The rousing tune of “The Victors” is familiar to most U-M faculty and staff. What may be less widely known is the fight song’s origin.
In November 1898, student Louis Elbel was in the stands when U-M’s football team beat the University of Chicago at Stagg Field, capping an undefeated season.
After the game, students celebrated in the streets of Chicago, accompanied by the university band. Elbel, a music student, enthusiastically joined in the celebration and singing — but, as the night wound down, began thinking the university deserved its own fight song.
“I was due to go to my sister’s house in Englewood, a distance of about one and a half miles. Most of it I walked, and, on my way, thoughts came to me that our band didn’t have the right celebration song that night,” Elbel wrote in a 1957 issue of “The Michigan Alumnus.”
“Somewhere along the line, my walk turned into a march, and a band got to singing in my head, a sort of victory sound. And right there the refrain of the ‘Victors’ came to me. Not only the music, but the words ‘Hail to the Victors Valiant!’ and ‘Hail to the conqu’ring heroes!’”
At his sister’s house later that night, Elbel started writing down music and lyrics for “The Victors.” He finished it the next day on the train home.
By the spring of 1899, with the help of a Detroit-based band arranger, Elbel had created an arrangement of “The Victors” for more than 20 instruments.
Elbel saw an opportunity to promote the new arrangement when he saw John Philip Sousa and his band were scheduled to perform on campus in early April.
“Just before the concert that evening I had the nerve to approach Mr. Sousa and present him with my newly arrived copy of the march, told him I was a student, and surely would appreciate it if he could consider playing ‘The Victors,’ a Michigan march,” Elbel wrote.
“The Victors” was played again several nights later at a student event — and that ignited the song’s popularity across campus. The song became U-M’s unofficial fight song at the turn of the century, until the university withdrew from what was then known as the Western Conference, rendering the line “champions of the West” inaccurate. For a few years, the song “Varsity” took its place. But in 1917, U-M rejoined the Western Conference and readopted “The Victors.”
For more than a century, “The Victors” has been the university’s fight song and its final refrain is sung with pride at university events — both athletic and academic.
