The old hymn and jazz tune "When the Saints Go Marching In" is used by several teams in various sports. It may be used as the team's theme song or reserved for when they scored. Liverpool fans used it as a football chant to honour their player Ian St John in the 1960s, a song that was also adopted by other clubs.[1]Southampton Football Club, for example, use it as a football chant as their nickname is The Saints; other football clubs use different variations of the song. It may be used with the standard lyrics, specialized lyrics, or no lyrics at all. When sung by a crowd, it is often started at a very slow tempo, around 70 beats per minute. The next verse is then dramatically sped up to somewhere around 140 beats per minute.
The following is a partial list of its notable uses.
Liverpool F.C. (Liverpool, Merseyside, England) substituting "Reds" (the team colour) for "Saints". It may, however, originally have been introduced by fans to honour Ian St John (in recognition of the "Saint" in his name), one of their star players of the 1960s.[1]
Minnesota United F.C. (Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States) substituting "Minnesota" (the state name) for "Number" as well as substituting "Loons" (the club's nickname) for "Saints"
SK Brann (Bergen, Norway). Use the melody with different lyrics, sung in Norwegian. An English translation is "The city of Bergen is beautiful, and we have the best beer and tits".
Swindon Town F.C. (Swindon, Wiltshire, England) substituting "Reds" (the team's home colour) for "Saints", and "steaming" for "marching" (due to the town's railway heritage)
It is played by the St. Louis Blues of the NHL when the team scores as well as at the beginning of the game and at the end of each period. Its use stems from the first years of the Blues, as initially the strongest of the NHL's late-1960s expansion teams, and was sung by fans as "When the Blues go marching in..." Sometimes, Blues fans change verses to "Oh when the Cup comes to St. Lou/ Oh when the Cup comes to St. Lou/ Oh Lord I want to be in that number/ When the Blues come marching in." Charles Glenn, the Blues national anthem singer, also sings this song with the crowd.
Whenever the Saints score a goal at St. Lawrence University, the crowd will sing "When the Saints Go Marching In" immediately after the goal is announced. A skating saint sign at each end of the arena flashes as well.
In college basketball, it is chanted by the University of Oregon student section (the Oregon Pit Crew), replacing "Saints" with "Ducks".
It is often played by the pep band during breaks in play. However, none of these teams use a true Dixieland version, but a version more suited to a college fight song.
This has been in use since the 1970s by the St. Kilda Saints Football Club. The version of the song was recorded by the Fable Singers by permission under license and only mentions the St. Kilda Football Club. The Official St. Kilda Football Club song is played at the ground when the St. Kilda Football Club Players run out before a game and after a St. Kilda victory in the Australian Football League, followed by a hearty rendition of the song by the players in the rooms after the match (it is broadcast by permission).
Oh when the Saints, go marching in,
Oh when the Saints go marching in,
Oh how I want to be with St Kilda,
Oh when the Saints go marching in.
Oh when the Saints (Oh when the Saints), go marching in (go marching in),
Often sung by the parochial supporters of the Dragons (dubbed the "Dragon Army"), the version of the song used is very similar to St Kilda's. This version does, however, remain loyal to the original, with the third line of both stanzas being "I wanna be in that number". On rare occasion, further verses are sung by the "Dragon Army".
Saints was not originally used, but rather Friar Away, a typical college fight song. However, in the 1950s, a local radio station (WPRO-AM) began using it as the theme music to their coverage of Providence College basketball games. The fans took to it so well that it has become the fight song of the college, with Friar Away slipping into obscurity, save for a brief revival in the late 1990s.
