“On, On Stevens Point”

On, On Stevens Point!

We are ripe for the fight tonight,

Get that ball and toe that line,

Every Pointer star will shine,

So fight, fight, fight!

For the team that’s right,

And we cheer on our ole’ Varsity,

We will kick, pass and run

’till the battle is won,

And we’ll bring home a victory!

GO POINT!

How pumped are you?

Pretty darn! I grew up in Amherst, which is just outside of Stevens Point, so the Pointers were kind of my de facto team to root for. This song brings back memories of my parents taking me to basketball and football games and standing and clapping along to “On Wisconsin” and “On, On Stevens Point.” It just gets me in the mood to cheer on any team at all, really, in a rousing game of sport (good thing it’s March Madness, right?).

School references tasteful/abundant?

This is where I’m just not sure about this song: the lyrics. They’re so pointedly (see what I did there?) about sports. And not just any or all sports — football. I mean, “ripe for the fight tonight”?  “Get that ball and toe that line”? “Kick, pass and run”? While I like football as much as someone with little interest in it can, I’m sure there’s a whole lot more to being a Pointer than how well your football team does (pretty well, actually).

Those aren’t really school references, though, which are surprisingly lacking for a university fight song. Not one single reference to Stevens Point or the Pointers or the actual mascots, Stevie and Stephie Pointer.

Music over the top? Under the top? Topped?

I don’t mean to steal from Eric’s description of the Blugold Fight Song last week, but he was spot on when he said that fight songs are a lot like polka. The Stevens Point fight song really is no different. I’m pretty sure I can even hear some strains of “Beer Barrel Polka” in there, which just about tops it for me — that’s clearly my Polish ancestry kicking in.

Then every single horn starts in, and it sounds like a John Philip Sousa march. Not a bad thing, but not terribly distinctive either.

Does it inspire school spirit?

This is a tough question for me to answer; it would probably help if I were actually a Pointer. I would say that it does, at least in terms of cheering on your fellow student athletes. If you were, say, a chemistry major who just discovered a new element, you’re probably out of luck.

On the other hand, it mostly just seems like a ‘Woooo, America!’ song, rather than one that actually celebrates UW-Stevens Point. It sounds like it could have been used for a 1940s “commercial” supporting our troops during World War II. So it inspires national spirit, and school spirit is just a bonus.