Controversy arose over whether or not Elbel swiped the song. In 1983, U-M Marching Band alumnus George Anderson found that the song's trio was nearly the same as "The Spirit of Liberty March", which was copyrighted in 1898. Jim Henriksen, another band alumnus, wrote "The Authorship of The Victors March" paper covering the various theories about the similarities indicating that none would be proved to be true. U-M Band Alumni past president Joseph Dobos considered Elbel the only author, which received support from Bill Studwell, author of "College Fight Songs: An Annotated Anthology", as many composers borrowed from each other. Dobos also wrote the "Did Louis Elbel Write The Victors?" essay for the Band Alumni publication "M-Fanfare" fall 2007 issue indicating that Victors was more "tightly composed" than "Spirit" and was a "circus" march while "Spirit" was a "two-step".