*The University of Pittsburgh*

Pitt is the home of our community.

Blue-collar citizens who build bridges
for
differences:
East ‘Burgh. The West End.
North & South crossing with
the T…
The rails bring parts of all Pittsburg to Oakland,
&
We are always sure to donate back.

Constructing a home takes different parts,
Bringing encounters with responses that make
Pitt Arts.

This is the City of Champions.
And we emulate them on Forbes Avenue, when we take down the O fries like champs.
We cheer the goal strikers like Mario Lemieux who raised the Igloo.
We follow the Pittsburgh championship model with our philosophy of team building, integration, and energy…
Maintaining the vitality of this community with public service and waste reduction,
So as receivers of Pittsburg like Franco Harris,
This miracle catch can save each season.

Pittsburgh, PA:
What a catch.
Interstate 279
is the next catch.
Through the Golden Triangle of this City of Steel,
We can arrive
at the entrance of
Heinz Field.

Pitt is the home of football.

Beginning each year with a bonfire and a pep rally,
Pitt continues the game’s raging start,
Unveiling the first pro game ever played:
Pittsburgh is football’s definitive spark.

Watch the golden lights.
The victory lights that flood the cathedral when we sing her song,

Hail to Pitt.

Showcasing the steel curtain of football’s reveals:
Presenting the first coast-to-coast TV broadcast of a live sporting event.
The home of the first live college football radio broadcast.
And the first to give numbers to the players,
So that the greats can know what they’ve meant,
With their presence still displayed after retirement.

Forgers like
Ditka, Marino, Green, Fitzgerald,
Who were cast by some of the greatest masterminds of
our sport:
“Pop” Warner, Johnny Majors, Jock Sutherland,
Earning Pitt Football nine national championships,
And 13 bowl victories:
Hail to Pitt.
Challengers who enter,
Fail to Pitt.

The Panther Prowl leads the way to the
March to Victory.
Such yells are only fit for the Panther Pitt,
Sing it loud:

Let’s Go Pitt!

Singing right before victory’s shrill,
And it feels
Oh So Good.

Like the flag bearers who lead the team onto the field,
In the ACC we hold the standard.
A given in our sport—
From the first catch.

Pittsburgh, PA:
What a catch.
Interstate 376
is the next catch.
Through the Turnpike of this city of steel,
We’re at Petersen—where our Panthers kill.

Pitt is the home of the Panthers.

Panthers—
In Leaps.
Those in the Oakland Zoo
scream as the Panthers are released…
And keep shouting as they attack.

In the Petersen Center, the Zoo is what
keeps the Panthers together,
As our noise
along with
their siege:
Make visitors fall apart.

Pitt is atmospheres like conference games
in Petersen.
Celebrations like E-Week, Bigelow Bash, and Fall Fest.
Solidification like the bronze of our Panther
That goes from outside the William Pitt Union—
All over this
Learning Cathedral.

Every Panther who chose Pitt
Hit a Homerun
In the college slate,
And at Posvar Hall is where they
Cross Home Plate.

We built this home here in the city of builders.
Along with the western hemisphere’s tallest academic building:
A 535-Foot skyscraper that spans 42 stories,
And is as magnificent on the inside as the outside.
Providing a view for the Panthers to look from
this gothic structure within these limestone walls
out to see what we have built:

This project that began in 1787,
A blueprint donated with the hearts of Panthers…
So that today on Cathy’s lawn & throughout Oakland,
From
Generation to Generation,
We can pass the ball to the next campaign,
With the catchphrase:

Catch.

From Alma Mater Vol. 2: The Northeast
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
Copyright © 2015 Clyde Aidoo