The popular fight song of the Philadelphia Eagles – “Fly, Eagles, Fly” – that has been belted out by the team’s fans for more than a half-century was arranged by Arlen Saylor Sr., a West Chester University graduate, writes Dennis Weller for the Reading Eagle.
Saylor, who passed away at the age of 86 in 2015, was a cornet soloist with the U.S. Army Band in Washington, D.C., for three years. Soon after, he started building Boyertown High School’s marching band into an award-winning ensemble that made it onto the Eagles’ radar.
During the summer of 1966, Bill Mullen, entertainment director for the Eagles, told Saylor that the team wanted to expand its marching band – the Sound of Brass – and grow it into a big marching unit.
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Saylor took on the challenge and soon transformed the Sound of Brass into a 220-member unit with a 110-piece band, color guard unit, twirling corps, and a dance corps.
At the same time, he worked on a song written in the 1950s by Charles Borrelli and Roger Courtland and arranged it into the hit it is today.
Read more about the song’s origins in the Reading Eagle here.
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