"We Don't Give a Damn" is a song long associated with opponents of sports teams from the American state of

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. Its simple lyrics, written in the first person plural, repeatedly express the indifference of its performers to the entirety of the state of Michigan and declare their place of origin to be unknown. The earliest known usage of the song was in the 1890s by alumni of

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. It has also been used in a variety of contexts by baseball and football fans from Chicago, Minnesota, Ohio, North Carolina, and Tennessee (primarily during the

Johnny Majors John Terrill Majors (May 21, 1935June 3, 2020) was an American professional football player and college coach. A standout halfback at the University of Tennessee, he was an All-American in 1956 and a two-time winner of the Southeastern Confe ...

coached years). "We Don't Give a Damn" is set to the melody of the American folk song "

The Old Gray Mare "The Old Gray Mare" is an American folk song, more recently regarded as a children's song. History Some authors have said that the song originated based upon the performance of the horse Lady Suffolk, the first horse recorded as trotting a mile i ...

History

The song dates back at least to the 1890s and was used in multiple variations and contexts. In 1896, a group of Cornell alumni gathered in Chicago and sang a song with the following lyrics: "We don't give a ---- For the whole State of Michigan; We're from Illinois." During the

1907 World Series The 1907 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1907 season. The fourth edition of the World Series, it featured the defending National League champion Chicago Cubs and the American League champion Detroit Tig ...

, fans of the Chicago Cubs celebrated their team's victory by running onto the field and singing: "We don't give a rap for the whole State of Mich-i-gan, whole state of Michigan, whole state of Michigan, we're from Illinois." The song appears to have been popularized as a college football song in the context of the Little Brown Jug rivalry between the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota. In November 1923, Minnesota fans paraded through the streets of Ann Arbor "crying at the top of their voices their new battle cry of 'We don't give a d-mn for the whole state of Michigan for today the Gophers will show it some new things in football." In November 1925, Minnesota fans sang the song in preparation for the annual rivalry game, using the lyrics: "We don't give a eleted by censorFor the whole State of Michigan The whole State of Michigan The whole State of Michigan." In December 1926, the ''

Lansing State Journal The ''Lansing State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Lansing, Michigan, owned by Gannett. Overview The ''Lansing State Journal'' is the sole daily newspaper published in Greater Lansing. The newspaper had an average Monday through ...

'' reported that the singing of "We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan" to the tune of "

" had become common practice at football games among "gay collegians of other states." In October 1928, the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

'' reported that, during a football game between and Michigan, the Ohio Wesleyan band played "that old familiar

air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

, 'We Don't Give a D--m for the Whole State of Michigan'" as it marched onto the field. The song was credited with inspiring Ohio Wesleyan to upset the Wolverines, 17 to 7. According to another account, Ohio Wesleyan coach George Gauthier, a Michigan State alumnus, led his team in singing the song in the locker room before the 1928 game began. More recently, the song became associated with the Michigan–Ohio State football rivalry. Some sources incorrectly assert that the lyrics were written in the 1920s when an inebriated supporter of the Ohio State football team began spontaneously vocalizing it in a hotel in Columbus, Ohio, as an organic expression of hostility towards Michigan, and was joined in chorus by several other intoxicated individuals. A 1933 article in the '' Akron Beacon Journal'' reports that the song was, at that time, a "familiar" one at Ohio State fraternities and sororities. The song was performed in the 1940 play ''The Male Animal'', written by

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

alumni

James Thurber James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' and collected ...

and

Elliott Nugent Elliott Nugent (September 20, 1896 – August 9, 1980) was an American actor, playwright, writer, and film director. Biography Nugent was born in Dover, Ohio, the son of actor J.C. Nugent. He successfully made the transition from silent fil ...

, and subsequently turned into a in the 1942 motion picture of the same name. The song is performed in the play by supporters of the fictitious Midwestern University in advance of their

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

contest against the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. The lyrics are changed by fans of the North Carolina Tar Heels to reflect its rivalry with the

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association ...

(see Carolina-Duke rivalry). The new relevant lyrics become "We don't give a damn 'bout Duke University, 'cause we're from Carolina". The song is set to the melody of the American folk song "The Old Gray Mare".

Performance

Singing of "We Don't Give a Damn" often occurs spontaneously among groups of people – generally alumnae or supporters of the Ohio State University – wishing to express hostility towards Michigan including "at any point during a sporting event, at any bar on campus, or really at any establishment in the state of Ohio".

References

{{reflist Ohio State University American folk songs Fight songs