Fight songs, team anthems, battle hymns… call it what you will, those rousing songs lead area teams on to victory. Some songs have been around for as long as anybody can remember, some are being revived, and others are brand new.
According to Gallatin alumnus Jerry Houghton, Gallatin Band instructor Jim Aller wrote the Bulldog fight song sometime between 1969-1972. Mr. Aller was said to have come up with both the words and the music. Some remember this piece as rather slow and melodramatic that nobody sang and which, apparently, has faded out of memory. The lyrics were:
We’re the Gallatin Bulldogs
Out of Missouri
That great, big farming town
It’s in the Midwest section
Of the U.S.A.
Between the Arkansas border
And the land of Iowa
Where the sun never sets
And the teams are the best
That’s where we love to be
That’s why we’re singing
So loud of it
Because we’re so proud of it
Gallatin’s our home town!
The school’s most popular fight song is based on the “On Wisconsin!” with lyric changes and “On Gallatin!” substituted for Wisconsin. This GHS fight song is catchy, upbeat, and easy to remember after you’ve heard it a couple of times. It goes like this:
On Gallatin! On Gallatin!
Plunge right through that line.
Run the ball clear down the field,
a score is sure this time — Rah! Rah! Rah!
Jim Aller was the Gallatin High School band instructor in the early 70s. Students remember him as a gifted musician who promoted the band whose members earned numerous awards. Aller even penned a new fight song for GHS, although never popular. New uniforms were introduced in May, 1970. These were black with red and white trim, complete with a shako hat, white gloves and spats.
These are senior class members of the 1971 GHS Marching Bulldog Band which added a host of trophies to the school’s showcase. Shown, front row from left, are: Donna Robertson, Christy Blaine, Pat Houghton, Linda VonKaenel, Julia Terrill and Jill McGinnis; back row, James Aller (band director), Steve Searcy, Dick Culver, Bob Croy, Bob Aulgur and Lynn Brandom.
