Football season is right around the corner, and this year it’s even more exciting because, that’s right, you can once again purchase beer in Byrd Stadium! In celebration of this one-year experiment and rather awesome privilege for those of us 21 and over, the University Archives gang thought it might be time to bring back an old campus song that is perfect for this great moment: the Maryland Drinking Song!
Drink to the Terrapin,
All stout-hearted men.
We have no fear of hell
For we’re loyal friends and fellows.
Drink to the Terrapin;
May God bless her sons.
When the drink is in the cup,
Bottoms up! Bottoms up!
To Maryland.
The Maryland Drinking Song first appeared in the 1942 M Book, a student handbook and guide published annually from the 1910’s until the early 2000’s. The words were written by A. Manley (Jake) Powell. Wilmer (Wimp) Orpwood composed the music. We believe the song was a part of Clef and Key’s 1941 annual varsity show, “No Trouble at All,” which Jake and Wimp wrote, featuring songs about campus life. The Student Government Association also copyrighted the song in 1941 and incorporated it into a UMD songbook they published later that year.
This song and 17 other tunes popular on campus since the late 19th century can be found in Songs of Maryland: A Centennial Edition, the UMD Bands’ most recent songbook, published in honor of the bands’ centennial in 2008.
Check back this semester for our series on the three most recognizable UMD songs.
