In the summer of 2024, UTA President Jennifer Cowley approached the Department of Music to request a refresh of UTA’s fight song for the university’s 130th anniversary. The song would become a lasting legacy of the students who worked on its creation and Douglas Stotter, former director of bands, who died in April.
The conception of the song began in a songwriting class taught by Will Townsley, assistant professor and area coordinator of music industry studies. The class was tasked with writing the lyrics and melody of the new fight song. It then moved on to Stotter and Chris Evans, associate director of bands, who worked on the arrangements of the song for the band to perform.
Kameryn McGlothlin, music industry studies major, said there’s so much that goes into a fight song.
“You’re trying to really bring home that inspirational feeling of making everyone on campus feel involved when they hear it,” McGlothlin said.
She emphasized that the goal as they wrote the new fight song was to make UTA feel like a place that is open to anybody and everybody.
“Just a big reminder of: ‘You can make it through the semester,’” she said. “You can make it through this, and you’ve got a community at UTA. All of your comrades, every student on campus, is just trying to make it through and stay motivated.”
Music business junior Faith Chipps said that coming up with a rhythm and a melody wasn’t too difficult.
“I think that was the easiest part, coming up with a rhythm, because it’s very chanty, something that people can clap along to and stomp their feet,” Chipps said. “Then we moved on to the melody, the part that people sing. That was a really fun experience, because we just got to play around a lot with different fun melodies.”
In the late ’60s, the tune of UTA’s fight song was “Dixie,” which later started to be seen as insensitive, along with the university’s Rebel theme. In 1971, UTA changed its mascot from the Rebels to the Mavericks and debuted with a new fight song.
The newest fight song aims to keep some connection to the old one while also being its own song.
Shortly after Stotter finished the final arrangement for the song, he died due to an apparent heart attack.
The Maverick Marching Band makes its way down Spaniolo Drive during the Homecoming Parade and Maverick Walk on Nov. 9, 2024, at UTA’s College Park District.
Music education major Megan Moore said the band was hesitant about the change that came with a new fight song, but it took on a new meaning after Stotter died.
“It is a great piece of work, and we’ve spent a lot of time on it, trying to do it justice,” Moore said.
She said there aren’t a lot of things that can bring everyone together, but a fight song is something that can.
“We don’t have a football team, but we still have a fight song for all of our other sports teams and the marching band,” she said. “It’s very specific to us with the lyrics and those kind of choices. It just is a very cool way for us all to show pride together.”
Martha Walvoord, Department of Music chair, said the new song will be a part of the university for years to come and said she hopes it’ll be a uniting force.
“This fight song is more than just something to excite a crowd,” she said. “It’s hopefully going to be something that Mavericks five, 10, 15 years from now can hear, and it’ll transport them back, and it’ll bring them back to the positive, lasting and meaningful memories they made while here on campus.”
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