Putting up a fight (song)

Mark Swed, typical of the ‘60s student he was, acknowledges that he never listened to the words of UCLA’s fight song until he looked them up on the Internet for “A Rivalry Reviewed” (Dec. 2). He repeats the first stanza, starting with the title line “We are Sons of Westwood,” but does not mention that the music and all the rest of the lyrics are taken from “We Are Sons of California,” which was and still is the fight song of the University of California Bears. In the early days of UCLA, the influence of Berkeley was overweening, so the “Southern Campus,” as UCLA was dismissively called, simply adopted the Cal song for its own, a fact that has rankled many alumni for years. So badly, in fact, that the UCLA Alumni Assn. undertook a fight song contest in 1984 to replace “Sons.” The song never became popular with students. As for Swed’s smirk about there being no hills in Westwood, I challenge him to walk up Janss Steps (72 of them).

Alan Charles

Beverly Hills

Alan Charles is the retired Vice Chancellor of UCLA