Traditions

Joseph Carl Breil, class of 1888, might be remembered musically as the composer of the scores for D.W. Griffith's super-spectacles "Birth of a Nation" and "Intolerance" and for the theme to the Amos and Andy Radio Show, but he might not be remembered for Duquesne's Alma Mater. The words were written by Father John Malloy, class of 1904, who also designed the university coat-of-arms:

Alma Mater, old Duquesne,
guide and friend of our youthful days,
we, thy sons and daughters all,
our loyal voices raise.
The hours we spent at thy Mother knee
and drank of wisdom's store,
shall e'er in mem'ry treasured be,
tho' we roam the whole world o'er,
Then forward ever, dear Alma Mater!
All hail to thee, Duquesne!