CrypticVillain Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Pres. Lincoln - racist or no? :laugh: j/k. I think Bush is. Ooh this should get this party started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethrodsp Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 All together now... 1 and 2 and 3 and... Hail to the Redskins! Hail Victory! Braves on the Warpath! Fight for old D.C.! Run or pass and score -- we want a lot more! Beat 'em, Swamp 'em, Touchdown! -- Let the points soar! Fight on, fight on 'Til you have won Sons of Wash-ing-ton. Rah!, Rah!, Rah! Hail to the Redskins! Hail Victory! Braves on the Warpath! Fight for old D.C.! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethrodsp Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Anyone have some audio that can play while this thread is opened up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethrodsp Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 The original words were: Hail to the Redskins! Hail Victory! Braves on the Warpath! Fight for old Dixie! Run or pass and score -- we want a lot more! Scalp 'em, swamp 'em -- We will take 'em big score Read 'em, weep 'em, touchdown - we want heap more Fight on, Fight on -- 'Till you have won Sons of Wash-ing-ton. Rah!, Rah!, Rah! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethrodsp Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Not Just Whistling Dixie in D.C. By Locke Peterseim Special to ESPN.com http://espn.go.com/page2/wash/s/closer/020315.html Those of us outside the D.C. area live our lives mostly unaware of two facts: That Washington is in fact a Southern city, and that some pro football teams still have marching bands. And naturally our tale today takes place where the twain meets. The original Redskins fight song was "Fight for old Dixie!" When George Preston Marshall, the first Redskins owner, brought his new franchise (originally the Boston Braves, then the Boston Redskins) to Washington, D.C., in 1937, he had grand hopes for making football games more than just athletic contests. Marshall wanted those Sunday afternoons in Griffith Stadium to be entertainment for the whole family, and especially to draw more females to the events. Marshall was no stranger to the laws of evolutionary biology: he knew that greater female attendance would lead to greater male attendance. Deciding music might do the trick, Marshall plopped a dance band in a teepee atop the bleachers and then set out to build a 150-piece marching band. Marching bands had become increasingly popular since the turn of the century, in no small part due to the efforts of band leader, march writer and D.C.-native John Philip Sousa. The widespread popularity of the bands was evidenced by the less-than-Sousa-y sources Marshall poached for his new band -- The Chestnut Farms Chevy Chase Dairy Band and a nearby boys reform school band. After all, everyone knows that to make cows produce more milk or wayward boys see the straight and narrow, nothing works better than a rousing version of "Stars and Stripes Forever." By the start of the 1938 season, the Washington Redskins Marching Band had been assembled. Step two was to come up with an appropriately jaunty and rousing team fight song. The band members suggested "Onward Christian Soldiers," perhaps intending to change the lyrics to "Onward Mighty Redskins, / Marching for a score, / With the First-down markers, / Going on before!" But Marshall demurred -- he'd had area band leader Barnee Breeskin knock out a potential fight song tune the previous year. In keeping with the Christian angle, Breeskin's melody sounded quite a bit like the Sunday School song "Jesus Loves Me," but Breeskin himself also admitted there was a bit of "Dixie" tucked in there, too. Which brings us to our other point. In the '30s, the Redskins were very much the Team of the South. There were no Miami Dolphins, no Atlanta Falcons -- other than the Redskins, there were no pro football teams south of the Mason-Dixon Line and east of the Mississippi. Marshall knew regional-minded Southern pro football fans had only the 'Skins to root and he pounced on the angle. Which helps explain some of the original lyrics of "Hail to the Redskins!" as written by Marshall's wide Corinne Griffith, a retired silent-movie star, a.k.a. the "Orchard Lady of the Screen." You probably remember Corinne from such films as "Syncopating Sue," "Island Wives" and "A Virgin's Sacrifice." Actually, her best-known roles were in "Black Oxen" and "The Divine Lady," for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. But those titles don't sound nearly as funny. Where today's song cheers fans to "Fight for old D.C.!" the original version's "Fight for old Dixie!" played directly to the fans' Southern identity. And while the Redskins still use a racial slur for their team name, some words in the original fight song didn't do much to deflect accusations of racism. Where the song now says, "Beat 'em, swamp 'em, touchdown! -- Let the points soar!" it once went, "Scalp 'em, swamp 'em -- We will take 'em big score / Read 'em, weep 'em, touchdown! -- We want heap more!" The lyrics were subsequently cleaned up in the '60s, after Marshall's Redskins were, notoriously in 1962, the last pro team to integrate. Meanwhile in the late '50s, Breeskin found himself at odds with Marshall and so, in a pique, had his attorney sell "Hail to the Redskins" to Clint Murchison, who was trying to start a NFL expansion team in Dallas. The bitter irony of the Cowboys one day beating their legendary rivals to the 'Skins own fight song never came to be -- Murchinson simply held the beloved tune hostage until Marshall agreed to vote for the expansion. The Redskins then bought it back. To this day the Washington Redskins Marching Band plays on. It's the oldest in the league, just down the road from one of the other few remaining pro bands, the Marching Ravens (originally the Colts Marching Band). Of course, these days they have to compete with Jumbotron screens and the dulcet tones of Fugazi. And with Southerners having the Dolphins, Buccaneers, Falcons, Jaguars, Saints and Panthers to root, the Redskins will have to settle for being the Gators North. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethrodsp Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 Might as well make this thread good for something. Anyone else able to dig up a little history as a primer on next season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#1SkinsFan Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 bump.......................................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Taylor #21 Posted February 27, 2006 Author Share Posted February 27, 2006 Httr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wahoos911 Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 h t t r h t t httr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meetST Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 well....this million post thing isn't going too well....but then again...we still have half a year :helmet: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgiaredskin Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 I totally can't wait until August. There is something seriously lacking in life right now...........it's the B & G on the field!! Can't wait!!! :dallasuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOSKINS_08 Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Go Redskins!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Taylor #21 Posted February 27, 2006 Author Share Posted February 27, 2006 Hail To The Redskins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wahoos911 Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 well....this million post thing isn't going too well....but then again...we still have half a year :helmet: tru dat unless people post like once a day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojsej Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Hardcore RedSkins to the end!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Taylor #21 Posted February 28, 2006 Author Share Posted February 28, 2006 hail to the redskins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cannonshogs44 Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Hail! Snoopy for President in 08 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoeRedskins Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Sweet, an awesome way to post pad while supporting my squad. Go skins Baby!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumrunner6900 Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Hahaha....loooooong way to go on this one.....not making the headway I thought it would! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethrodsp Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Hail Skins baby!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOSKINS_08 Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Go Redskins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadkill Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 hemoglobin (I didn't know what else to say) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#1SkinsFan Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 HTTR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Miami here we come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visionary Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 LOL, Hail To The Redskins! Down With The Cowboys, Eagles, And Giants! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOSKINS_08 Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Bump this back up..Go Redskins!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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