South Hamilton School Song Sung to the trio of the Great Plains March by J. J. Richards
	Sing all together now, We're from South High, And we'll be proud 'til the day we die. Hail red and white As we hold our banners high. (Fight! Fight! Fight!) Fight on, South High! Oh, hear our battle cry. As we fight through the night, we will bring home a victory. Hear South Hamilton's School Song (mpg) See and hear the entire Great Plains March (mpg)

The Great Plains March has always been a special favorite of mine, says Max Whitlock, former South Hamilton Band Director.   It was the first march I played as a member of my high school band.  The trio of the march always seemed to me to be a good tune for a high school fight song.  I taught at Clearfield, but they didn't want to use it and Paton preferred their own old song.   When I came to Jewell, they didn't want anything new either; most schools used the Notre Dame fight song or On Wisconsin.  I was patient, and then when South Hamilton came into being I suggested this to the student body, and it was adopted.

The composer, J. J. Richards, was born in Wales and emigrated to America as a small child.   He soon entered into a musical career by playing in a town band at the age of ten.   During World War I he instructed in an Army Band School, after which he spent some years conducting concert bands in Florida and the Midwest.  During the next two decades he alternated between the educational field and the Big Top, including ten seasons with Barnum and Bailey and the Ringling Brothers Circuses.   Then came five years as director of the Long Beach Municipal Band.  Mr. Richards passed away March 16, 1956 at Long Beach, California.   (Learn more. . . . . .)