I failed to mention that the article I meant to cite was written by a Playboy editor. His name? John Thomas. I kid you not. I assume a pseudonym or a lucky profession choice.

Oops, wrong link, Dana! But now the Times has shrouded its content behind a "pay here" sign, as the article's more than 7 days old.

no one really knows why we sing "hullabaloo, canek, canek" but I've always though it sounded a lot like a train, the whistle, then the clickety-clack of the tracks or something....

There is some old folklore about Earl Rudder saying it meant 'Beat the hell outta t.u.' in Chickasaw Indian, but I'm sure that was just Rudder showing his funny bone.

http://www.theeagle.com/aandmnews/anniversary/1williamsbio.htm

The song was written by JV Pinky Wilson (a war vet who served with the American Expeditionary Forces) and might be something he picked up while in the service.

Here's a site for the words of the song:

http://yell.tamu.edu/songs.html

I was in the band when I went to school there, and we used to joke that some old Drum Major came up with Hulabaloo as a non-sensical word that all bandsmen could remember was the first step of any marching performance, parade, or game, as the band always plays the war hymn to start moving, and never takes a step until 'hulabaloo'.

http://sports.tamu.edu/academics/warhymn.wav

It's an odd thing, but who cares, that's part of what being an aggie is all about.

Dictionary.com does a good job of defining Hullabaloo:

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2001/04/06.html

I'm still at a-clue.com, but...

No mention of Aggies on the page you cited. But an interesting point about the Bowdoin scholarship. Joshua Laurence Chamberlain, the "hero of Gettysburg" (he saved Little Round Top with his 20th Maine in a last-minute swinging charge), was president of Bowdoin College for many years. The UDC did a lot of work in re-writing (or trying to rewrite) the Civil War as the "war of Yankee aggression" and I'm certain this scholarship at Chamberlain's school was part of that.