an Marching Band performed a slow-tempo variation on the fight song at his funeral.[161] The fight song is also sung during graduation commencement ceremonies. The university's alma mater song is "The Yellow and Blue." A common rally cry is "Let's Go Blue!," had a complementary short mus

 medals in every Summer Olympics except 1896, and winning gold medals in all but four Olympiads. U of M students have won a total of 133 Olympic medals: 65 gold, 30 silver, and 38 bronze.[158]
School songs[edit]
The University of Michigan's fight song, "The Victors," was written by student Louis Elbel in 1898 following the last-minute football victory over the University of Chicago that won a league championship. The song was declared by John Philip Sousa as "the greatest college fight song ever written."[159] The song refers to the university as being "the Champions of the West." At the time, U-M was part of the Western Conference, which would later become the Big Ten Conference. Michigan was considered to be on the Western Frontier when it was founded in the old Northwest Territory. Although mainly used at sporting events, the fight song can be heard at other events. President Gerald Ford had it played by the United States Marine Band as his entrance anthem during his term as president from 1974 to 1977, in preference over the more traditional "Hail to the Chief"[160] and the Michigan Marching Band performed a slow-tempo variation on the fight song at his funeral.[161] The fight song is also sung during graduation commencement ceremonies. The university's alma mater song is "The Yellow and Blue." A common rally cry is "Let's Go Blue!," had a complementary short musical arrangement written by former students Joseph Carl, a sousaphonist, and Albert Ahronheim, a drum major.[162]
Before "The Victors" was officially the University's fight song, the song "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" was considered to be the school song.[163] After Michigan temporarily withdrew from the Western Conference in 1907, a new Michigan fight song "Varsity" was written in 1911 because the line "champions of the West" was no longer appropriate.[164] In 2011, the Band Pop Evil wrote and recorded a rock and roll anthem for the Wolverines called "In the Big House."[165]
Alumni[edit]

Main article: List of University of Michigan alumni
In addition to the late U.S. president Gerald Ford, the university has produced twenty-six Rhodes Scholars. As of 2012, the university has almost 500,000 living alumni.[166]
More than 250 Michigan graduates have served as legislators as either United States Senator (40 graduates) or as a Congressional representative (over 200 graduates), including former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt[167] and U.S. Representative Justin Amash, who represents Michigan's Third Congressional District.[168] Mike Duggan, Mayor-elect of Detroit, earned his bachelor and law degree at Michigan, while Michigan Governor Rick Snyder earned his bachelor, M.B.A., and J.D. degrees from Michigan. U-M's contributions to aeronautics include aircraft designer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson of Lockheed Skunk Works fame,[169] Lockheed president Willis Hawkins, and several astronauts including the all-U-M crew of Gemini 4[170] and the all-Michigan crew of Apollo 15.[171] U-