2025 and then: Pat Boone’s alma mater remains an iconic Lipscomb tradition after 65 years

When Pat Boone first stepped onto the David Lipscomb High School campus in 1948, no one knew he would become one of America’s most recognized singers or the composer of Lipscomb’s signature alma mater. Years before the gold records and national fame, Boone was simply a well-rounded Lipscomb student with a strong voice and a drive to achieve.

That determination helped him grow into a notable singer and songwriter and later allowed him to create the alma mater that would become a defining tradition for the university. Today, it remains one of Lipscomb’s most recognizable pieces, sung at every graduation and woven into the identity of the school.

Boone actually has quite a history with Lipscomb. He attended David Lipscomb High School from 1948 to 1952. He was a standout student, serving as class president, leading the student body, singing in the chorus and glee club, excelling in athletics and earning the title of “Most Popular.”  After graduation, he went on to complete his freshman year of college at David Lipscomb College before his career took off.

As GrammyMuseum.com states, “In the years immediately prior to the British Invasion, only one performer rivaled the chart dominance of Elvis Presley, and that was Pat Boone. Boone was the very essence of wholesome American values. At a time when the rise of rock and roll was viewed as a sign of the apocalypse, he made the music appear safe and non-threatening, earning some 38 Top 40 hits in the process.”

He signed with Dot Records in 1955, and two years later he had three No. 1 songs: “Don’t Forbid Me,” “Love Letters in the Sand” and “April Love.” By 1957 he was also hosting his own television series on ABC – “The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom” – and appearing in two movies. In 1959 he starred in Journey to the Center of the Earth.

When Boone was a student, Lipscomb had gone 71 years without an official alma mater. Instead of an alma mater, students sang “Busy and Happy,” a song written by longtime Lipscomb music instructor Sam Pittman. (The catchphrase “Busy and happy at DLC,” by the way, would be a mantra of President Willard Collins in the 1970s and 1980s.) Around 1960, Lipscomb’s leadership hoped to have something more formal for occasions like graduation, and that’s when student body president Prentice Meador approached Pat Boone and asked if he would write a true alma mater for the school.

Pat Boone happily agreed to write Lipscomb’s alma mater along with his close friend and classmate Don Henley, “just a very good friend of Pat’s in high school,” said Patricia Boone, the wife of Nick Boone, Pat’s younger brother. The two friends wrote the first version of the song and then went through a careful review process before presenting it to Lipscomb officials.

In 2015, he described his writing process to Lipscomb’s student news outlet Lumination Network.

“I listened to some of the other college alma maters, and they’re impressive, and some are fight songs,” Boone told the outlet. “And based on my experience here, and knowing what Lipscomb is about, I felt it needed to have an anthem quality. It needed to have a spiritual quality, because that’s who we are. Not many colleges around this great United States can say that.”

The university required approval from four consecutive student bodies before confirming the decision, but after a couple of years of discussion, the Boone-Henley alma mater was officially adopted in the 1962-1963 school year.

The first version of the alma mater is quite different from the one sung at graduation today.

The original lyrics included the line “David Lipscomb, hail to thee,” reflecting the school’s former name. As the university evolved, so did the alma mater. In 2015, under President Randy Lowry, a new version of the song was released, updating several sections of the wording, including the change from “David Lipscomb” to “Lipscomb University” and other lyrical adjustments. The revisions aligned more closely with the university’s modern identity, but even with these updates, the alma mater carries the same heart and spirit found in Boone’s original version.

At Lowry’s invitation, Boone introduced the updated alma mater at the May 2015 commencement.

Even after years of fame, his family says Boone – who is 91 and lives in Southern California – remains the same confident, faithful man he was as a young student.

“He is the exact same all the time – comfortable, witty, very intelligent,” Patricia Boone said. She added that Boone has always cared deeply about fairness and supporting others, explaining that both Pat and his late wife Shirley “hated injustice and always wanted to fight for what is right.”

Sixty-five years after its composition, the Lipscomb alma mater remains one of Boone’s most lasting impacts on the school. It is still sung at every graduation ceremony as well as other major events on campus. And despite the updates, the heart of the song continues to echo the Lipscomb values Boone believed in. For many students, the song is simply a tradition performed at ceremonies, but for those who understand its history, it represents the story of a Lipscomb student whose talent helped shape a piece of the university’s identity.

“He hasn’t let success get to his head,” Patricia Boone said. “He always remained the same genuine man he has always been.”