WCCO: The "Minnesota Rouser" has been played for 100+ years. Here's where it came from.

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Per WCCO:


Local News

The "Minnesota Rouser" has been played for 100+ years. Here's where it came from.​

minnesota
By
Marielle Mohs
October 2, 2025 / 10:43 PM CDT / CBS Minnesota



If you've been to a home Gopher game, you've heard it: the "Minnesota Rouser." The song has been played by the Gopher marching band for over 100 years.

Gopher drum major Charlotte Baker says learning the Rouser to the first order of business when you join the marching band.

"Playing it really connects us to the history of the band and the people who came before us," she said.

Alum Mike Gaffron has done a deep dive on the song the band has been playing since 1909.

"They were asking everybody throughout the state, students, anybody from anywhere, submit songs for an exciting, rousing song for Minnesota," he said.

A church choir director from Minneapolis named Floyd Hustell won a song contest that forever changed school spirit.

"On Nov. 21, 1909, Minneapolis Sunday Tribune published a supplement that was the actual sheet music to the U of M Rouser," Gaffron said.

The campus community and beyond learned the lyrics and the song stuck.

"I think there's this sense of tradition knowing that it continues, that it's passed on," Gaffron said.

"It really shows how we're all united," Baker said.


Go Gophers!!
 

One of the great college songs. Back in the 70’s when we went to “Freshman Camp” learning it was the first order of business.

My HS alma mater, Woodbury, has the Royal Rouser. It was written by the U’s Dr. Frank Bencriscutto in 1975 and is a direct child of the Minnesota Rouser.
 

I remember Dr Ben lamenting the fact that what is now called On Wisconsin won the school song contest but the U wouldn’t pay the $100 for it. Written by a U of M alum for the U but the U was too cheap to pay for it. The biggest tragedy in Minnesota history.
 

I remember Dr Ben lamenting the fact that what is now called On Wisconsin won the school song contest but the U wouldn’t pay the $100 for it. Written by a U of M alum for the U but the U was too cheap to pay for it. The biggest tragedy in Minnesota history.
Is that true?
 




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