The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Fight Song, βFort Smith Pride,β will have its world premiere performance during the halftime show of the ΝΓΧΣΟΘΙϊ menβs home basketball game at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23. The menβs and women's teams will be competing against St. Maryβs that day as ΝΓΧΣΟΘΙϊ celebrates its 2019 Homecoming, βLions of the Galaxy,β at the Stubblefield Center.
The ΝΓΧΣΟΘΙϊ Symphonic Band, Athletic Band and Chorale will perform the premiere under the direction of Dr. Alexandra Zacharella, director of bands, and Dr. Tommy Dobbs, athletic band director. Well-known wind band composer Brian Balmages was commissioned to write the words and music for the new fight song.
βThis project has been a long time in the making,β said Dr. Zacharella. βSince 2007 it has been clear that we here at ΝΓΧΣΟΘΙϊ needed our own unique fight song, a sentiment that would be echoed in 2016 by our university student body."
The effort to create a unique fight song for ΝΓΧΣΟΘΙϊ began as a Student Government Association resolution under the leadership of past SGA president Austin Lloyd and has continued through the work of SGA Chief of Staff Michael Lay, a senior media communication major, and current SGA President Luke Barber.
The commissioning of the song has come to fruition with support from university administrators including Interim Chancellor Dr. Edward Serna, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Dr. Lee Krehbiel and a number of others.
The Fight Song Committee is comprised of ΝΓΧΣΟΘΙϊ faculty members Dr. Christopher Barrick, head of the Department of Music; Dr. Alexandra Zacharella, director of bands; Dr. Tommy Dobbs, athletic band director; and Ava Earnhart, a freshmen music major and SGA representative.
βThe committee was thrilled to have Brian Balmages, a well-known composer of wind band music, take on the project,β said Dr. Zacharella. Balmages said he wanted to compose a fight song that was unique to Fort Smith and that the lyrics and music were composed to build an everlasting tradition of βFort Smith Pride.β