The fall air in Warren is filled with excitement on Friday nights.
It has always been that way, even back in the days of Mickey O’Quinn, Jamie Raper, and John Morris McGregor’s legions of Lumberjacks.
And it’s true with the modern legion of Lumberjacks in 2023 as well.
All week, the excitement was building and on Friday afternoon’s it reached an epic peak with the 2 p.m. pep rally.
By Maylon Rice
Saline River Chronicle Feature Contributor
Fridays were generally pep rally days. It began in the morning with the cheerleader or some club selling those six-inch spirit ribbons with orange and black slogans about the upcoming opponent. A few of these survive today at the Bradley County Historical Museum in Warren.
An orange ribbon, for example, would feature large words like: “Clip The Eagles,” and show a plucked Crossett Eagle.
Or I still remember this one on a black ribbon background: “De-horn the Billies,” featuring a billy goat with “x’s” of tape where the Monticello mascot’s horns once resided.
And there were tons of hand-painted spirit signs. The cheerleaders have spent most of the summer, in between practice and camp, painting sign after sign to use at pep rallies and at games.
The student body got into the Spirit of the pep rally as several times during 1971-72, Gayle Green, was awarded the “spirit stick,” by the cheerleaders for her individual school spirit. Others, such as the sophomore class also won that stick during the year.
Lunch hours on Friday pep rally days were long and boring, the entire student body was ready for the 30-minute pep rally.
School at the old WHS ended about noon.
There were some 5th period classes taught by teachers, like Mrs. Mary Culp who struggled mightily to keep our attention on the English books and not on the upcoming pep rally.
But when it was pep rally time I can still see that tiny little prim and proper English teacher laughing, clapping and cheering on the Lumberjacks.
The pep rallies back then were all held in the Lumberjack Field House. The large acoustically booming building housed all the high school and junior high students for the pep festivities.
The WHS band sat in the northwest corner of the bleachers with the bulk of the student body over on the home side stands. We would be under a some-what-relaxed Mr. Martin, during this fun time. We played the alma mater, the fight songs we knew and of course popular tunes for the delight of the audience.
The football players, back in their dressing room, would slowly navigate out the northwest corner dressing area and assembly on the north side bleachers below the band. They all looked solemn, dressed in their game jerseys and blue jeans and were focused and ready for the game – still about four hours away.
Dramatics were not lost on Coach John Morris McGregor or Curry W. Martin, bandmaster back in those days.
McGregor, who went 21-7-2 in three seasons at the helm of the Orange and Black gridders, was always looking for a fierce, pep ‘em up style of fight song. The time tested and rather drab WHS Alma Mater, did not do it for Coach McGregor.
McGregor, who came to Warren after two years at Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla., where he was a graduate assistant to FSU Coach Bill Peterson, who went on to the Houston Oilers. McGregor had already rung up a 13-6-2 record at Des Arc after graduating from Memphis State. He had a Peach Bowl and Gator Bowl watch (from his FSU days) and “knew what the big time looked like,” he liked to tell his science class students.
He would often interrupt the second half of summer band practice, the 8-10 a.m. instrumental session held in the old wooden band room off Cherry Street in Warren.
Coach would come sneaking in and stand next to or behind Mr. Martin. Coach McGregor would be waving his arms about in a classic attempt to ape or mimic Martin’s musical direction with that small white plastic baton.
Then after stopping the music in mid-stanza McGregor would begin loudly arguing with Martin about the linemen not being able to hear the Quarterback’s signal over all this loud band music. The tirade would continue back and forth with Martin promising to play softer when the ‘Jacks had the ball the coming Friday night, but more loudly when the opposition had the ball.
Coach McGregor always wanted Mr. Martin to find the musical score for the Notre Dame Fight Song and play that for the troops and get the fans engaged.
Instead Mr. Martin (and Mrs. Martin as well) literally wrote down the musical score for a VERY popular musical score on the pop radio which brought the house down.
That tune was “The Horse.”
“The Horse” is an American instrumental song by Cliff Nobles and Company. It was released as the B-side of the single “Love is All Right” and is simply an instrumental version of that song. “The Horse” made an improbable trip up the pop music charts, peaking at No. 2 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Young folks simply could not get enough of that catchy tune.
At the pep rallies, if the band broke into “The Horse,” the stands were electric. The cheerleaders danced and twirled those orange and black pompoms and the crowds went wild.
At the pep rallies there was always a word or two from the often very shy captains of the football team.
I recall the late Mike “Moo” Lawrence getting in a little trouble for his impassioned dialogue about wanting to beat Monticello.
After talking about all the hard work preparing for the neighboring Billie’s, Lawrence ended it with these little words… “We are going to kick their asses.”
Mr. Martin, not lost on the moment, jumped to his feet and yelled up at the band, “The Horse, ah One, Two, Three.”
We loudly took that cue, playing the show tune and all was forgiven.
“The Horse” still gets ‘em going all over College Football today. On a recent rebroadcast of a Saturday game in Madison, Wisconsin the UW’s Fighting Badgers played it over the ESPN taped telecast.
And those Friday afternoon pep rallies in that rickety old gym I’ll savor along with “The Horse.”
It is a Pastime that still gets me going.
