John U. Bacon

On Veterans Day, we generally honor our Veterans. It’s a good idea, for lots of reasons: they served our country, often in unpleasant places, and in great danger, to keep the worst of the world away from our homeland.

My grandfather was a New York dentist who volunteered at age 39 to hop on a ship in the Pacific during World War II. My dad graduated from medical school, then enlisted in the U.S. Army, which sent him and his new bride to Fulda, Germany, to guard the border. It was an unconventional decision, but he’s always said it was one of his best.

“I earned more money than I ever had,” he often jokes, though that wasn’t hard to do for a recent medical school graduate. “People had to do what I said. And I never got shot at.” My parents also made lifelong friends, and still travel every year to see them at reunions.

I grew up hearing Dad say things like, “Smart to be seen in Army green!” And “Three meals a day, and –” well, I’m stopping there. (If you know that one, you know why.)

On Veterans Day, I’ve gotten into the habit of calling my old man to thank him for his service. But this year, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League spent Veterans Day telling its 183 member high school teams to stop performing the national anthem before their games.

The league commissioner, Ed Sam, was quick to explain, “It’s not that we’re not patriotic. That’s the furthest from the truth.”

I actually believe him. They’re not unpatriotic. They’re amazingly stupid.

The reason behind the decision was money. Most teams have to pay for their ice time, which Sam said costs up to $300 an hour.

I’ve coached high school hockey,  and that seems high to me. But even at that rate, unless they’re playing Whitney Houston’s version, the national anthem takes about two minutes – or ten bucks of ice time.

What do they get for that ten bucks? They get to join some of their best friends and complete strangers, singing a song that ends with the ringing words, “O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”

That’s not a bad deal, it seems to me.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” didn’t become our national anthem until 1931 – when we needed it most. It spread through baseball, then other sports.

We Americans don’t do much together anymore. We watch different news programs, live in different neighborhoods, and go to different schools. But we do this together, every week, without taking sides, or trying to determine whose flag pin is bigger – as if some of us are real Americans, and others aren’t. My dad and I don’t always agree on politics, but we’ve always agreed on this.

When I coached the Ann Arbor Huron High hockey team, we decided to make a quiet statement during the national anthem by standing ram-rod straight on the blue line, and not moving a muscle until one beat after the song ended. This made such an impression on the players’ parents, they took hundreds pictures of their sons in perfect formation. The opponents’ parents would send me letters, praising us for the respect we showed the flag. It became such a central part of our identity that our seniors took it upon themselves to make sure the freshmen did it right.

We rely on the national anthem during our toughest times. I’ll never forget the national anthems that followed 9/11 – from Yankee Stadium, to our rink. That fall, it was our seniors who asked me to add an American flag to our uniforms.

Seeing them standing on our blue line, in a perfect row, I was immensely proud of them. If those 17-year-olds are the future, I thought, we’re going to be fine. Well, those 17-year-olds are 27 now – and I was right. We’re in good hands.

So if the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League can’t afford the ten bucks a game it costs to sing our national anthem together – which is more important than the game that follows – they could shorten their warm-ups or player introductions, or just pass the hat. I’m pretty confident that at any rink in America, you’d have no problem collecting ten bucks for that.

I’d be happy to kick in the first Hamilton.

And my dad will kick in the second.

About the author: John U. Bacon, an Ann Arbor resident, is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.” He also co-authored “A Legacy of Champions,” and provided commentary for “Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward, and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game.”

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John U. Bacon

The modern Olympics started in 1896, but it took 28 more years before the winners would hear their national anthem during the medal ceremony.

The Vancouver Games will conduct 86 medal ceremonies, during which any of the 82 countries present could be serenaded with their national anthem. But not all are created equal – including ours.

You probably knew the melody for our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” came from a popular British drinking song, and that Francis Scott Key added the words during the War of 1812. But you might not have known the song didn’t become our national anthem until more than a century later, in 1931. And we didn’t start playing the song before ball games until World War II.

“The Star Spangled Banner” may be two centuries old, but its status as our national anthem is relatively new – and, I think, not beyond reconsideration.

True, the song can be strong and moving. But who can forget Carl Lewis’s version, which sounded like a feral cat in serious pain, or actress Roseanne Barr’s rendition – which put the “f” back in “professionalism”?

In their defense, “The Star Spangled Banner” is notoriously difficult to sing – or even remember. Raise your hand if you really know what a “rampart” is? That’s what I thought. Thank you.

That’s just another reason why I think we should consider adopting a different national anthem, like “America, the Beautiful.” In 1895, a Wellesley College professor, fed up with the greed of the Robber Barons – sound familiar? – took a train to Colorado, and was reminded along the way what a great country this truly is. When her poem was coupled with Samuel Ward’s melody, a classic was born.

For my money, Ray Charles’ version is the best. When I hear him sing, “America, America, God done shed his grace on thee. And crown thy good, with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea,” there aren’t too many things I wouldn’t be willing to do for my country.

Just a few years after “America, the Beautiful” came out, Irving Berlin composed “God Bless America” to inspire victory in World War I. Twenty years later, he revised it to respond to the Nazis’ rise to power.

From the opening, “God Bless America, Land that I love,” to the close, “My home sweet home,” Berlin doesn’t give you much to quibble about.

If Ray Charles stamped “America, the Beautiful,” as his own, surely “God Bless America” belongs to Kate Smith. But in the aftermath of Vietnam, the patriotic standard’s popularity was slipping – until the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team started playing it before crucial contests. They’ve won some 80% of those games – and all three when Kate Smith arrived to sing it in person.

Her first appearance, on May 19, 1974, preceded the Flyers’ 1-0 victory over Boston, for the Flyers’ first Stanley Cup. Many credited Smith for lifting the crowd and the team to new heights. Even the famously tough Philly fans could not boo Kate Smith.

When the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team pulled off the greatest upset in sports history, the players spontaneously broke into a chorus – not of “The Star Spangled Banner,” but “God Bless America.”

They couldn’t sing it quite like Kate Smith, but they understood what they were singing, they understood why, and they meant every word. I think they were on to something.

About the author: John U. Bacon lives in Ann Arbor and has written for Time, the New York Times, and ESPN Magazine, among others. His most recent book is “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller. Bacon teaches at Miami of Ohio, Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, where the students awarded him the Golden Apple Award for 2009. This commentary originally aired on Michigan Radio.
Excerpt

Interns with the University of Michigan Sports Marketing Department served as judges during the university's recent auditions for singers to perform the national anthem at sporting events. (Photo by the writer.)

The girl makes her way across Cliff Keen Arena’s wood-paneled gym floor toward the long table where the judges sit, leaning forward over their clipboards. She looks to be about eight or nine. She wears pink tights, a jean skirt, and an absolutely terrified look on her face: the corners of her mouth tug down, her eyes wide.

The judges smile at her as she steps forward to take the microphone. As she backs up toward the empty bleachers, looking no less nervous, one of them offers a compliment in a soft voice: “I like your tights!”

The girl opens her mouth and begins to sing: “Oh, say, can you see…”

Her voice is startlingly steady, given her evident anxiety. She finishes the song and hands to microphone back to the nearest judge. Then, the ordeal behind her, she turns and runs toward the door. She calls out in a high-pitched voice, to whoever’s waiting for her outside, “I sucked! I sucked!”

The judges exchange smiles, mark up the evaluation sheets on their clipboards with their maize-and-blue pens, and wait for the next person auditioning to show up. They will spend the afternoon and evening listening to singer after singer – young and old, nervous and confident – offer their personal rendering of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Why the national anthem? Because these Sept. 9 auditions determine which vocalists will perform that song at University of Michigan sporting events in the upcoming season.

How It Works

Katy Jackson, UM assistant director of marketing and promotions, wrote in an email that the university wants singers who are confident and on pitch. Two days before the auditions, 20 people had signed up to try out, and three more arranged to audition on an alternate day. By the actual date of the auditions, this number had increased to around 40.

If all of the judges decide that all of these potential singers have what it takes, the university will take them all, Jackson wrote. “We don’t have a particular number in mind,” she said. “We have many events throughout the year.”

The university has used this particular method to select singers for sporting events for roughly five years, Jackson said. This way, community members as well as UM students have an opportunity to showcase their talents.

The judges – UM Athletic Department employees and Sports Marketing Department student interns – represent the “typical” fan at the events where the singers will perform, Jackson explained. “They will have a layman’s perspective on if this singer is ready to perform at a venue such as Crisler Arena,” Jackson said prior to the auditions.

Cami Clarkson, a UM Sports Marketing Department intern, explained that she and her fellow judges graded the singers based on pitch, pacing and presence on a scale of 1 to 5. The sheets of paper on their clipboards listed these qualities along with an “Overall” category, which asked the judges to circle “yes,” “no,” or “maybe” for the singer.

Clarkson said she and the other interns get assigned to help out with different events related to athletics, like the auditions. They’re not required to have any above-average musical expertise. “We’ve all had experience watching American Idol and stuff,” she explained.

Huron High School senior Noa Gutterman sings "The Star-Spangled Banner" during a Sept. 9 audition, hoping to become a national anthem singer at UM sporting events. (Photo by the writer.)

But Can They Sing?

After several singers had tried out, Clarkson commented on the variety of people who showed up. “There’s definitely been a mix, and we’ve seen differences in style,” she said. “Everyone’s singing styles are very distinct.”

The singers came for a variety of reasons. Some had professional aspirations. Others just wanted to give their audience a good laugh.

Amanda Walker, a seventh grader at Saline Middle School, sang at UM soccer and baseball games last year and decided to come back for more this season. “I hope I get to do it again, because it was really fun last year,” Walker said.

In addition to participating in choir at school, Walker explained she attended the Saline Community Education Broadway Boot Camp this past June. “I just love to sing,” Walker said. “I would like to be a singer, on Broadway maybe.”

Lincoln Boehm, a UM English major, had a different purpose in offering his vocal talents to the university. “I’m a comedian,” Boehm explained. “I thought it would be amusing.”

Boehm said he figured it would be funny to have someone videotape him “jumping around” at sporting events if he were chosen to sing. When asked about his musical background, he replied with a straight face that he played the scarecrow in a fifth-grade production of The Wizard of Oz.

“In fourth grade, there was a singing thing in my school, and I had a solo,” Boehm added. “But you would’ve thought I was in choir, huh?”

Laura Mendoza, a musician/server with a big voice and throaty laugh, said she learned to sing the national anthem during the Gulf War, when she heard the song on TV. “I think the national anthem is the first song I really learned how to sing when I was eight years old,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza, who says she gives voice lessons at her house and does local gigs, felt her audition went well.

“I think it’s really important to sing with feeling, especially this song,” Mendoza said. “And I think I did that.”