Cal Songs
Palms of Victory
(also:Football Song / Springtime in Dixieland / Happy Days in Dixieland)
Written in 1896 by Stuart L. Rawlings; arranged by Robert O. Briggs
© UC Regents. All Rights Reserved.
Song Clip: MP3 (1016 KB)
What will we do to the Stanfurdites on that great day?
We'll celebrate them on that night after we play!
We now declare our hoodoo's gone, victory is here!
Hit 'em again boys! Hit 'em again boys, harder!
(Chorus)
Palms of victory, Palms of glory
Palms of victory we shall win
For Cali-California!
Palms of victory, Palms of glory,
Palms of victory we shall win!
How do you think we'll feel that night? Anything but cross!
What'll the red shirts have to say after their loss?
Fill then a bumper to the brim, for we have won!
Do it again, boys! Do it again boys, often!
(Chorus)
In 1896, Stuart L. Rawlings took a popular tune of the time, "Springtime in Dixieland" (or "Happy Days in Dixieland"), and added lyrics, titling it "Football Song." The story of its composition is best told by Brick Morse: "Rawlings, an extremely tall, lanky, mining engineer, certainly did not look like a poet. He was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and as was the custom, the boys would gather around a keg of beer at night and sing. Rawlings and the boys would hum a song and improvise some words. One night, one of the boys said to him, 'I see where The Daily Cal is offering $5.00 for a Cal song - Why don't you submit it?' He did and won the $5.00, which he took and quickly converted into another keg of beer. Each night they sat around singing, but no new song ever came to him." The song has remained essentially unchanged except for the occasional addition of a particular player's name (Cochran) or special day (Thanksgiving) to the lyrics when appropriate.
At first, "Palms of Victory" did not inspire much victory. Cal suffered crushing defeats at the hands of Stanford at the first two outings in which the song was played. However, the song survived and eventually became popular. But then, superstition began to follow the song wherever it went. Once during a football game in the 1930's, the Band played the song only to have the Bears lose. As a result, the Band became superstitious and refused to play it for almost two years. Tradition eventually came to dictate that the song be played ONLY after a Cal victory. Currently, after any Bear's win, this is the first song played.
Superstition continues to surround "Palms of Victory." For example, the night before the 1992 Cal vs. Stanford Big Game, the Band was coaxed into playing "Palms of Victory" at several alumni functions. Many claim that as a result, Cal was overwhelmingly defeated in Big Game. Members of the Band in 1992 blamed the playing of "Palms of Victory" before the game for the Bear's loss just as band members had in the 1930's.
The Band's role in the preservation of these songs is well illustrated with this song. After the Band stopped playing "Palms" in the 1930's, the student section promptly forgot it. When the Band resurrected the song two years later, it took a great deal of effort to reintroduce it to the student body. Today, very few people outside the Band recognize this song or its meaning.