Boneheads for the Win

On Nov. 23, 1912, Northwestern University’s fight song -- “Go U! Northwestern” -- premiered at a game against the University of Illinois. Exactly 100 years and one day later, the University celebrated the song's centennial at a game against Illinois at Ryan Field. Fittingly, the fight song played over and over again, as Northwestern went on to rout Illinois by a score of 50-14.

The highlight of the centennial celebration came in a special halftime presentation, when the winning video in the Go U 100 Fight Song Centennial Contest was revealed on the 'CatVision big screen.

After receiving numerous entries from students, alumni and fans over the past two weeks, a select panel of judges -- director of athletic bands Dan Farris, WildPride spirit squad coordinator Pam Bonnevier and head football coach Pat Fitzgerald – chose the epic rendition submitted by the Boneheads, the trombone section of the Northwestern University Marching Band, as the contest winner. The Boneheads consist of students Andres Caneva, Motoki Mizoguchi, Michael Nowakowski, Adam Snyder, Phillip Smith, Ashley Doody, Tom Saxton, Michael Creatura, Neal Kfoury, Tim Perian, Megan Wines, Aaron Blow and Michael Fagan.

The winners received a Northwestern Athletics prize pack that includes an autographed Pat Fitzgerald replica Under Armour jersey and more.

Runners-up in the competition included a one-man band version submitted by 2008 alumnus Walter Kiefer and an 8-bit, Nintendo-style rendition created by Michael Kenny, a senior in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

Watch the embedded videos below to see the fight song supercut that features clips from every entry or the individual submissions on our YouTube playlist.