Long live ‘The Growl’: History of the Bengals’ beloved and enduring fight song

One of the first families to help steer the Bengals into existence more than a half-century ago still gathers to celebrate birthdays, holidays and other special occasions the same way most of the team’s fans revel in success, by singing “The Bengal Growl.”

George “Red” Bird penned the campy fight song in the summer of 1968 at the behest of team founder Paul Brown, his former next-door neighbor when both men worked at Massillon High School. Brown hired Bird as the team’s director of entertainment, with one of his first tasks being the creation of the fight song.

And for the past 53 years, not only has “The Bengal Growl” been sung after touchdowns at every home game, but there also are raucous renditions at local watering holes, Bengals backer bars across the country and, more than anywhere else, in homes where families gather on Sundays to watch the game.

Hear that Bengal Growlin’

Mean and angry,

Hear he comes a prowlin’,

Lean and hungry.

Debby McIntyre was the first person to ever sing those opening lyrics. The oldest of Bird’s three grandchildren, McIntyre remembers sitting in the family room of her grandparents’ Forest Park home as a 13-year-old in the summer of 1968, her focus on the television interrupted by Bird plinking out a melody on the piano.

“He didn’t use any sort of tape recorder, he would just play for a little bit, then stop and write down notes and lyrics on paper, then play a little more,” says McIntyre, who still has the original manuscript her grandfather composed that afternoon. “I sang in choirs, so he had me sing it with him to see how it sounded. And I’ve been singing it ever since.