The following story appeared in “The Messenger” on October 23, 1959. It is part of a series of stories we are using to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the opening of East in October, 1923.
“We hail the glory of East High,” are the beginning words of East’s new alma mater written by Jack Laffer, ’37, former East drum major, and narrated over the loud speaker at the North-East game October 9.
The whole idea of a new song to represent East came about by accident. Kenneth Thompson,
orchestra and band director at East, happened to encounter an old buddy of his, Jack Laffer, at his country club pool.
Since Mr. Thompson knew that Mr. Laffer had written school songs for Kansas University and was a former East-higher, he half-jokingly suggested, “Why don’t you write us a new alma mater?”
Mr. Thompson was “flabbergasted,” when four days later, the new song arrived fully transcribed with lyrics.
The new alma mater song was adopted by the Student Congress on October 12.
Before the proposed alma mater was played at the North-East game football game October 9, for the East audience and after it had been announced over the loudspeaker, the general crowd opinion was “We don’t need a new alma mater; we like the old one.” However, when the song was played, a reverent hush fell over the crowd, and tears were shining in many an eye.
“It’s so sad!” wailed Jane Thompson, ’60.
“Boy, was it a tear-jerker!” announced Mary Ann Chavereaux, ’60, as she vividly described the difference between the new and old alma mater. “The new song sounds like a hymn as it should, not a fight song,” Mary commented.
“Since the old alma mater probably originated sometime between 1940 and 1945, I think we were in need of a new one,” noted Mr. Thompson.
Editor’s Note: No lyrics were included in the above article, but the following alma mater for East appeared in two separate sources. Since the first line agrees with the one in the story, this is presumed to be the correct one. f you have lyrics to the one it replaced, we would like to include those.
