TThe College Football Playoff National Championship Game will be played this Monday, January 9. between the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs and the Georgia Bulldogs at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, site of the last NFL Super Bowl. And to make the event even more memorable, a legendary film composer has written a theme song that will premiere that evening.
The song, titled “Of Grit and Glory”, is three and a half minutes long and was commissioned by ESPN, which will broadcast the game, from legendary film composer John Williams.
This is Williams’ first time writing for college sports
A teaser of the song will premiere this Saturday on ESPN broadcasts of NFL games between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders, and the highlight of the evening between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tennessee Titans.
The theme “Of Courage and Glory” will be featured in full on ESPN during the college championship telecastand as ESPN co-director and producer Martin Khodabakhshian explained to Variety, this reflects “the feeling behind the night, the fear and anticipation, the triumph and failure.”
John Williams, who is the living person with the most Academy Award nominations and whose most memorable works include music for films such as Star Wars, Superman, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park and ETtold Variety:
“Intercollegiate football has been the heart and soul of our country’s life for so long. that the opportunity to musically salute this great tradition was a particularly significant joy for me. I was over the moon and excited when ESPN contacted me to write a theme song for the championship game on January 9.”
“The games themselves always elevate the collective spirit and, ultimately, competition brings us all closer to a place where the concept of winners and losers dissolves into mutual respect and admiration. The invitation to write this music is a great honor for me, and I feel particularly privileged to make a small contribution to one of our country’s most cherished traditions. »
“There is no better person on the planet than John Williams to write about emotions and everything that happens in the biggest night on ESPN’s biggest stage, our Super Bowl“, says Khodabakhshian.
Williams made history with iconic sports themes
At almost 91 years old, John Williams wrote the theme song for four Olympic Games (Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988, Atlanta 1996 and Salt Lake City 2002)as well as the theme song “Wide Receiver” for NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
He also wrote the music for Kobe Bryant’s Oscar-winning short film “Dear Basketball”. He is currently nominated for a Golden Globe for his work on Steven Spielberg’s film “The Fabelmans.”
