Illinois Loyalty
"Illinois Loyalty", also known as "We're Loyal to You, Illinois" or just "Loyalty", is a song associated with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It (along with "Hail to the Orange") is the school's alma mater. It is also used (although not as often as Oskee Wow-Wow) as the school's fight song. History Thacher Howland Guild came to the University of Illinois from Brown University in September 1904 as an instructor of rhetoric. He brought an unfinished song that he intended to be used at a college. Guild spent his next year at the university working on the first part of what would become "The Illinois Loyalty Song" and also joined the Marching Illini in the cornet section, where he met Albert Austin Harding, a student recently promoted to director of bands. In the early months of 1906, Guild added the cheering interlude and second part of the song. Harding arranged Guild's song for the Marching Illini just in time for its anniversary concert on March 3, 1906. It was first published in 1907 by the U. of I. Supply Store under the name "The Illinois Loyalty Song." Since then, the song has been used nearly universally as a song to