Fight Song

Jack D. Martz Sr., a piano and organ player, a retired Baltimore County schools vocal music teacher and composer of the Baltimore Clippers ice hockey team's fight song, died of heart disease July 4 at his Timonium home. He was 83. Born in Altoona, Pa., he was an Altoona Mirror photographer before enlisting in the Army in 1942 and serving as Gen. George S. Patton Jr.'s personal photographer in the Rhineland and the Ardennes during World War II. After the war, he moved to Baltimore to use his GI Bill benefits to enroll at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and the Johns Hopkins University, where he earned degrees.

"OUR RECORDS may not be the longest, but our spirit is ever the strongest " So goes the fight song for Baltimore's Forest Park High School. Never were those words truer than over the weekend, when the Forester basketball team capped a Cinderella performance by winning the state's Class 1A championship.Not bad for a team that went 2-15 in the regular season against such city powerhouses as City, Douglass and Dunbar. The Foresters kept the games close; they just didn't have the manpower to compete against bigger schools.

University of Missouri administrators have apologized to the U.S. Naval Academy for what appears to have been a misunderstanding during band performances at the Texas Bowl game last week. The school's marching band has been taking heat on blogs and online news forums for continuing to play the MU fight song as the Naval Academy band began to play its "Blue and Gold" anthem. A Facebook page dedicated to the Texas Bowl also is laced with comments from people saying Missouri should "be ashamed."

In theory, this was the kind of night the Ravens have dreamed about during the off season. When their offense is on, and everything is clicking, there is no easy way to shut down the Ravens. In a strong first half performance played by the starters, the Ravens displayed a strong passing game as they threw for 243 yards and two touchdowns in a final tune up for the regular season. In the first two quarters, quarterback Joe Flacco completed 20 of 32 passes for 220 yards, and ended the night by completing 21 of 34 for 229 yards.

Thanks to a brief article published in The Sun several weeks ago, I found out about and attended a wonderful reunion of the Baltimore Colts on March 6 at Martin's West. Former Colts Bruce Laird, Lydell Mitchell and their helpers organized a reunion of the 1975-77 Colts that formed one of the most exciting teams we've ever had. Led by Bert Jones, they won their division three years in a row and created a fever that lasts to this day. More than 600 fans and guests attended the bull and oyster roast, sang the Colts fight song, lined up for autographs and reveled in the highlights projected on giant screens.

WASHINGTON - The Maryland Terrapins have been inundated with congratulations since winning the university's first NCAA men's basketball championship seven weeks ago, yet nothing could top the salute they relished yesterday. After greeting them as "the mighty Terps of Maryland" during a 10-minute ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, President Bush gave his thumbs-up to college basketball's kings. The president also welcomed four collegiate champions, including the undefeated Connecticut women's basketball squad and the men's and women's hockey teams from the University of Minnesota.

Dragon Boats The lowdown -- If you sight 40-foot boats shaped like dragons in the Inner Harbor on Saturday, don't worry. You aren't hallucinating. From 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., a number of 22-member teams representing area corporations will take to the water for the fifth biennial Dragon Boat Races, which benefit Catholic Charities. Teams take part in elimination heats, hoping to win the big prize, the Dragon Cup, but teams will also be honored for best fight song, best team tent decoration and more.

Many who want to see Baltimore back in the National Football League are looking at the situation backward.They seem to believe the primary consideration is which group will get the franchise -- Ed Hale's? Bart Starr's? Al Lerner's?Walt Gutowski, who has been brought aboard by the Maryland Stadium Authority to work full-time in obtaining the franchise, reminds us that it is the city that is awarded the team, not an owner."When the NFL evaluates expansion," says Gutowski, a onetime PR man for the Baltimore Colts, "it'll go by the city, not the owner."

It's probably a little too early to tell who will arrive on the scene as the new Hurst C. "Loudy" Loudenslager, who was, from 1947 until they left town in 1984, the Colts' No. 1 fan.Gifted with a wide smile reminiscent of the late comic actor Joe E. Brown, the Baltimore Highlands resident filled his club cellar with Colts memorabilia that ranged from autographed pictures to shoes and from jerseys and helmets to splinters from goal posts.Footballs were carefully displayed on shelves, and on the walls hung framed front pages from The Sun and News American that chronicled the team's golden years, when Memorial Stadium was known as "the world's largest outdoor asylum."

Winifred Elizabeth Davis, a Baltimore organist and accompanist who was a fixture on early 1950s radio and television variety shows and for years kept Civic Center sports fans charged up at Baltimore Clippers ice hockeygames, died of complications from surgery May 11 at St. Joseph Medical Center. She was 89. Mrs. Davis, who performed under the stage name of Win McDonnell, was born Winifred E. Williams in Spearfish, S.D., the daughter of a cattle and sheep rancher. She was raised in the wilds of the Black Hills of the Dakotas, and spent her summers in a small town 60 miles from a railhead, where the mail arrived twice a week and she had few playmates.