How the state adopted ‘On, Wisconsin!’ — 50 years after the Badgers did

In 1948, in time for Wisconsin’s centennial, Raymond Dvorak, the director of the University of Wisconsin band, composed a theme song for the Century of Progress Cavalcade, a pageant traveling the state. “Forward! One and All!” was adapted from a Haydn melody, The Journal reported on April 16, 1948, with the idea it would become the state song.