Bruin Warriors, also known as "Sons of Westwood" and "Big C", is a

fight song A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...

of the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

(UCLA). The tune comes from

Big C Big C ( th, บิ๊กซี ซูเปอร์เซ็นเตอร์), is a grocery and general merchandising retailer headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. Big C is as of 2016 Thailand's second-largest hypermarket operator after Lotus's ...

, a school fight song for the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. The

UCLA Bruin Marching Band The Solid Gold Sound of the UCLA Bruin Marching Band represents the university at major athletic and extracurricular events. During the fall marching season, this 250-member band performs at the Rose Bowl for UCLA Bruin home football games. Prega ...

plays the song as part of their football pregame show as they move into the script UCLA formation. The song has been updated since 2016 with the new title "Bruin Warriors", and lyrics that include "daughters" as well as "sons".UCLA History: Songs
UCLA Alumni Association (Retrieved June 2017)

Lyrics

When sung, usually at the end of a game, the UCLA Band plays the song the first time, followed by the UCLA 8-clap. The first two lines are sung in 3/4 time. The singers wrap arms around their neighbors' shoulders and sway in time to the music, somewhat in the manner of a German ''

Schunkeln Schunkeln (, ) is the name in the German language used to describe a certain rhythmic movement to the beat of a song, people link arms and sway side to side on the spot. This is done either standing or sitting were people move side to side on th ...

''. After the "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!", the song concludes in 4/4 time.

History

"Big C"

" was composed in 1913 by Harold P. Williams, with lyrics by Norman Loyall McLaren. It was written to commemorate the construction of the large concrete "C" in 1905 on the "rugged Eastern foothills" of the Berkeley campus. The song was the winning entry in the

Daily Californian ''The Daily Californian'' (''Daily Cal'') is an independent, student-run newspaper that serves the University of California, Berkeley, campus and its surrounding community. It formerly published a print edition four days a week on Monday, Tuesd ...

school song competition in 1913.

Adoption by UCLA

From the late 1940s until the 1960s UCLA and Cal alternatively hosted a college football doubleheader game as part of the "All University Weekend". The first game featured

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

vs.

UCSB The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

. In one of the last "All U Weekends", Kelly James, then Associate Director of the

UCLA Marching Band The Solid Gold Sound of the UCLA Bruin Marching Band represents the university at major athletic and extracurricular events. During the fall marching season, this 250-member band performs at the Rose Bowl for UCLA Bruin home football games. Prega ...

and alumnus of the

Cal Band The University of California Marching Band, usually shortened to Cal Band, is the marching band for the University of California, Berkeley. While it is administered under the auspices of the university, the Cal Band is student-run and represents C ...

, wrote an arrangement of "Big C" for a halftime show performed by the combined marching bands from UCLA,

, and Cal. Afterwards, UCLA continued using James' arrangement of "Big C" as its fight song, adding their own lyrics and renaming it "Sons of Westwood". It was soon adopted as UCLA's fight song.

Controversy

Cal fans, most notably Cal Band director James Berdahl, were enraged over James' theft of their song. A bitter exchange ensued between Berdahl and James for the next several years concerning the legal and ethical grounds for James' adaptation of the song. Finally, on February 18, 1969, UCLA lawyers were told by the

Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are ...

of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

that "Big C" had never been copyrighted, and therefore was in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

. However, whenever Cal plays UCLA and "Sons of Westwood" is played, Cal fans sing a parody ending, "but damn you, it's 'Big C. Likewise, whenever Cal plays "Big C" UCLA plays their signature "tag" at the end, which is a part of "Sons of Westwood" but not "Big C". On the UCLA Band CD ''True Blue'', in 2009, it was named "Big C CLA Fight Song. It was again renamed to Bruin Warriors and new lyrics were written, as the song did not reflect the demographic makeup of the band, which has included women since Title IX in 1972.

References

External links

Sons of Westwood
{{Pac-10 Fight Songs UCLA Bruins University of California, Berkeley University of California, Los Angeles American college songs Pac-12 Conference fight songs