‘Fly, Eagles Fly’: A short history of the Eagles’ fight song

Other NFL teams have their own version of a fight song to rally their fans together for a big game — from the Buffalo Bills’ “Shout” to the Chicago Bears’ “Bear Down, Chicago Bears.” But let’s be honest, none compares to “Fly, Eagles Fly,” a song that fans have been hearing quite a lot of lately, with the team coming off a 14-3 season and preparing to compete in Super Bowl LIX.

If you still don’t know the lyrics behind the Eagles’ victory song, it’s time to start learning — it’s short and easy to remember. And if you don’t know the history behind the song that plays after every Birds’ touchdown, don’t worry. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the Eagles’ Super Bowl rematch against the Chiefs …

Before there was the short and sweet “Fly, Eagles Fly” fight song that we know today, there was a nearly five-minute version that went “Fight, Eagles Fight,” which is still part of the revamped song fans sing today.

The five-minute song was created in the 1950s by Philadelphia ad men Charles J. Borrelli and Roger Courtland. In the 1960s, the song was performed by the Eagles’ Sound of Brass, a 200-member marching band, before losing the approval of Eagles fans in the 1980s.

In the 1990s, Eagles fan Bobby Mansure helped create the fight song that lives on today — “Fly, Eagles Fly” — by reworking the former 1950s version that the Eagles played before games at Connie Mack Stadium. Mansure met Brian Saunders, and the two Mummers formed a band known as The Fly Guys. It consisted of Mansure as the lead saxophone player, Saunders on the tenor sax, and Anthony DiMeo on the banjo.

Together, the group would breathe new life into the future anthem of the Eagles.

In 1996, the Eagles hired them to work the parking lots before games and help pump up the crowd. In search of an Eagles-themed song to play for fans, they came across the original version of “The Eagles Victory Song.” The guys decided to up the tempo and coined a new phrase, “Fly, Eagles Fly,” which wasn’t featured in the original song.

Soon, they were infiltrating tailgates to teach fans the new fight song.

“We handed out pieces of paper to every tailgate we went to,” Mansure told the Inquirer’s Matt Breen last year. “We sold it to the parking lots. Instead of parading through, we stopped at tailgates and talked to people. We got phone numbers. We just connected with people and soon they were like, ‘Can you show up to our tailgate?’”

Eventually, The Fly Guys — now the Eagles’ official pep band — and their revamped fight song became so popular that the team started playing it on the stadium speakers after each touchdown. That tradition continues today, and the song has also become part of the team’s pregame festivities before the national anthem.

» READ MORE: Fly, Eagles Fly: How two Mummers gave Philadelphia an anthem

In order to complete the song, the group decided to add a chant at the end, the now familiar “E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!” chant, which can be heard from the streets of Philadelphia to Philly-themed sports bars in Tokyo. They invited friends into Saunders’ home studio to make it sound like a crowded stadium, and an anthem was born.

“Before that, you were getting more of the ‘Give me an E, give me an A,’ that kind of thing,” Saunders told Breen. “It’s certainly not what it is now. When you have the right amount of syllables and the word ‘Eagles,’ things sometimes just fall together perfectly. Like it belonged there. There was no other way you could end the song. You had to have an ending.”

Be sure to check out Breen’s full story on the origin of the fight song, here.

In case you need a refresher, here are the full lyrics to “Fly, Eagles Fly” as well as a video of fans singing the song.

Fly, Eagles fly!

On the road to victory! (Fight! Fight! Fight!)

Fight, Eagles fight!

Score a touchdown 1, 2, 3! (1! 2! 3!)

Hit ‘em low!

Hit ‘em high!

And watch our Eagles fly!

Fly, Eagles fly!

On the road to victory!

E-A-G-L-E-S! Eagles!