Draft:USAFA cheers and chants
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This article captures cadet cheers, chants, yells, and slogans heard at games, parades, and around the cadet wing. These pieces of collective voice are rarely written down and are easily lost between generations. If you remember a chant from your era — even one you only heard once — please add it. Sign with your class year. New to USAFAPedia? See how to contribute.
The United States Air Force Academy cadet wing has a long tradition of expressing collective identity through cheers, chants, and yells — at football games, parades, formations, and informal moments. Many of these chants have been passed orally from class to class; others were the signature of a single class year and disappeared with that class's graduation. This article is a working archive of those chants.
Chants on this page are presented as historical record. Some reflect attitudes of their era that would not be repeated today; they are documented honestly for that reason, with context where appropriate.
Football chants
"Up the middle, up the middle, pass, punt"
A sustained chant from the cadet section during the later years of Ben Martin's tenure as head coach, mocking the perceived predictability of the Falcon offensive playbook. The chant tracked the perceived sequence of every drive: two running plays through the middle, a pass attempt, a punt.[citation needed]
"Give 'em hell, Ben"
A chant for Coach Ben Martin that began as encouragement and ended as resigned humor:
- Give 'em hell, Ben — give 'em hell, Ben — oh hell, give 'em, Ben[citation needed]
Class yells
Each entering class historically adopts a class yell — a short chant the class shouts at events, often capturing the class number and a phrase, slogan, or in-joke. Some yells are official; many are unofficial. Add your class's yell here.
- Class of 1969 — unofficially "Recline and Dine"[citation needed] — context to be added by class members
- Class of 1979 — "79 Mighty Fine"[citation needed] (official); "LCWB" or "Last Class With Balls" (unofficial)[citation needed]; the LCWB designation referenced 1979 being the last all-male class before the Class of 1980 became the first to enter with women cadets
- Class of 2009 — "Hold the Line" or similar[citation needed] — exact text and context to be added by class members
- (add your class's yell)
Parade and formation chants
Chants used during marching, formations, drill periods. To be filled in by contributors.
Spirit-mission and rivalry chants
Chants associated with rivalry weeks, mascot heists, and spirit events.
Contextual notes
Some chants documented here used language or referenced things that would not be appropriate today. They are recorded honestly because they are historical fact, but with the context that would help a reader understand both why they existed and why they have not been carried forward. Edits that add context are welcome; edits that remove the historical record are not.
The "LCWB" designation associated with the Class of 1979 is one example. The Class of 1979 was the last all-male graduating class at USAFA, and the abbreviation circulated as an unofficial class identifier in the period immediately before and after women were first admitted. Documenting this is part of recording the institution's actual transition to coeducation; the class identifier is not endorsed as appropriate today.
Stories about specific chants
If you remember the moment a chant was first shouted, the cadet who wrote it, or the game where it became famous, please add what you know.
This section awaits contributions.
