Previously, the song "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" was perceived as the school's fight song. "The Victors" was composed by UM student Louis Elbel in 1898 following the last-minute victory over the University of Chicago that clinched a Western Conference championship on Thanksgiving at Chicago's Stagg Field. Singing "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" after the game, Elbel felt the event should be "dignified by something more elevating for this was no ordinary victory." Elbel wrote the song on the train ride back to Ann Arbor. He copyrighted the tune in early 1899. Elbel and a student orchestra played the first public performance on April 5, 1899 during "A Night Off" on-campus undergraduate musical with the audience requesting an encore. Elbel had the words arranged and approached John Philip Sousa. Officially, the University held that the song was first performed in public on April 8, 1899 by Sousa and his band. Sousa is said to have called "The Victors" "the greatest college fight song ever written".