Recent correspondence with my sister reminded me of a special cheer my dad and the students from Albion College used to chant, (and still do!) "Io Triumphe!"*
After essentially being kicked out of Hannibal Junior College and then being told by a chemistry prof after two years at Drury College (Springfield, MO) that he would never get his degree there, somehow my father managed to get into Albion College in Albion, Michigan. He had very little money but with the help of an aunt was able to finish his Bachelors' degree in chemistry there.
During his first year at Albion (1938-39), he lived in a boarding house called "The Goodrich Club". Our mother and he were married after that first year, and my sister was born during his second and final year at Albion.
I think he was always grateful to Albion College for the confidence they (or someone there) showed by admitting him into their chemistry program. My dad was smart but probably not very serious as an undergrad in his early years (I had/have similar lack-of-seriousness problems).
In the early 1950s, our family made three or four trips to Albion for the fall homecoming parades and football games. I fondly remember those trips.
The homecoming parade took a U-shaped route. We'd all watch the parade go from west to east and then hurry north a few blocks to watch it come back. The only candy passed out was a bit thrown from the float with the Homecoming Queen. It all seemed so special.
One time, probably in the very early 1950s or so, we actually had a boarding house dinner at The Goodrich Club after the football game.
At the football games, Dad and a few alumni always wowed the crowd and the cheerleaders by shouting the following cheer rapidly at the tops of their lungs:
Io Triumphe! Io Triumphe!
Haben Swaben Rebecca le animor
Whoop te whoop te sheller de-vere-de
Boom de ral de-i de-pa-
Hooneka Henaka whack a whack a
Hob dob balde bora bolde bara
Con slomade hob dob Rah!
Al-bi-on Rah!
I never completely learned the cheer, nor did my sister (Update: she says she could say the whole cheer nearly as fast as Dad could!), but I do remember that we learned the last three lines and joined in, much to the delight of Dad and his friends.
On the trip home one year, my sister and I were squabbling in the back seat of the car, and my Dad angrily announced, "If you kids don't stop that, I'm going to blow my top!"
My sister and I promptly began cheering,
Blow that top!
Blow that top!
Much to the amusement and delight of our parents.
And then my sister added, noting his partial baldness, "You don't have any top to blow, Daddy."
Very fond memories.
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*From the Albion College site,
"Io Triumphe," a yell written by the Class of 1900. Some of its phrases were taken from other college yells, some from a Greek play that had been presented on campus during that period, and others were borrowed from the poems of the Roman writer Horace.
Also, apparently the "Io Triumphe!" cheer was adopted by an Occidental College, crediting Albion College with its origination.
