Fight, fight ... for these Final Four school songs

If all those college-sports fight songs sound alike to you, well, it’s not just a matter of all the peppy brass. It’s a tradition built on borrowing.

If you sang “Boomer Sooner” at the University of Oklahoma, for example, the tune is the same as Yale’s “Boola Boola,” with an add-on from North Carolina’s “I’m a Tar Heel Born.”

Many universities have multiple fight songs — Yale has two penned by 1913 graduate Cole Porter — but there’s usually one official anthem.

This year’s Final Four in men’s basketball will feature two fight songs for the very first time, as South Carolina and Gonzaga make their debut appearances in the national semifinals — but only one can truly be called original.

To gear up for the big games, here’s a look at the Final Four fight songs.

North Carolina Tar Heels

“I’m a Tar Heel Bred,” the University of North Carolina fight song, is an addition to the school song (or “alma mater”), “Hark the Sound,” which was written in 1897 by pep club member William Starr Myers — and adapted from the H.S. Thompson folk tune “Annie Lisle,” the template for dozens of such anthems.

UNC has added several fight songs to the repertoire through the years, but here are the lyrics (easier to memorize than most) to the big one: I’m a Tar Heel born I’m a Tar Heel bred And when I die I’m a Tar Heel dead. So it’s rah, rah, Car’lina ’lina Rah, rah, Car’lina ’lina Rah, rah, Car’lina Rah! Rah! Rah!

South Carolina Gamecocks

“Carolina Let Your Voices Ring” still gets played, but it was replaced as the official fight song of the University of South Carolina in 1968 after football coach Paul Dietzel heard the band play an arrangement of “Step to the Rear,” from the Broadway musical “How Now, Dow Jones.” So he wrote some fresh lyrics, and the result was “The Fighting Gamecocks Lead the Way”: Hey, let’s give a cheer, Carolina is here The Fighting Gamecocks lead the way Who gives a care if the going gets tough

And when it is rough, that’s when the ’Cocks get going Hail to our colors of garnet and black In Carolina pride have we So, go Gamecocks go — FIGHT! Drive for the goal — FIGHT! USC will win today — GO ’COCKS! So, let’s give a cheer, Carolina is here The Fighting Gamecocks all the way!

Gonzaga Bulldogs

For years, Gonzaga University (like many other schools) borrowed the “Washington and Lee Swing” (from Washington and Lee University) to pump up fans, but in 2010 it introduced its first official fight song, “Go Gonzaga!”

Pep band leader David Fague, a 2000 alum, had actually already composed the tune while hiking in the Grand Tetons.

“On long all-day hikes, you don’t really have much to think about, so I thought — maybe I’ll think of a fight song,” he told Spokane radio station KXLY.

It’s a peppy number that could have been written decades before, but it has a jazzy swing that makes it sound a bit like a show tune. For the lyrics, Fague tapped recent English grad Kevin Laxar. Gonzaga Bulldogs, rally and fight! With heart and hustle, triumph tonight Defend the Kennel with all your might Bringing glory to our alma mater Mighty Bulldogs, answer the call And champions we will be! With Jesuit pride Defend the true blue and white Fight on to Victory! G... O ... N ... Z-A-G-A! G... O ... N ... Z-A-G-A! Go! Gonzaga! G-O-N-Z-A-G-A! Go! Gonzaga! G-O-N-Z-A-G-A! Go! Gonzaga! G-O-N-Z-A-G-A! Go! Gonzaga! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Oregon Ducks

University of Oregon band director Albert John Perfect — a Swedish immigrant who had recently moved from North Dakota — borrowed harmonies from the World War I song “It’s a Long Way from Tipperary” to compose “The Mighty Oregon March” in 1916, with lyrics by a journalism student, DeWitt Gilbert, according to the student newspaper, the Daily Emerald.

Only the second verse, updated through the years, is now sung as “Mighty Oregon”: Oregon, our alma mater We will guard thee on and on Let us gather ’round and cheer her Chant her glory, Oregon! Roar the praises of her warriors Sing the story, Oregon On to vict’ry urge the heroes Of our mighty Oregon! Go Ducks go! Fight Ducks fight! Go! Fight! Win Ducks win!