There was a time when a school fight song mingled with the din of tackles on crisp Saturdays beside Fitch Field. “Fight for Stony Brook,” our school’s fight song, was composed by Jesse Lyons ’28 for the 1927 football season. Lyons came to the North Shore of Long Island by way of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and, despite spending only a year at the Brook, he fully embraced his new school.

While on campus he was a member of the football team, Philomathean Literary Society, Adventurer Board, Thespians, and Res Gestae Classis. His ambition was to become a minister, as seen in his blurb in Res Gestae 1928: “He is blessed with the fluency of speech and has gained experience by preaching in a few of the nearby towns.” In the classroom he set the highest mark at that time in Bible by earning a 98% average. After graduation, he moved on to Syracuse University, but not before leaving his mark with a fight song embodying his school spirit. The closing of his paragraph in Res Gestae reads, “If he shows the same spirit at college as he has here, it is certain that Stony Brook will have another son to be proud of.”

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“Fight for Stony Brook”

Ye warriors for Old Stony Brook

Play hard and fast and clean,

Keep your eyes upon the pigskin

And fight ever for the team,

Toss the line of opposition

As a leaf upon a stream,

Fight hard for Stony Brook.

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Your souls and hearts with spirit filled

Each man must do his best,

On the line or in the backfield

Be alert for every test,

Crush the enemy before you

‘Ere the sun is in the west,

Fight hard for Stony Brook.

Chorus

Fight, fight, fight, to win our fame, boys!

Fight, fight, fight you’ll win the game, boys!

Fight, fight, fight uphold our name, boys!

Fight hard for Stony Brook!

[Sung to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”]

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