Cheer, cheer for those beloved colleges

“Boola, Boola. Boola Boola. When we rough house poor old hahvahd.” That’s the Yale fight song – one of the iconic spirt-rallying ditties ever to pervade college life. It’s been around since 1901.

Other fight songs like it will be heard across the country in upcoming weeks, as the college football season gets underway.

Although the tune is borrowed from Yale, Oklahoma’s drum-heavy “Boomer Sooner” is the pride of Sooner State.

The millions of Notre Dame faithful will be singing, “Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame.”

In Tennessee they will be blasting the upbeat strains of “Old Rocky Top.”

Badger fans will be proudly singing, “On Wisconsin. On Wisconsin. Plunge right through that line.”

In Annapolis the fans of the Naval Academy will stand at attention for “Anchors Aweigh.”

And, of course, in Happy Valley, there is no real need for a fight song as the crowds consistently chant, “We are … Penn State.”

Locally, I would be burned at the stake if I didn’t mention, “V for Villanova. V for Victory. B for Blue and W for White. For the Blue and the White we will fight, fight, fight.”

Or, at Temple, they “Fight, fight, fight for the Cherry and the White.”

But, it’s easy to show off some school spirit during football season. Especially if your favorite team is enjoying some success.

But … during the rest of the year?

Just how much do you love your college?

When you think back to those undergraduate days, do you have fond memories of your friends, your professors, the sports teams, the parties?

But, when national surveyors try to measure which colleges and universities hold a more deep-seated affection from their alumni, they use different standards.

Do you have such a good feeling about the school that you still get involved in alumni activities? Do you still support the sports teams? Do you reach into your wallet and donate to the alumni fund?

These are the questions asked by the surveyors – especially those at Forbes Magazine. They recently have published their 2017 Grateful Grads Index: Top 200 Best Loved Colleges.

It measures the schools in terms of a number of categories: 10-Year Median Donations per Student, 3-year Average Alumni Participation and a combined Grateful Grad Index Value.

Forbes’ Managing Editor of Investing Matt Schifrin coordinated the analysis. He is quick

to point out that the most common way to measure the success of a college is to quantify the number of students securing meaningful employment immediately after graduation, then review average salaries. Of course, that can be skewed by schools that cater to hot employment trends.

But there is more to a successful college experience than immediate financial gratification. According to Schifrin, “Great colleges produce happy and successful alumni – who give back in droves. They stay connected at more than just tailgate parties.

Many of the schools on the Top 200 Best Loved List are quite predictable.

Princeton comes in at No. 2. Notre Dame is No. 8. Duke is No. 9. Stanford – 13. Yale – 14.

However, the list is loaded with a number of schools – especially small schools – that stand right next to the vaunted names.

There are more than 1,400 4-year colleges in America and it is gratifying to see that quite a number from the Greater Philadelphia region made the Top 200.

Haverford College is the top local at No. 11. University of Pennsylvania comes in a No. 20.

The rest on the list are Bryn Mawr (22), Swarthmore (24), Lafayette (47), Lehigh (95), Ursinus (107) and Villanova (180).

Quite obvious is the fact that none of the large state schools are represented. They just don’t have the warm and fuzzy feeling of the small schools. But that certainly does not mean they are inferior.

On the flip side, some of the more obscure schools in the country got a lot of love. Bowdoin College, Claremont McKenna, Carleton College plus, one of the great names, Skidmore College.

And, if your school does not appear on the list … maybe it is because of that mean professor who seemed to delight in handing out failing grades to so many students. Or it is because the food in the campus cafeteria resembled a lab experiment. Or you didn’t find that perfect spouse.

Any of those factors can make it a bit difficult to give the old alma mater a little bit of love.

Ooops, almost forgot.

The most-loved of all of America’s 1,400 colleges? You might not get it on your first 100 guesses.

Dartmouth.

Tony Leodora is president of TL Golf Services, host of the weekly GolfTalk Live radio show on WNTP 990-AM and host of the Traveling Golfer television show — as well as editor of GolfStyles magazine. He is former sports editor of The Times Herald. Send comments to tlgolfservices@aol.com.