Listen
(Sounds of Cougar Fight Song).
That is the Houston Cougar marching band playing the school’s fight song.
In college football, the fight song is usually played after the team scores a touchdown, which is why UH Alumnus Chris Foster didn’t get to play it very much when he played tuba in the late 90’s.
“We played the fight song, but usually it wasn’t for a touchdown. It was to wake everybody up and get them back into the game.”
Thing have certainly changed. Foster remembers the 2001 season when the team didn’t win a single game. This year they haven’t lost a single game.
“I’ve even met a couple of what they call ‘t-shirt fans,’ who are someone who didn’t go here, but they’ve become a big fan anyways, and that’s just not something that’s been associated with UH, so it’s very exciting. I love the exposure for the university.”
Ashley Hess is also a former student and so are her parents. She says she went to every game as a child when the team was good, but by the time she was a student at UH the team got worse. But now…
“It’s very exciting to be a cougar fan and to be here on this campus, whether you are a student, a staff member or a faculty member or whatever and the environment was not like that when I started even five years ago. To know that we have a shot at going to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans or the Orange Bowl in Miami is absolutely incredible, and we’re going to get national exposure.”
Michael Caravantes is due to graduate from UH this school year. He says it’s kind of cool that the team is bringing so much exposure the university in his final year.
“I was telling my buddy Tom that if they go to the Sugar Bowl, I’m going to go, because it’s a once in a lifetime kind of thing to see you know — (to) See your team go out there and be on a national stage.”
In the past, the standard for a good bowl game was if the game was played on New Years Day. But now the NCAA has spread things out so that there’s still games being played the second week of January.
But it appears the Cougars and their fans are headed to January bowl game, not some game two days before Christmas that no one cares about.
If the Cougs get their shot, both band members and fans hope the rest of the country will be hearing this over and over:
Fight–Fight–Fight for red and white…