Cal Songs
One More River
1950's arrangement by Larry Austin of two secular songs, "One More River" and "One Ball Riley".
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Out of the stadium marching high
There's one more river to cross.
The California Marching Band
There's one more river to cross.
(Chorus)
One more river,
And that wide river is vict'ry.
One more river,
There's one more river to cross
Our spirit is the very best,
There's one more river to cross.
The finest Band, both East and West,
There's one more river to cross.
(Chorus)
Oh, picking up our heels so high
Hats and gloves are flashing proudly
March along, sing a song,
Rub a dub dub march on.
A big and brassy band are we,
Marching fast and playing loudly,
March along, sing a song.
Rub a dub dub march on!
"One More River" is actually two songs, each in different meters, combined together to make one song. The 6/8 march section which opens the song is purportedly a British army song. This song was used by the Junior class as their entrance music for rallies during the 1920's because they literally had "one more river (senior year) to cross" until graduation. The 2/4 section which follows is actually an old, traditional "dirty" song known as "One Ball Riley" or "OBR" for short. Before the mid-1950's, when a home football game had just ended, a crowd of people would usually be clogging the North tunnel, so the Band would have to march through the congestion. As they did, they would begin to sing "OBR." Eventually, parts were written out, and "OBR" was condensed with "One More River" in a Larry Austin arrangement to form the present day version of "One More River." At some point, new lyrics better suited to the Band were added to the "OBR" portion of the song. Traditionally, "One More River" follows immediately after "California Marching Song" as the Cal Band marches out of Memorial Stadium after a home football game.
An interesting side note about this song arose in 1991, when the Buffalo Bills professional football team, under head coach Marv Levy, went to the Super Bowl. It turned out that Levy had chosen "One More River to Cross" as the team's official song as a motivational tool, having remembered the song from his days as head football coach at Berkeley during the 1960's. Levy often sang the song to his players and taught them to sing the chorus. According to Levy, they "had a rollicking good time singing it following games which [they] had [just] won."