Welcome the summer with classic fight songs from the local middle school

It’s the last day of school at Rose Hill Junior High, now better known as Rose Hill Middle School. Summer is just around the corner and some of us are feeling nostalgic and thinking about… junior high?

The Lake Washington School District’s educational facility for tweens and teens opened in 1969 on the namesake Rose Hill, about halfway between Kirkland and Redmond. The original building has been replaced in recent years and the name has been updated as well. Still, the quality of the school’s original fight song inspired the team at All Over The Map to seek out a recording and then search the rest of the Puget Sound region for other memorable middle and high school fight songs.

In May, KIRO Newsradio, with the help of Rose Hill alumnus Bill Wixey of FOX 13, launched the Junior High – Middle School Fight Song Challenge. Three brave community members took the time to record the songs they remembered so they could be shared with KIRO Newsradio listeners and preserved for posterity.

Included audio entries:

Julie sings the Chinook Junior High Braves fight song

Robin sings the Highland Junior High Eagles fight song

*David sings the Central Kitsap Cubs fight song

NOTE: *David is Seattle’s Morning News producer/director David Burbank; his courageous work inspired our legitimate contestants!

Our only video contribution came from Stacey and a group of alumni representing the Edmonds Junior High Trojans, and it’s awesome!

Special thanks to Bill Wixey and David Burbank for their invaluable support in the first – and probably last – annual KIRO Newsradio Junior High – Middle School Fight Song Challenge. A very special thanks to Angie Laulainen, Rose Hill Middle School band director, for leading the band and re-recording the Rose Hill Fight Song. Go Royals! Hear the roar of the lion!

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks Here and subscribe to the Resident Historian Podcast Here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, Email to Felik

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