Livin’ on a Prayer: The Story of Mason’s Unofficial Theme Song

As a cacophony of trumpets and shouting fans drifts through the sweat-stained air, the excitement from the green and gold clad Patriot basketball fans is palpable.

From the time the first bells chime and the growing bass beat gives way to six machine-gun sounding swats of the drums, fans know the drill. The chorus swells, Doc Nix feverishly "ails his golden baton, everyone takes a deep breath, and the crowd roars: “Whooa we’re half way there, whooa livin’ on a prayer.” The sounds in the Patriot Center all fall under a four-count beat with the hope that the home team will prevail.

For George Mason University basketball fans, “Livin’ on a Prayer,” the second single
off of Bon Jovi’s 1986 commercial success “Slippery When Wet,” is more than a Billboard chart-topping hair metal success — it’s an anthem.

Though fans might believe the pep band began playing the song after media outlets
began using the song in relation to our school, the lyrics of the ballad fitting perfectly with Mason’s Cinderella-story final four appearance — “We’re halfway there, livin’ on a prayer,” — were mere coincidence.

At Mason, the song can be traced back about six years to former pep band Director
Kevin Thielemann, who, on a whim, put one of his favorite Bon Jovi songs on a mix
to add to the Mason pep band’s repertoire.

So if hearing the ballad so every basketball game and campus event is making your
ears bleed, Thielemann’s the one to blame.

“I was always a fan of Bon Jovi and it was one of my most played songs in iTunes
at the time,” said Thielemann. “I had no idea that it would become the anthem of
the school and that its name would grace newspapers nationwide.”

Claim to Fame

Though the pep band had been rocking out the ballad about down-on-their-luck lovers Tommy and Gina a year and a half prior to the Final Four, it wasn’t until the 2005- 2006 season that the song really became popular, Thielemann said.

“The birth of its popularity was in the studentsection where everyone would sing the chorus at the top of their lungs,” he said. “It slowly spread throughout the arena and before any of us knew it, everyone in the stadium would be singing along to us.”

The song became the musical parallel to the basketball team’s dream run to the Final Four, receiving coverage on national media outlets. In time, the nation began to identify ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ as Mason’s theme song.

The song’s success continued after the Final Four. Soon, Thielemann says, the song began to spread around campus, being played at events and by students on the jukebox at Ike’s diner.

“There was almost nowhere you could go on campus where someone wasn’t playing
that song,” Thielemann said. “Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ had to be the most popular song on campus.”

So when it came time to pick a song that “encompassed their school’s spirit” for the
battle of the bands between the Final Four teams, Melinda Wildman, a 2005-2006 pep band member and Mason’s current academic affairs assistant for the School of
Music, said the choice was a no-brainer.

“We won the battle of the bands with that song and had fans and members of each
of the other bands come over and say how perfect that song was and congratulate us on the season,” said Wildman. “It was the perfect anthem.”

Here to Stay

Today, when Green Machine leader Doc Nix stands up to command the band in the ‘80s favorite at basketball games, the legacy is apparent. Fans still scream along with the soaring chorus at the top of their lungs and dance along to the beat.

Thielemann knows the feeling.

“We in the band kinda felt like rock stars,” said Thielemann. “The reaction from the
student body was overwhelming that season.”

Today, the up-tempo hair metal beat goes on for Thielemann.

“Whenever ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ comes on I roll down my windows, crank up the
sound, and sing out like I’m sitting in the Patriot Center,” said Thielemann. “’Livin’ on
a Prayer’ is no longer a song that makes me think of Bon Jovi and the ‘80s, but a
song that takes me back to that fateful season where the Patriots and George Mason stood up and told the world to look at us.”

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The above piece was published in Mason Nation: Four Years After Final Four, a magazine released this April documenting and analyzing the university's development since the Patriots' historic run in 2006, aiming to shed light on what's connected to the Cinderella story--and additionally, what's not.

Led by senior history major and Student Media veteran Rachael Dickson, the magazine's other topics include changes in men's basketball to effects on other athletics, and from player profiles of the Final Four team to the rise of the Chesapeake residential neighborhood. Gunston and the pep band also receive shout-outs.