Putting the fight into Southeast's own fight song

Fans of Southeast Missouri State University can't sing the school's fight song. That's because the upbeat tune doesn't have any words unless you count the brief chant "Go Southeast."

The Southeast Missourian -- never short on words itself -- hopes to rectify the situation with a just-for-fun contest to find words to accompany the spirited music.

Entries should be submitted by 5 p.m. Thursday to news@semissourian.com or by mail to the Southeast Missourian at P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699.

The university isn't involved in this endeavor to write words for the song, but the school's band director, Barry Bernhardt, welcomes the idea of would-be lyricists giving it a try.

Bernhardt has never tried to put words to the music. "It is not on the top of my priority list," he said.

The school's fight song, played at basketball and football games, actually combines two songs and incorporates a snippet of "God Bless America," a drum interlude and a "Go Southeast" chant.

In the 1960s, then-university band director LeRoy Mason arranged two fight songs for Southeast -- "Fight SEMO Fight" and one simply called "Fight Song." He included two bars of "God Bless America" in the "Fight SEMO Fight" song. They were later shelved.

When Bernhard arrived at Southeast in 1990, the pep and marching bands routinely performed "On Wisconsin," the popular fight song of the University of Wisconsin. Southeast called its version "On Old Indians." As the new band director, Bernhardt didn't like the idea of performing the University of Wisconsin fight song.

"I thought, 'We are moving into Division I athletics. We don't need to be playing somebody else's fight song,'" he recalled.

Bernhardt found Mason's forgotten music manuscripts in the university's Kent Library. He added a drum interlude and the chant "Go Southeast" in the middle. "That is the only thing that is really original," he said.

With no fanfare, Bernhardt's bands started playing the sequence at Southeast football and basketball games in the early 1990s. The change didn't raise any eyebrows from fans, he said.

The "God Bless America" quote didn't register with Southeast fans until after the 9-11 terrorist attacks in 2001, he said. Fans asked if he had added it to the fight song as an act of patriotism amid the war on terror.

A recent question to the university's online Rumor Mill on Feb. 23 wondered if it's true that Southeast's fight song lacks words.

"I've never heard of a fight song with no words," an individual commented anonymously.

University spokeswoman Ann Hayes can't remember anyone ever raising the question before.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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