Songbook of UR songs were published in the first decades of the 1900s. Digitized copies of these may be downloaded as pdfs.

• Songs of the University of Rochester (1908) (pdf)
• Rochester Song Book (1910) (pdf)
• Songs of the University of Rochester (1916) (pdf)
• Songs of Our Alma Mater (1916) (pdf)
• University of Rochester Songs (1945) (pdf)
• Songs, U. of R. (1927) (pdf)

The Genesee 
The Dandelion Yellow 

 

The Genesee

Words by T. T. Swinburne '92 
Old melody arranged by Herve D. Wilkins, '66

Full many fair and famous streams 
Beneath the sun there be, 
Yet more to us than any seems 
Our own dear Genesee. 
We love her banks and stately falls, 
For to our minds they bring 
Our dear old alma mater's halls 
Where sweetest memories cling. 

No castled crags along her way 
Romantic splendors cast; 
No fabled or historic lay 
Recalls the golden past. 
But more than battlemented walls, 
Or legends they may bear, 
Are alma mater's vine-clad halls 
And memories lingering there. 

As flows the river gathering force, 
Along her steadfast way, 
May we along life's devious course 
Grow stronger day by day. 
And may our hearts, where'er we roam, 
Forever loyal be 
To our beloved college home 
Beside the Genesee. 

* Traditionally only the first and third verses are sung at University functions.
 

The Dandelion Yellow

Words by Richard L. Greene '25, Music by Charles F. Cole, '25
 

O, Azariah Boody's cows were sleek and noble kine
They wandered o'er verdant fields where grew the dandelion.
And when they drove the cows away 
To build a home for knowledge 
They took the color from the flow'r
And gave it to the college.

(Chorus) 
O, the dandelion yellow 
'Tis a color rich and mellow 
Accorded love and loyalty 
by many a gallant fellow.
O, let Harvard have her crimson
And old Eli's sons the blue
To the dandelion yellow we will e'er be true.

The cows of Deacon Boody roam the happy hunting ground 
But dandelions flourish still as springtime comes around 
Their golden glow thru-out the land is known and hail'd afar 
As the bright and glorious emblem of the good old U of R. 

In later years, when the River Campus was completed for the College for Men, another stanza was added, informally:

First they took the cows away 
To build a home for knowledge 
And now they take the boys away 
For a better women's college.