We have all clapped along proudly to the VHS fight song as the beloved Longhorns scored a touchdown. But do you know the history behind the fight song?
Mr. Johnson receive the following email today which gives an account of the creation. It is definitely worth taking a few minutes to read.
Dear Mr. Johnson:
The fact is I hadn’t thought about Vega in decades. But, for all the years that have passed since I lived there and having ranged far and wide in the world since then, a day or so ago I got curious about Vega. For better or worse it will always be a little part of me. I think you just have to live there for a while and become part of it to understand that. Out of curiosity I did an Internet search for Vega ISD and was surprised by what came up. If you will indulge me for a moment I will get to the point of why I am contacting you.
My family moved to Vega in August of 1958 when I was five years old. I am nearly 71 now and the 11 years we were in Vega seem so long ago they might as well have been in some obscure corner of antiquity. Yet parts of it are well crystalized in my recollection. I read the VHS fight song lyric on the school website. When I saw them my recollection of how the song came to be immediately surfaced. I wondered if anyone at VHS today knows the history of the song? Does anyone know who wrote it? Does anyone know why and when it was written? Not that it matters, really, but those kinds of details are precisely what gives history, even seemingly insignificant history, its depth and texture. A few people still living might remember the fight song's origin, but that number is certainly diminishing. I therefore thought I would send you a brief message about it so that the history might not be lost.
The song was written by then VHS band director Robert E. " Bob" Couch who was my father. As best I recall the year was 1965 or 1966 when the football team made it to the bi-district play-off for the second time in school history. I do not recall who the other team was but I remember my father saying the other high school had a bigger band than Vega had. He was also aware that the opposing high school had a fight song they would play after touchdowns and at other “strategic” moments during the game. He decided Vega High School needed a fight song of its own. I remember when he first showed the finished score to me. I thought it was overly simple but dad said he wrote it that way on purpose. He wanted a song that would be easy for people to remember and sing along with. Dad took a copy of the handwritten score down the hall to Kenneth Miller, the head football coach, who was the first, other than dad and myself, to see it. Of course, Coach Miller couldn’t read a note of music but he appreciated the gesture and told the team about it, saying they now had a fight song to rally to.
The fight song was first played in public at the pep rally before the bi-district play-off game that week. Vega won the game and the fight song "stuck" as they say.
Dad passed away in 2016 at age 86. I am rather certain he would be as surprised as I am that the fight song he wrote for VHS more than half a century ago lives on to this day. As I said earlier, in a strange way, if they stick around for a while Vega becomes a little part of people who experience it. It happened to me. I'm rather certain my parents would have agreed with that assessment... and perhaps a small part of my dad became a little part of Vega High School.
All Best Regards,
David D. Couch, Ph.D.
Montgomery, Texas
06 February 2023