All Hail

It's been a rough two week stretch for the State University of New Jersey. Last weekend, Ohio State blanked Rutgers to the tune of 58-0 in the Horseshoe. In round two of a rousing game of Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better between the archrivals, Michigan headed to Piscataway and handed the Scarlet Knights at 78-0 loss last night. In the second half, the Rutgers Band, perhaps weary from a dearth of their own fight song, did something few would have have anticipated:

Now this is some first-class hospitality. Thank you, @RUMarchingBand. #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/MUFle9AJup

— Michigan Alumni (@michiganalumni) October 9, 2016

They serenaded the visiting Michigan fans with their own fight song, The Victors.

Odd though it may seem, the individual pieces, if not the combination, are consistent. Rutgers' band knows The Victors because they've fallen in step with a tradition in their new conference: Playing their opponent's fight song as part of the pregame. And while this use seems unorthodox, I'm told that the home band playing for opposing fans isn't unheard of. Still, in the seventh and eighth scoreless quarters against division rivals, I'm sure it was salt in the wound of the home fans, and a plume in the shako of Michigan fans who witnessed the thorough demoralization of the Scarlet Knights, who earned their first first down in the fourth quarter. Still, given the lyrics to the Michigan Fight song, there may have been no more fitting of a tribute:

Hail! to the victors valiant 
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes 
Hail! Hail! to Michigan the leaders and best

Conqu'ring heroes, indeed.