Hey, y'all.
My advice would be to leave that song alone.
I'm a proud Bowling Green football fan. While North Carolina MIGHT be able to claim to have started singing Ay Ziggy Zoomba ABOUT the time we started, it is our strong feeling that the song is ours at this point.
There seems to be some debate as to when Ay Ziggy Zoomba got its start at Bowling Green.
The Bowling Green band fraternity claims it first played the song in 1928:
<a href="http://www.bgsu.edu/studentlife/organizations/kappa-kappa-psi/history.htm" target="_blank">http://www.bgsu.edu/studentlife/organizations/kappa-kappa-psi/history.htm</a>
The Bowling Green football media guide offers what seems to be a different view:
"Gil Fox, an Air Force bombadier in World War II stationed in Italy, brought a loose translation of a Zulu war chant back with him, and since its introduction in 1946 to a campus spirit assembly, it has kept its place in BGSU history. The Falcon football team traditionally sings Ay Ziggy Zoomba after every victory."
Which story is true? I don't know.
I've seen a couple of Web sites suggesting it was an old American camp song inspired by the Zulu nation. I've also seen a Web site that suggests it was, in fact, a Zulu war chant possibly used at rugby games.
Whatever the story, we've had the song a long time -- and WE'VE never stopped it.
The song made an appearance in the 1968 movie Paper Lion when Mike Weger, a BOWLING GREEN grad and prospective Detroit Lion, sang Ay Ziggy Zoomba during a rookie hazing ritual.
A bar in Bowling Green is now called Ay Ziggy Zoomba's. A Falcon fan site is now named <a href="http://www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com" target="_blank">www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com</a> (where quite a thread is brewing on this in the football area).
And I've got a sound clip here for you:
<a href="http://www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com/sounds/ziggy.mp3" target="_blank">http://www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com/sounds/ziggy.mp3</a>
That's OUR band, the Falcon Marching Band, playing the song -- with probably not one North Carolinian among them.
Search Yahoo if you want. I suspect you'll find more Bowling Green references to the song than you do for North Carolina.
Now.
I know North Carolina likes to steal things. Y'all don't feel the slightest trace of embarassment claiming you were "First in Flight," -- even though that's like Hiroshima taking for the first atom bomb.
(Ohio men thought up that plane, built that plane and chose to fly it in North Carolina for mere meteorlogical reasons.)
Please. Don't create another diplomatic incident. Rethink use of Ay Ziggy Zoomba.
Thank you for your time,
RochesterFalcon
<small>[ July 04, 2002, 10:16 AM: Message edited by: RochesterFalcon ]</small>