BLOOMINGTON - Illinois Wesleyan University alumnus and lifelong Bloomington resident Don Freese is a big fan of his alma mater. | Video

You might describe the 87-year-old as one of the Titans' biggest cheerleaders.

"We had a lot of fun during our years there," he said, recalling the 1940s rivalry with nearby Illinois State Normal University, pranks among friends and an education that lasted a lifetime.

So, when the insurance man and amateur music composer had a dream a few years back in which a song materialized, he decided he'd arrange it as a gift - something to give back to his school. It took a few years of crafting, but "Illinois Wesleyan Victory March" is the tune that evolved.

He's not the first Freese to make a mark on the Titans' aural history, however.

For nearly a century, the university has been using the "Wesleyan Cheer Song" composed by his father, Ralph Freese, who was a 1911 graduate. The elder Freese had served as head yell master, the person most responsible for developing cheers and chants to stir up the student body's team spirit, Don Freese said.

Later, after graduation and marriage, Ralph Freese would bring his son to games. The younger Freese grew up attending sports events and hearing his dad's composition being played.

"Every single time I heard my dad's song - as a kid, and later as a Wesleyan student - I got a thrill," he said.

As for the younger Freese's composition, IWU unveiled it during this school year's sporting events.

"I'd describe it as being very similar to school marches," said Mario Pelusi, IWU's School of Music director.

He and others in the school now are considering arranging the song for the Titans' band. Now, it works well with a pianist accompanying, Pelusi said.

The head of IWU's music school thinks the father-and-son tale is a great legacy for Illinois Wesleyan.

"I think it's marvelous that alumni would want to express their love and devotion to the university in this way," Pelusi said. "And to have two generations with songs for the university, that's a little unusual."

Former IWU student Ben Johnson helped transcribe Freese's handwritten composition into a modern computer-ready version. And he's gotten assistance from recent IWU graduate Mike Wolf as an accompanist.

Don Freese and his father have a lot of things in common. Each was his senior class president, in 1909 and 1943; each made a career as a Bloomington insurance man; and each has carried a love for music throughout life.

And they share a piano.

Ralph Freese's parents presented a five-foot Steinway grand piano to him as a wedding gift. And that instrument was passed down to the son.

Don Freese displays it proudly in his living room, but jokes his father, who had a fondness for jazz and blues, preferred an old $20 upright while the family lived on East Taylor Street during the first half of the 20th century.

Don Freese, who now lives on Mercer Avenue, has composed more than 80 tunes in his lifetime. His first actually performed was played during his Bloomington High School graduation in the late 1930s.

As a sailor in World War II, he dreamed a song.

"It seems to be something that happens to me," he said. "I remember I got up and found a piano there on the ship and started to work on it right away."

Don Freese said it was rewarding and exciting to hear his own song at an IWU football game last fall.

Other than "Illinois Wesleyan Victory March," Don Freese's other works haven't been published.

"They've been more for fun. I played them at social gatherings and for friends over the years," he said, noting his neighborhood's monthly rotating cocktail party has been a popular spot to hear one of his works.

Ralph Freese took his amateur love of music a bit further - and became a minor celebrity during his time.

He wrote the "Wesleyan Cheer Song" with Chalmers H. Marquis. The pair went on to write a number of songs, and Freese worked solo as well.

His songs were sold as popular sheet music across the United States, including "My Caroline" and "California Sue."

One song caught the ear of Tennessee Ernie Ford, who slightly altered the "Alpha Deuteron Rag" - named in honor of Ralph Freese's IWU fraternity - to "The Tennessee Rag."