Stanford Jonah (Ukulele)

Go Bears! Beat the Cardinal!

Big Game, November 22, 2008.

When the training days are done,
And the Big Game's just begun,
And there's music in the air;
When our team runs on the field,
Stanford knows her fate is sealed,
For the Golden Bear has left his lair.

When the yells from lusty throats,
Start to getting Stanford's goat,
And the rooting section seems a howling mob, Hey! Hey!
Then you grab your hat and shout,
You let folks know you're about,
For you know that Stanford Jonah's on the job.

So...then... it's...
Up with the Blue and Gold,
Down with the Red;
California's out for a victory.
We'll drop our battle-axe on
Stanford's head, Chop!
When we meet her, our team will surely beat her.
Down on the Stanford Farm there'll be no sound,
When our Oski rips through the air.
Like our friend Mister Jonah,
Stanford's team will be found
In the tummy of the Golden Bear!

"The Stanford Jonah" was written in 1913 by Ted E. Haley for the annual song contest held by the Daily Californian, but that year the song lost to Williams' and McLaren's "Big C." "The Stanford Jonah" got its break in 1914, however, when the Glee Club traveled to Europe. The Glee Club learned the song en route, and performed it during their tour. As a result, "The Stanford Jonah" became popular and won the annual song competition that year. It has since become one of the more popular Cal Songs, and it is particularly popular during Big Game week.

[from http://www.calband.berkeley.edu/calband/media/calsongs/jonah.html]

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Big
• Game
• 2008
• UC
• Berkeley
• Cal
• Stanford
• Ukulele
• Lendl
• San
• Jose

[tholub]

@88msquared

Wrong. The song was written at Berkeley, for Cal, in 1913. Georgia Tech doesn't claim it until 1919 at the earliest.

Go Bears!

[88msquared]

It's GT's song. Period. Good copy.

[xtremekaizer]

@nathitt Actually, we're not sure who had it first. Look up origin of Up with the White and Gold on Google and learn the history. And Go Tech!!

[calgbear]

I don't know when GT started using the tune, but its Cal history goes back to 1913, when it lost out to "Big C" in the annual Daily Californian song contest (it won the next year).

Both versions of the song mention a "battle axe" and "farm". I don't know about GT-UGA, but with Cal-Stanford, there is definitely a "battle axe" (the Stanford Axe) and Stanford has been known as "The Farm", as that's what it was prior to the school being built.

[dtrain3434]

I think I read somewhere where Navy uses a form of this , too

[nathitt]

@JubilantBlues If Tech "stole it in 1929, then how was it recorded in 1925?

[nathitt]

@JubilantBlues

If

[kellysirocco]

Wow, isnt that like copyright infringement or somethin? #imjustsayin GO TECH!!!

[JubilantBlues]

hey g-tech, do your research. the song dates back to a competition here at the good ol' uc almost a century ago. you guys didn't start using it until after 1929, coincidentally the same year the bears and yellow jackets met in the rose bowl. don't do cal the double insult of taking our song and then calling us unoriginal.

[chanceypoo699]

FAIL. Up with the White and Gold. Barely even changed the lyrics