Something magical happened last October 1 at the Araneta Coliseum, during our final game against National University. Despite our heartbreaking loss, many of the older alumni who attended remained jubilant, since the long-awaited day for celebration had finally arrived: On the first day of Mary’s month of October, our old fighting song, “Blue Eagle, The King (BETK),” made a dramatic comeback in an extraordinary fashion.

At noon of September 30, the day prior to the game, the BETK music video was launched on YouTube, blasted by email to over 30,000 Ateneo alumni throughout the world and reposted on Facebook by diehard Ateneans. By 2:00 PM, game time, the video had gone viral with over 12,000 hits. This video was conceived a week before, shot from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM on Sunday, September 28, at the Prince David studio of Andre Yap, participated in by two Jesuits, current Ateneo athletes, and numerous sung and unsung alumni, directed and edited by Direk Yeyey Yatco, all gratis et amore.

As early as noon of October 1, a handful of Ateneo alumni volunteers gathered at Starbucks Araneta to get their instructions on how to distribute the free collector’s edition t-shirts commemorating the 75th anniversary of BETK, with the full lyrics of BETK on the back. Meanwhile, a Jesuit gave out October medals, while other alumni willingly chipped in whatever they could afford for the cost of the Malabon band hired by Junjun Capistrano to play BETK and other Ateneo songs forgotten at Loyola. Also, to ensure better cheering, Ateneo High School (AHS) Principal Gabby Mallilin sent over 250 high school students after an anonymous donor paid for the five buses they used. The Ateneo spirit shown by many unsung heroes that day was truly inspiring.

At the beginning of the game, BETK was played, as the older alumni stood up to sing along. Unfortunately, most of the younger Ateneans simply watched in bewilderment. At halftime, after our Blue Babble Battalion (BBB) did their exquisite numbers, Araneta’s overhead screens came to life with the showing of the BETK music video. The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Board had given its special approval for is extraordinary tribute, considering this was the very first time a locally-composed school song celebrated its 75th anniversary.

But why was there all this fuss over BETK in the first place? As a part-time faculty member of the John Gokongwei School of Management since 2007, I was surprised to discover that less than 10% of the students in all the classes I’ve handled knew what BETK was. It was shocking to know that only my students who came from the Ateneo Grade School (AGS) or AHS knew the song by heart and could still sing it. I still remember our Ateneo notebooks at AGS had a big “A” atop an eagle on the front cover, with the words of BETK on the back cover.

Intrigued, I began to ask fellow faculty members as to the reasons why BETK went into hibernation. Had they forgotten that this was composed in 1939 by our quintessential Atenean—the late Senator Raul S. Manglapus? Were they unaware that this was the very first school song composed in the Philippines, during the early days of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, while all the other local schools were borrowing songs from abroad? Did they not know that when BETK was first played, the bandleader was National Artist Lucio San Pedro, and the singer was the country’s foremost baritone Aurelio Estanislao?

So why was there this collective amnesia on BETK by the majority of current Ateneo college students and of perhaps the more recent vintage of younger alumni? Didn’t they know that we all got to be known collectively as the Blue Eagles mainly because of BETK?

The various explanations I got for this curious phenomenon ranged from the retirement of the school bandleader, Col. Jose Campaña, the opinion that BETK had too much hubris and that the school song was changed to the more elegant “A Song For Mary.” I find that those explanations as mere “excuses.” We can always get a new conductor or even merge the Ateneo Blue Symphony with BBB for the UAAP games. More importantly, BETK was meant to be a fighting song to exhort and rally our troops to battle, hence the seeming hubris. Finally, it was never an either/or proposition between BETK and “A Song for Mary,” since we can always have both.

After I had called the attention of Fr. Jett Villarin, SJ to resurrect BETK, since it resonates with most of the older alumni, he ordered the administration to play the song over the school sound system at the start of every Monday. Three years after, many of my students are now familiar with the BETK melody but continue to be unable to sing it. Older Blue Babble alumni, like Dick Gordon and Joey Leviste, have decided to grab the bull by the horns and attend the upcoming cheer rallies at the start of the year so they can help impart the age-old Ateneo traditions like the BETK. We also strongly suggest that the BETK music video be played at the start of all Ateneo assemblies, after the invocation and national anthem. The “A Song For Mary” can still be played or sung as our closing song.

What will happen to BETK will ultimately depend on you, the reader of this article. Already, this year’s Jubilarian classes have adopted “Fly High! Fly Home!” as their theme and will have special numbers to commemorate BETK’s 75th anniversary. Fly High Always, and One Big Fight!

Ramon L. Mayuga (AB EC ‘71) is a part-time faculty member of the Leadership & Strategy Department. He was a contributing writer for the Sports section of The GUIDON from 1967 to 1971.