Fort Collins – “Fum’s Song” is a nearly 60-year-old Colorado State fraternity ditty that pokes fun at the school’s seven regional rivals, four of whom still play Division I football.
Before the start of the fourth quarter, Rams fans would sing along to the scoreboard video clip of CSU’s late icon Fum McGraw singing to a celebratory locker room.
However, after a “couple of dozen” complaints from CSU fans and visitors, the athletic department decided this summer that the video no longer will be played at games, according to associate athletic director Gary Ozzello.
There was no formal announcement. Word leaked out to the CSU campus paper, The Rocky Mountain Collegian, and fans and players expressed their displeasure.
Ramnation.com has had a meltdown of protest messages unlike any since university president Larry Penley banned beer sales at the stadium two years ago. As of 5:30 p.m. Monday, there were 309 signatures on an electronic petition to bring back the video.
By early Monday evening, 1,326 CSU students signed up for an online Facebook.com group started by running back Kyle Bell, tight end Kevin McPeek and two friends.
One student, who claimed to be the granddaughter of former CSU offensive coordinator Dave Lay, wrote she grew up singing the song and it was unfair to remove it her first year of college.
Former CSU linebacker Kevin Sheesley, who runs C.B. and Potts sports bar near campus, said, “That song will be sung long after Penley’s gone at this school. If it was good enough for Fum, it’s good enough for CSU.”
In the song, a line about the tale of a dying mother’s wish for her son’s education ends with, “Before I’d see him in Boulder, I’d see my son in hell!”
CSU coach Sonny Lubick, who often invited McGraw to sing the song to the team before or after games, said of the last word in the refrain, “If that’s the worst word we hear we’ll be in good shape.”
According to Ozzello, the decision was made after “a series of internal meetings. The song works for some people, and it’s offensive to others. If fans want to sing it on their own, great. But we felt we’d be better served not having it on the video board.
“At the core of it all, we make the announcement before games that we’d like our fans to be good sports. Then we play a song that doesn’t reflect good sportsmanship values.”
New athletic director Paul Kowalczyk started work in mid-May, after discussions began about removing the clip.
“I think the president and the university want to project a certain image and that isn’t one of them,” Kowalczyk said of the lyrics.
Added Brad Bohlander, executive director for public relations, “It was an athletic-based decision. (Penley) learned about it (Monday) morning. I agree it is a good decision.”
Ozzello said he did not anticipate a reversal. Last year, Penley reversed a 2004 decision to ban beer sales at the stadium. Bohlander said: “This was an athletic decision and that’s where it will stay.”
Unlike mascots named for American Indian tribes, the lyrics don’t have any ethnic, racial, religious or nationality references.
The athletic complex is named for McGraw. There’s a plaque in the lobby with the lyrics to “Fum’s Song.” Kowalczyk said there had been discussions about removing those lyrics.
McGraw was CSU’s first consensus football All-American in 1948 and 1949. After a four-year career with the Detroit Lions, he returned to Fort Collins and was athletic director from 1976-1986. After retirement, he remained active with alumni and booster groups and donated to the athletic facility expansion.
The video clip in question was recorded after CSU’s landmark upset of Arizona in 1994, according to staff videographer Joe Vasos. There were several clips of McGraw singing the song in a Vasos-produced video at McGraw’s campus memorial service in September 2000.
“Fum was a great person. He was such an icon for Colorado State football. I always liked to have a link between the past and present,” Lubick said.
Footnotes
Lubick prefers playing an opponent like Weber State prior to the showdown with Colorado. “This is the way to do it if you have the opportunity,” Lubick said. “There’s no real advantage for one team or another. It was be nice if we had a game earlier and CU didn’t have a game earlier.” … Two potential starters as redshirt freshmen remain questionable for this week: offensive guard Adrian Martinez (knee) and linebacker Jake Pottorff (shoulder).
Staff writer Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303 954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
Fum’s Song
I’ll sing you a song of college days
And tell you where to go.
Aggies where knowledge is,
Boulder spends your dough.
CC for your sissy boys,
Utah for your times,
DU for your ministers,
For drunkards, School of Mines.
Don’t send my boy to Wyoming U.,
A dying mother said.
Don’t send my boy to Utah State,
I’d rather see him dead.
But send him to the ole Aggies,
‘Tis better than Cornell,
But rather than in Boulder,
I would see my boy in hell!
