Anthem a ‘Key’ part of athletics

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been asking a few people the same question at ball games around the area. Now I’ll ask you.

When was the last time you heard ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ somewhere other than a sporting event?

I’m betting you have the same answer everyone else has had: A shrug, perhaps a scratch of the head, and ‘that’s a really good question.’

I’ve scanned my memory banks, and with the exception of the occasional July 4 celebration and the old days when radio and TV stations ‘signed off’ at night, every other experience with Francis Scott Key’s ditty have involved some sort of athletic competition.

But in doing a bit of research, I found a few interesting facts about the anthem that you might not have known.

For example, did you know the melody for the song came from an old British drinking tune? Just after the poem, originally entitled ‘Defence of Fort McHenry’ was written in 1814, Key gave a copy to his brother-in-law, who saw that the words could be sung to the popular pub song ‘To Anacreon in Heaven,’ which was written in the mid-1760’s. The poem was printed and distributed, and later appeared in newspapers with a note that it was to be sung to the same tune popular among many taverns of the time.

I guess it’s a good thing ‘Margaritaville’ hadn’t been written back then.

By the way, the first known public performance of the song was just a month later, by an actor named Ferdinand Durang. Do you wonder where he sang it? You guessed it; at a tavern.

But back to the tradition of singing the anthem at sporting events.

According to Wikipedia, the song was performed at Opening Day ceremonies in Philadelphia as early as 1897, and at the Polo Grounds in New York the following year. That was almost 20 years before President Woodrow Wilson ordered the song to be played at military and other occasions.

During World War II, the tradition of playing the anthem before every baseball game began, and now the song is heard before every Major League game, as well as NFL, NBA, NHL (if an American team is playing) contests and even NASCAR races.

Why? Nobody really knows. It’s just another one of those weird sports things that somebody started decades ago that somehow stuck around. And as sports traditions go, it’s a pretty good one. After all, it’s a nice show of patriotism, and it sure beats ‘the wave.’

‘ As we close this week’s piece, I have to sing the praises of the Warren County Middle School faculty and staff for a bit.

Friday afternoon, during a special students-vs.-faculty basketball game, word of the tornado warning came in to principal Betty Wood, who calmly, but immediately, instructed her student body and staffers where to seek shelter.

Before the game, it took around a half-hour to get all the students into the gymnasium and seated. But less than five minutes after Wood picked up the public-address microphone, the gym was completely empty ‘ with the exception of one sports columnist who was marveling at the efficiency which had just been displayed.

So kudos to Mrs. Wood and her staff. I’m sure ushering an entire gym full of kids to safety was just par for the course to them, but from where I was standing, it was very impressive.

(E-mail sports editor Rob Nunley at [email protected])