By Glenn McGlothlin, Staff Writer
“Asbury College, she is the school we love.
Cheering her banner, the purple and the white, hurrah for Asbury College,
that leads us to heights above.
We, her sons and daughters, when we part, to her purpose we’ll be true!”
To many Asbury alumni, those words are familiar as the chorus from the Asbury College March, composed by Irene McCague Idhe in 1916.
Burnham Reynolds (‘70), Asbury professor of history, first heard the march when he was a kid.
“I moved to town here when I was ten, so I grew up on the campus because my dad was on the faculty,” Reynolds said. “I heard it sung off and on before I even enrolled.”
Roger Blackburn, who attended Asbury for one year in the 60s, said the march style helped the song gain momentum.
“Being written as a march gives it more interest and pep,” Blackburn said. “You get stirred as the music drives forward.”
Blackburn said the march was part of his and his wife’s Asbury College experience.
“It was like a stamp on your heart,” Blackburn said. “A way of helping you find your focus and your future.”
Back then, Asbury was on the quarterly system, which meant the school year was divided into four sections instead of the two we have now. Blackburn said the march was sung at least once a quarter, if not more often.
“We would sing it at class functions,” he said. “We would also sing it before we would go home on vacation. It was the last thing you sing before you go home.” More recently, Blackburn mentioned the march has been featured at reunions where alumni sing just as they did when they were students. He added that singing the march brings back memories of his grandparents, who attended Asbury in 1918 and his mother in the 1940s.
However, the song that was once a staple at Asbury has long since faded into history. Reynolds believes the march died because it was partially replaced. Professor James Curnow, who was at Asbury when Reynolds joined the faculty in 1973, wrote the Asbury College Hymn.
“That begun to be sung every once in a while,” Reynolds said. “It’s not like the march went away, but the march began to recede.”
Suzanne Gehring, head of archives and special collections, said Asbury was one of many schools to have a song.
“Songs like the Asbury College March were popular in universities all over the United States decades ago,” Gehring said.
She added that she likes the march and would like seeing it, or something like it, revived or composed.
“It does describe the uniqueness of Asbury through the years,” Gehring said. “I understand that it probably has the strongest meaning for older alumni who treasure the history. But stanzas with updated wording could be written to bridge the gap. I’m also not opposed to something fresh and new.”
Although the the heyday of the Asbury College March has passed, Blackburn said its importance has not dwindled.
“It still has the same meaning and vibrancy when we were students,” Blackburn said.
If a new song is written to replace the march, Blackburn believes it would have to appeal to today’s students. He said that music preferences have a tendency to divide in today’s culture and that for a replacement song to be successful, it would have to reflect the musical values of the times.
But Blackburn also understands what would be the most important part of any replacement.
“It would come down to if the lyrics are meaningful,” Blackburn said.
Senior music major Adam Rousey believes a replacement for the march should have an Asbury flavor.
“I think a typical fight song style would be ideal, but with some sort of Asburian twist,” Rousey said. “I think standard fight song elements would be fair game: school colors, a sense of unity and pride in the school and some sort of positivity, but I also think there would be room for clever nods here and there—a witty nod to the Wesley family or something like that.”
If Asbury adopts a song like it did with the march over 100 years ago, it is sure to hold a special place in the hearts of students to come.
Photo by Glen McGlothilin
