• How did “That Good Old Baylor Line” become our school song?

    That Good Old Baylor Line

    “That Good old Baylor Line

    That Good old Baylor Line
    
We’ll march forever down the years
    
As long as stars shall shine
    
We’ll fling our Green and Gold afar
    
To light the ways of time
    
And guide us as we onward go
    
That good old Baylor Line.”

    If you’re a Baylor Bear, you have those lines forever ingrained in your heart. And if you’re like me, they transport you back to a time when you stood among thousands of fellow Bears, arm raised, hand in a claw, voice hoarse from cheering on the green and gold. But as emotional as this song can make any Bear, how much do you know about its history?

    [PERFORMANCES: A 1956 male chorus recording || The final singing at Floyd Casey Stadium and first at McLane Stadium || Spring 2014 Commencement || Versions by Baylor Chamber Singers, a banjo playera foot piano in Dubai, and a 2-year-old future Bear]

    After Baylor began playing intercollegiate football in 1899, students began to clamor for a school song to help promote school spirit. Over those first few years, a number of attempts at a Baylor song were made: “Our Baylor,” “Better Be for Baylor,” “Baylor U, Tried and True,” “Viva La Baylor,” and “Baylor Dear Baylor of Mine” were all proposed, but none had universal or long-lasting appeal. Finally, in 1906, a student named George Baines Rosborough found something that clicked. He revamped a popular tune of the time, “In the Good Old Summertime,” to make it a bit more Baylor Proud:

    “That good old Baylor line,
    
That good old Baylor line.

    Where will [name of opponent] be when
    Our stars begin to shine?

    They’ll wish they were at home again,
    Done up in turpentine.

    The day our backs come up the field,
    
That good old Baylor line.”

    Over the next quarter century, the song became generally accepted among the student body as the school song. Eventually, the university decided to officially adopt “That Good Old Baylor Line” as the school song, but first, some changes were made in order to make it more representative of the entire university. So in 1931, the tune was rewritten by Enid Markham, a Baylor graduate and the wife of a music professor.

    W.S. Allen, Baylor’s acting president, loved it. On Nov. 5, 1931, the new lyrics to “That Good Old Baylor Line” were printed on the front page of the Lariat and sung for the first time in chapel. The long wait for a school song worthy of Baylor was over. After a few more tweaks — including an original 1948 arrangement by Donald I. Moore, recently discovered by his granddaughter — we arrived at the version we know today.

    From the first time we step onto campus as Baylor students, “That Good Old Baylor Line” is with us. We stand and sing it at games, campus events, and at graduation. But of course, the Line doesn’t end there; we are forever a part of the Good Old Baylor Line.

    Sic ’em, Bears!