and staff come to watch. Some parents do too. Me? I marvel at the passion of these guys and think about how, although the clothes have changed, the students are timeless. Still worried just like these fellows, will they perform as they ought, will their house win Chapel Sing, and can they do it? Chapel Sing is quite a ritual and yet most guys remember it fondly. Each year at the Big Bash, it is recreated and the smiles cannot be contained.
Here is a short history of the song we love so well from the Wabash Magazine of November, 1904.
Dear Old Wabash by J.J. Coss, ‘06
The passing of another Founder’s Day has left the swelling chorus of “Dear Old Wabash” still ringing through our minds. Each time we hear it the words and the music seem more rousing, the sentiment finer and more in harmony with the spirit of the college. It is a Thanksgiving for the past, a promise for time to come, and as such the song has well become a part of the exercises on the anniversary of the founding of the college.
While the memory of this day is still with us it seems well to tell to those who have never known, and to recall to those who have forgotten the circumstances connected with the college song. For a long time Wabash had no such song; but the need for an air which really belonged to the institution became more keenly felt, efforts were made to obtain a real Wabash song.
In 1899 – The Wabash Board of which Russell Byers was editor-in-chief offered two prizes of five and three dollars for the two best compositions which might be used as a college song. “The Scarlet of Wabash,” by G.A. Ferguson, ’98 took the first prize, and the “The College Bell” the second. The former was used that year by the Glee Club, but the tune was an old one, and as a song the popularity of the poem was of short duration.
In the fall of the next year Carroll Ragan, 1901, and E.M. Robinson, 1900 conceived the idea of writing jointly a truly original Wabash song; Ragan the music, and Robinson, the words. They worked on the piece all fall, and at last finished the chorus to their mutual satisfaction. Ragan says of it that he never has seen or heard words used in a college song equal to the chorus of “Old Wabash.”
After the Christmas Glee Club trip Ragan arranged the song for the club. It was rehearsed and first sung at the inauguration of President Kane, February 22, 1900. At that time the college band played the piece several times, and at the Panhellenic dance in the following spring it was played by Hart’s orchestra.
Such is the simple story of our college song, which was adopted as such at a mass meeting in the spring of 1900, upon a resolution by Karl Klass, 1901. The strains still thrill us as they did then, and “Dear Old Wabash,” will probably be the Wabash song while Wabash is.
Written over 110 years ago and John J. Coss, an interesting fellow in his own right, was correct we do still “shout the chorus…” And there is every reason to suspect that as long as Wabash IS that will be our song.
By Beth Swift, Archivist