OSKY-WOW-WOW

Page last updatedOct. 14, 2006

    Can you imagine standing at a football game and, rather than singing Osky-Wow-Wow, singing “There’s a town in Texas.....” to the World War I-era tune, Its a Long Long Way to Tipperary?  In a close vote by the student body of De Leon High School in the fall of 1919, Osky edged There’s A Town in Texas to become the school song.  Oddly enough, a newcomer to De Leon, Pearl S. Stern, submitted Osky while native De Leonian Dean Rippetoe contributed There’s A Town.

     Virtually all of the important traditions of De Leon High School originated during the fall of 1919, at the height of the oil boom.  Only the selection of the school colors in 1917 and the writing of De Leon’s fight song in 1954-1955 came at other times.  In the fall of 1919, work began on on the first annual and the name De Leonian was selected.  The rivalry with Comanche escalated into football war.  A Bearcat was selected as the mascot.  De Leon held its first pep rally and bonfire.  The school song was chosen.  But, perhaps most importantly, Pearl Stern was elected by the student body to be De Leon’s first cheerleader.

     Prior to moving to De Leon, Joe Stern owned the Boston Bargain Store on the south side of Robinson.  Records indicate that the business was successful enough that he opened a second store in the city not too long prior to coming to De Leon.

      Dramatic changes in De Leon began on September 2, 1918.  Oil was discovered in Comanche County on the Duke farm just south of Desdemona.  In the intervening year, De Leon grew from a community of maybe 800 people to a city with an estimated population in excess of 5,000.  Jobs and money were plentiful throughout the area.  Residential and commercial construction was taking place all over town.  A new sewer a water system was installed.  The new high school had opened.  Fourteen sets of side tracks were laid west of Texas Avenue to support the 24 hour a day operations at the MKT depot.  And 1919 was probably the only school year in which De Leon’s enrollment exceeded Comanche’s.

     Similarly, in Desdemona, a community of maybe 200 in 1918, an estimated 16,000 filled hurriedly-constructed hotels, or if they were unlucky erected tents, slept on porches or under the drilling rigs.

     The city of Robinson had itself been trough an oil boom back in 1907.  Wildcatters Michael Benedum and Joe Trees of Pittsburgh had made the discovery there and it was Benedum and some other investors who financed the Duke well here.

      Benedum and Trees’ main driller was Pete Hoffman, a red headed West Virginian known in De Leon as Pennsylvania Red.  At some point he had drilled wells for Bendedum around Robinson.  More important to local history,  his red roadster indirectly was the reason for the selection of the name Bearcats as the school mascot.  While there is not direct knowledge that the Sterns had any ties to Benedum or his interest, it is very probable that they heard of the boom because of Benedum’s involvement in both oil fields.

     The oil boom apparently had little positive impact on the salaries of the local teachers.  Just before school began, Lyman E. Forrest (father of Jerri Asmus) resigned his long-held teaching and coaching position in De Leon to accept the principal’s job in Thurber.

       Thurber, although now a ghost town, offered an enormous opportunity in those days.  It was a company town, owned entirely by the Texas & Pacific Coal Company.  Some believe it had as many as 20,000 residents.  The company supplied the coal for the Texas & Pacific Railroad (no corporate relationship) and the MKT.  More importantly, it was the Texas & Pacific Coal Company that had discovered oil near Ranger in 1917.  The incredible profits raked in by the renamed Texas & Pacific Coal & Oil Company probably resulted in some high paying teaching jobs in Thurber.

      Forrest’s departure sent the De Leon school administration hurriedly seeking a new football coach.  While manpower was plentiful, most men wanted the higher wages of the oil field.  But, by the time school began, Paul Stern had been hired.

     Paul Stern played football for Robinson High School and is believed to have studied at the University of Illinois.  De Leon tradition has always been that he played football for Illinois and in his senior season played with a freshman named Harold Grange better known as “Red” or “The Galloping Ghost.”  However, the University of Illinois was unable to confirm that Stern played at the school.  In fact, according to the census, he was only 20 years of age when he was teaching and coaching in De Leon.  Perhaps he only attended the school for a short time or was simply just a big Illini fan.

     Pearl may have enrolled in De Leon High in the spring of 1919.  In any event she was there as classes began in the fall and quickly became active in the school.  We even know that Bill Irvin was her steady while she was here.   Pearl knew the traditions of the University of Illinois, including the yells, the songs, and the fun of the emerging big time college football game. 

       When school opened so few boys came out for football that Stern could not hold practices.  Many of the players intended to work in the oil fields or for the merchants who were desperate for help.  Several had lost interest after Mr. Forrest departed and the new enrollees coming to De Leon from the country schools were not well acquainted with the game. 

    Principal N. A Mayo helped Stern get a team together.  During the first few weeks of school, Mayo made regular appeals at chapel and by the first game Stern had enough boys for a team.  De Leon lost that game to Brownwood 20-3, but the team had neither practiced nor held a scrimmage prior to the actual game.  The game was not indicative of the season.  They did not lose another game, downing Dublin 85-6, beating Comanche and Ranger twice each and embarrassing Meridian College 23-7.

    Paul and Pearl made several suggestions to Mayo that they thought might boost school spirit and get students more involved.  Mayo set to work using many of their suggestions.  Among the things he asked the student body to do were to elect a cheerleader, select a mascot and write a school song.  Mayo also appointed a staff to publish an annual.

     Surprisingly, the cheerleader chose was Pearl Stern---who in only a few months in De Leon had gained enough popularity to be selected over the native daughters.  Pearl began teaching the student body yells and De Leon held its first pep rally that fall.  For the second Comanche game Pearl suggested a bonfire and it took place apparently on Thanksgiving eve.  Following the Thanksgiving afternoon game and spectator riot which, fueled by betting occurred after De Leon won 14-13, Mrs. Stern and Mrs. Forrest (who apparently had remained in De Leon), prepared a banquet for the entire team.  This may have been the first edition of the annual Football (or All-Sports) Banquet.

    Mayo delegated the process of selecting a school song to the able hand of Letha Smith, the music teacher.  Miss Smith was a native De Leonian and a graduate of DHS and Baylor University.  She encouraged her students to compose songs for consideration. Over the season, the entries were performed before the student body, usually with Miss Smith accompanying them on piano.  By November, two songs had emerged as the clear leaders.

     Dean Rippetoe, a Bearcat football player and member of one of De Leon’s more musical families had penned not only the lyrics but also the piano score for his entry.  The song’s popularity can be illustrated by the fact that some seventy years after completing school, Hub

Weaver was able to recite the works off the cuff.  He stumbled only on the Eden line.  Alene Horn wrote it down without hesitation.

     Pearl Stern was responsible for the other song.  She adapted a University of Illinois fight song for her entry.  She would sing the words while Olean Van Zandt would work out the musical arrangement on the the piano.  Pearl would indicate that a note needed to be higher or lower, shorter or long and Van Zandt would adjust the music.  Together, they eventually got the lyrics and music into what we know as Osky-Wow-Wow.

    The student body was pretty well divided on their preference.  When the final vote was taken Osky edged Rippetoe’s Town and De Leon had its school song.

     You might notice that there is no mention of “Bearcats” in the school song, while “maroon and white” is mentioned.  That is because the student body had so much trouble selecting Bearcats as the mascot while the colors had been selected two years earlier.

    DHS football player Starr Inzer had suggested Bears several times, in honor of his favorite college team, Baylor.  On the Monday before the 1919 Thanksgiving game, Inzer impulsively offered Bearcats.  The new name was approved by the applause of the students.

      The immediate acceptance of the Bearcat mascot can be traced back to Benedum’s driller Pete Hoffman, who had come to town in 1918.  He brought along his sporty, dark red auto, which drew a crowd when it was unloaded from the train.

      There weren’t many cars around at that time, and overtime Hoffman developed friendships with many of the teenagers who felt it was the ultimate experience too ride in (or be seen riding in) that car.  The teenagers of De Leon developed a great admiration for that car as well as its owner.

    The auto was the sportiest car available in America at the time---the Stutz Bearcat.  But the delay in choosing a mascot presumably prevented Stern and Van Zandt from from including Bearcats in the schools song.

     According to the Librarian of Music at the University of Illinois, the original Oskee-Wow-Wow as written in 1912 by Howard Green as a spirit song for the Illini.  He received $100 for the effort.  The word Oske-Wow-Wow is supposedly of Indian origin, however, no one knows its meaning.

    Osky-Wow-Wow was used for many years in De Lon not only as the school song but also---more or less--as the fight song.  The song was first orchestrated for De Leon by Graham Smoot soon after he organized the Bearcat Band in 1936.  It was about this same time that a significant change was made in tempo of the song.  The entire song had always been played or sung at a fast tempo.  The wife of then Bearcat Coach Arvil Adams suggested that the opening stanza be slowed, with a return to the upbeat tempo for the refrain.

    The boom’s vitality lasted only about 18 months and the hordes of people who came to this area quickly disbursed.  As business died, may business men moved on to new boom towns in West Texas.  It appears that the Stern family left De Lon in mid 1920, possibly retuning to Robinson.

      The Robinson city directory of 1928-29 lists Emma and Pearl.  The Vogue, a ladies apparel shop is listed beside Emma’s name, along with the fact that she was the widow of Joe.  “Sales, The Vogue” is beside Pearl’s listing.  Angie Smith, who along her husband published the Robinson Argus, recalled that the Stern ladies were prominent in clothing sale at the time.  But by the 30’s, the Stern’s trail is lost.

    De Leon’s school song, if not musically imposing, is at least unique.  And, as revered as it may be in De Leon, it has taken a lot of abuse in the Austin American-Statesman.  That daily newspaper generally ignores this section of Texas as if it were a black hole, unless it can find something to criticize and then it slimes the area with front page coverage. This after all, is the same paper that predicted a Schulenburg victory of De Leon in 1975 and compounded the error by picking Schulenburg over Goldthwaite in 1994.  In 1980, Osky-Wow-Wow became the target of one of its “humor” writers.

   That summer, Mike Kelley of the Statesman decided to hold a contest to find the worst school song in the land.  He wanted his readers to send him the “absolute yuckiest, high blown, noble and inspirin’ set of lyrics around.”

   “What we are looking for here is instant hyperglycemia...,” he wrote.

   A week or so later, after perusing dozens of entries, he made his decision.  It was Oksy-Wow-

Wow, which sadly, he had received from a person who had graduated from De Leon High School in 1956.  To protect the identity of the Osky-turncoat, the person shall remain nameless, but I can say she is married to Wayland Leslie and lives in Lampasas where she worked for a lawyer.  Her classmates used to call her Wanda.

     Kelley gave runner-up honors to four schools.

     Lockney (Texas ) High School was noted first.  That school’s supporters sing, “We spend our days within your walls, O school so dear.  And may we ever heed your call, so keep us near.  Senior, junior, soph and fish, best of all for you we wish.”  The contributing alum noted that “it belonged at the bottom of the sanitary landfill of melodic creations.”

    Another runner-up was Charlevoix High School in Michigan, where they sing, “O, red and white, we hail thee, glory to every boy, for in the field and in the hall, we will answer the call, for we love thee dear Charlevoix (rhymes with boy). “ Talk about sap.

     Waynesville, Missouri, sings, “Firm and undaunted always we’ll be, here’s to the school we love, dear old Wanynesville High.”  It doesn’t even rhyme.

    A final honorable mention went to Los Fresnos in the Rio Grande Valley.  They sing, “through all kinds of weather, we will jog together.” ‘Nuff said.

      But as for Osky-Wow-Wow, Kelley’s sole criticism was that the song “unaccountably included the words Osky-Wow-Wow.  When he called the Free Press, Cindy Wilkerson (then in high school) could not tell him what “Osky-Wow-Wow” meant.  In fairness to Cindy, neither could anyone else in De Leon or, for that matter, anyone in Illinois.

    Kelley did note that in old-time football lingo “Osky!” was hollered by the defensive team when a turnover occurred, thereby alerting team members to go on offense.

   He didn’t let the issue die with only one article.  He brought up Osky-Wow-Wow again, 10 years later, as having been declared the “goofiest in the land.”

   Kelley who over the years took some heat for his “humor” from many Austin readers of the Statesman, gave advice to the nameless De Leonian.  He warned she just might receive a little “of the righteous wrath of those in ole De Leon, “ similar to this call he received.

    “The telephone rings”

    “Hello, this is me.”

    “You wrote about high school alma maters?” the voice says.

     “Yes, I did.  I said they are all sappy”

     “You quoted from (Whatever) High School alma mater.  I wrote it.  You are not going to improve your own writing just by tearing others down.  Most people will see this for what it is, just a way to get some cheap laughs.”

     “He is correct,” Kelley wrote.  “At my age I can’t afford expensive laughs.”

      Mr. Kelley left the Statesman soon after his second mention of Osky.  He probably  moved up to a better job at the Chubbuck, Idaho Times Gazette.

      Anyway, could you imagine Al Strasner or C.L. Mohon leading everyone in that old favorite, “There is a Town in Texas”?  No, Dean Rippetoe, Jr. would have that honor.

(“She Gave Us Oksy-Wow-Wow” was originally published in The Messenger, November-December 1997.  Written by Phil Tate.  Sources: Gary Burlison, Everett and Mildred Hansford, Babe Daniell, Hub Weaver, Alene Horn, Hiram Smith Jr.;   Margaret Waring and Mary Hart Comanche Public Library; Austin American Statesman, De Leon Free Press, U.S, Census, De Leonian, and Dena Wilson, Aggie Smith, Jo Drennen and Sue Jones all of Robinson, Illinois, and Marcia Foster of Colchester Il.)

Pearl Stern               (Photo courtesy of Gary Burlison)

THERE’S A TOWN IN TEXAS

There’s a town in Texas

that’s always on the boom.

Progress is its slogan

and its name is De Leon

Land of hogs and peanuts,

you’ll never hunger there.

The land of fruit and flowers

noble men and maidens fair,

Western Eden, a noble city

not a long way to go

when you think of its grand attractions

and the many things that grow

where the people are so friendly

welcome fills the air

De Leon will ever be my hometown

Just white folks live there

by Dean Rippetoe Jr.

In 1919 DHS students were asked to select one of these songs as the school song.

OSKY-WOW-WOW

Other schools may have their colors,

but for us maroon and white.

Other schools may have their rah-rah-rahs

and yell with all their might.

But the only yell that thrills me,

more than any other one

is the yell they give in De Leon

Osky-Wow-Wow, De Leon

Osky-Wow-Wow, De Leon

To our colors we’ll be true

Osky-Wow-Wow, De Leon

You can bet we’re back of you

rah-rah

When the team trots out before you

Every man stands up and yells

Back your team and give a rousing cheer

Osky-Wow-Wow De Leon

Economy Store sign extracted from a photo of World War I Veterans about 1921.  By then the building was occupied by the S&S Garage.

Osky-Wow-Wow

The University of Illinois’

OSKEE-WOW-WOW

Old Princeton yells her tigers,

Wisconsin her varsity.

and they give their same ole rah-rah-rahs

at each university.

But the only yell that thrills me,

and fills my heart with joy

is the good ole Oskee-Wow-Wow

That they yell at Illinois.

Oskee-Wow-Wow, Illinois

Our eyes are all on you

Oskee-Wow-Wow, Illinois

Waive your orange and your blue

rah-rah

When the team trots out before you

Every man stands up and yells

Back your team to victory

Oskee-Wow-Wow Illinois

The story of how De Leon got its school song.