The Tabernacle Choir Blog

Mormon Tabernacle Choir Sings the University of Utah Fight Song on ESPN's College GameDay

Beloved sports icon, the late Yogi Berra once said, “It’s like déjà vu, all over again.”
Three weeks ago, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was featured singing Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus on ESPN’s College GameDay in honor of the two back-to-back, game winning Hail Mary passes from BYU freshman Tanner Mangum (See previous story). What a difference three weeks can make! Now another ESPN appearance for the Choir but the team and the music are different. This time the team is the University of Utah Utes and music the Choir sang is the U's fight song, “Utah Man.”

College GameDay was in Salt Lake City, Utah broadcasting live from the University of Utah campus on Saturday, October 10, 2015 as the Utes prepared to take on the California Golden Bears. 

In speaking about the previous ESPN appearance, the Choir’s general manager Scott Barrick said, “It was very well received on ESPN, and they got lots of favorable comments on it. So then when ESPN was coming to Salt Lake City for 'GameDay' this week, they thought, ‘Oh, here’s another chance for us to be with the Choir on home turf,' and they asked if we would be willing to sing the Utah fight song and let them record it in the Tabernacle."

It’s not the first time the 360-member Choir has sung “Utah Man.” In fact, the Choir included the fight song on its 1978 album, Hail to the Victors, along with many other popular collegiate fight songs such as Harvard, Yale and Notre Dame. The out-of-print album can still be found online with a little luck.

So how did the Choir feel about singing “Utah Man?” "The irony of it was that there are more BYU alumni in the loft than University of Utah. The University of Utah people were very, very pleased, and the BYU people were good sports,” said Barrick.

To quote another famous song among Utahans, “All is well, all is well.

Watch the Choir sing "Utah Man," with behind the scenes footage of ESPN College GameDay.