In 1857 a man named H.S. Thompson wrote a ballad about a young girl’s tragic death. Thirteen years later, two Cornell students took the tune from Annie Lisle and penned lyrics to serve as their college’s alma mater. The grace and grandeur of the melody spread to other institutions, one in Chapel Hill and another in Athens, Ga.
So at some point Sept. 3 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, you will hear the same notes emanating from different bands, with those in red singing:
From the hills of Georgia's northland
Beams thy noble brow,
And the sons of Georgia rising
Pledge with sacred vow.