Who Knew?

by Eileen Gilligan

Q. Where does our school song, “Varsity,” come from and why does everyone wave at the end?

A. A UW–Madison music instructor, Henry Dyke Sleeper, arranged the music (composed by Gounod, who also composed the opera “Faust”), wrote the lyrics and published the hymn just over 100 years ago. It was then known as “Toast to Wisconsin” or “Varsity Toast,” and through the years has been shortened to “Varsity,” according to Robert Gard, a former UW professor who wrote the book, “University Madison U.S.A.”

It actually can be shouted as a cheer, notes Art Hove, another UW historian. (The “U rah rah! Wisconsin!” makes a lot of sense as a cheer, too.) The wave came courtesy of longtime band director Ray Dvorak, now retired. He witnessed a University of Pennsylvania crowd waving their hats as they sung their alma mater after a particularly painful defeat to the University of Illinois’ football team. Then an assistant to Illinois’ band director, Dvorak said he took the idea and “stuck it in my back pocket.”

In 1934 at Madison, Dvorak cued the students to wave their hats during the end of “Varsity” after a speech by then-President Glenn Frank. And the wave caught on.

By the way, “varsity” actually means “university.” According to Gard’s book, “It comes from the English pronunciation of ‘Uni-varsity.'” Check your dictionaries.

Q. What does the university’s official seal mean?

A. Well, no one knows for sure.

According to Art Hove, retired historian extraordinaire, the president who commissioned the seal never explained what its parts meant. Shortly after taking the job in 1849, John H. Lathrop was ordered by the Regents to create a university seal. While they waited, the American eagle side of the quarter was designated the official corporate seal.

In 1854, the Regents adopted its own seal. But Lathrop never explained what the seal meant: specifically the eye and the rays.

Much debate has ensued in the last 145 years about it, according to Hove’s book, “The University of Wisconsin: A Pictorial History.”

One theory is that the eye represents a Roman god, Hove says. But the rays? “Everywhere in the universe there’s a manifestation of some spirit. From those spirits around us, we derive the light which we call knowledge,” he adds.

The phrase “Numen Lumen,” which sounds like it could have been uttered by Jerry Seinfeld on his TV sitcom, literally means god, our light, Hove says.

Send your question to Who Knew? c/o Wisconsin Week, 19 Bascom Hall; or e-mail: wisweek@news.wisc.edu.