In welcoming guests, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, listed some of the many joys of the season: greenery, greetings, angels, singing—and tourists.

“I know, I know, they don’t know where they’re going, they clog the sidewalks, they walk too slow, and they stop you when you’re at a sprint to catch a train, to ask for directions,” he said. “But I love tourists. You may say, why? … Why did God create tourists? The answer is a simple and very important one: Someone had to pay full price.”

More seriously, he noted that we should all appreciate tourists because “they see a New York Christmas with new and open eyes.”

Christmas Customs

New York does Christmas like no place else, Father McShane said. But it’s not just the city’s traditions that we celebrate at the start of the season, he said, it’s our personal holiday rituals as well.

He talked about his own family’s “great McShane Christmas custom,” in which he and his three brothers piled into their 1948 Pontiac when his father drove their uncle home to midtown Manhattan.

On the way back to their home in Marble Hill, they would drive by what his father thought was “the greatest hidden Christmas treasure in the city of New York,” the Star of Bethlehem that sat atop the tallest building of the Fordham Hill apartment complex.

“It just presided over the whole city in a very special way,” he said. “It is as steady as love itself.”

“When I look at it, it reminds me of that first love that set fire to the stars,” he said, recalling a line from Dylan Thomas. “It reminds me of the first love that we celebrate at this time of year.”

‘Be the Light’

Father McShane let all guests know that they would be receiving an ornament shaped like a Moravian star—a representation of the Star of Bethlehem.

Part of Fordham’s mission, he said, is to be a “source of light in darkness.” He told guests that he hopes when they look at the ornament, they will be reminded of their own responsibility and mission:

“Be light in the world. Be the light that people’s eyes seek in times of uneasiness, in times of sorrow, in times of fear. Be the light. Be the star.”

The evening drew some 800 alumni, both recent and longstanding, to the Koch Theatre.

“I enjoy coming back and seeing people that I knew from a hundred years ago–almost,” said Frank Scharf, Law ’53, who met his wife Muriel Kilkenny Scharf, UGE ’52, when they were students at Fordham’s downtown campus at 302 Broadway.

In announcing the lyric change, Father McShane noted the University’s female student majority (53 percent of undergraduates) reflects a national trend in higher education. The announcement left some of old-time Rams in attendance visibly bemused, as Father McShane encouraged an impromptu a cappellaversion of the song.

For others, it was “cathartic.”

“We’ve been waiting many, many years for this,” said Antoinette Freeman GSB’03.

John Ignatius Covney, FCRH’06, is often credited with giving the university its Ram identity when he wrote the tune in 1905. He later penned another fight song for a team in Boston called the Red Sox. He died shortly thereafter of typhoid fever.

The announcement was folded into a celebratory speech recognizing University achievements over the last year, as well as the importance of alumni support. Father McShane described a very colorful Thanksgiving week, which included not only “black Friday,” but a Saturday that was “maroon on steroids”—his reference to the football team’s 37-27 victory against Sacred Heart in the NCAA FCS playoffs.

He also ticked off several of the year’s academic home runs, including: a freshman class with the highest SAT scores in University history, solid rankings in U.S. News & World Report and other outlets, and 12 Fulbright scholarships.

Giving a nod to significant developments on the fundraising front, Father McShane recognized the “great generosity”  of Maurice “Mo” Cunniffe, FCRH ’54, whose gift has rechristened the Administration Building as Cunniffe House. With the $250-million Law School building nearing completion just a stone’s throw from the gathering, Father McShane assured the crowd that there are plenty of campus venues “just waiting for a name.”

But it was the rewording of the Rams fight song that drew the most animated response from the crowd, particularly among couples who met on campus, like Patrick Jordan FCRH ’02, who holds season football tickets with his wife, Stephanie Jordan, GSB’03.

“I have nooooo problem with it,” he said, locking eyes with his wife.

“It’s gonna take some getting used to,” admitted Stephanie Jordan. “I made a mistake on the second verse, but give me a couple of games, I’ll get it.”

“I think it should be ‘hail men of Fordham,’ and I’m a woman,” said Pat Tolan, whose son, daughter, and husband all attended the University.

Her husband, Jim Tolan GSB ’59, LAW ’62, echoed several of the more tradition-bound Rams interviewed, but ultimately concluded that it was “appropriate.”

Some noted in fun, however, that a ram is a male sheep.

“Your not gonna make the female athletes the Ewes,” said Mary Wachowicz, GSB ’10. “They’re still the Rams.”

It was an issue that Father McShane tackled head on, noting that ewes sounded too much like “youse,” as in “youse guys”—which sounded too much like Brooklyn for a Bronx-based team.