Murphy Center was an array of Greek letters and neon colors Thursday evening as Fraternity and Sorority Life held its annual fight song event.
At the start of every academic year, National Panhellenic Conference and National Panhellenic Council organizations partner together to showcase their talents as they reimagine MTSU’s fight song. Each performance contains references to the year’s homecoming theme. This year, Fight Song performances were centered around the Boro Bound Road Trip.
Fight Song is one of the only collaborations between all of MTSU’s Greek life, bringing together Panhellenic fraternities and sororities with historically African American fraternities and sororities.
“My favorite part of Fight Song is just seeing how each of the teams takes their creativity and rolls with it,” Sydney Barnett, one of the emcees of Fight Song and the MTSU Homecoming Director, said. “It’s how they put their own personal twists on it, and you can really see each personality of all of the performers in different groups.”
This year, Barnett and Devin McClendon were the hosts of Fight Song. McClendon is MTSU’s 2025-2026 Event Director, and Barnett is this year’s Homecoming Director. The two took the stage in their best Elvis Presley costumes, honoring his famous past performances at Murphy Center.
Fight Song splits NPHC and NPC fraternities and sororities into five teams. This year, Team Five won, composed of Kappa Delta, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Beta Sigma. Their performance focused on a fictional road trip to Atlanta, featuring remixes of MTSU’s fight song to popular rap and hip hop.
Evan Shipp, who was a member of the winning team, incorporated his fraternity’s signature Stroll into the performance. A Stroll is a staple in Black Greek life, incorporating cultural and personal expression with the history of the Divine Nine NPHC organizations.
“We practiced every day, every week,” Shipp said.
Some fraternities and sororities began rehearsals for their fight song performances as early as the beginning of July, said Danae Toliver, a junior participant in Fight Song.
“I’m really big on Greek unity across the board,” Toliver said. “The best part [of Fight Song] is participating with all of the other organizations.”
Murphy Center was divided by the fraternities and sororities partnered together. Alpha Omicron Pi’s neon pink and red crowded one corner of Murphy Center, but slowly bled into Alpha Delta Pi’s signature baby blue. Beside them, Chi Omega danced with red and yellow flags, rooting for their members, and Kappa Delta screamed as they won Fight Song, waving green and white flags and signs.
While Team Five won for their Atlanta road trip, there was no absence of creativity from other teams. Team Two focused on race car driving as their theme, Team One turned Murphy Center into New York City and Team Six took students to Miami. Team Six’s Miami trip performance included a special guest, too, as students were saved from their “broken-down car” by Pitbull.
The crowd roared through each performance, but the audience members associated with each Greek organization made sure their voices were heard through the commotion. Greek chants echoed through the arena as organizations took the stage. When Team Five won, members of the affiliated fraternities tore their shirts off in the stands.
“It’s an amazing experience to see people from both councils come and mix in and mingle with each other,” McClendon said. “[Them] being on a team together, getting to know each other, it’s just so amazing, and it was beautiful.”
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