Co-Writer of the Holly High School Fight Song

Distinguished Service Award Winner

HHS Class of 1938

Back in the day our school colors were orange and black. In 1938, Holly resident and owner of the Holly Hotel, Mr. Dallas Winslow offered to purchase band uniforms. One catch...he would not purchase orange and black since our arch rival Fenton also had those colors. He would purchase red and gray.

It was shortly after that when seniors and best friends Wilbert 'Bill' McKeachie and Robert 'Bob' Bravander were hanging out one rainy day. They loved music and often enjoyed playing the Cornell University fight song. It was then, on that rainy fall day, that they decided to write a fight song for Holly High School.

The original words were slightly different as our colors were red and gray. The original text read, "The red and gray will lead the way to fame and glory come what may". 28 years later in 1966 our colors changed one more time, this time to red and white. The reason was that athletic uniforms with red and gray were difficult to find. The fight song was altered slightly to the words we have now which are, "we're red and white, we'll lead the fight, to fame and glory come what might".

Upon high school graduation, Robert 'Bob' Bravender, studied engineering at Michigan Institute of Technology.

On June 9, 1942, Bob joined the United States 8th Army Air Corps. A little less than one month later, on July 7th, he headed to Santa Ana, California for training. His rapid promotion to Second Lieutenant was in keeping with his high scholastic performance in high school from which he graduated with honors. He was a co-pilot on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a heavy bomber which was primarily used in strategic bombing campaigns.

Unfortunately, at age 22 on August 31st, 1943, Robert Bravender was killed in Europe while serving our country. Just one week earlier, Pfc. Donald Hulet, another young man from Holly was also killed. Bob and Don were the first two soldiers from Holly killed in World War II. In honor of them and their service to our country, the Holly VFW Post is named the Hulet - Bravendar VFW.

We are pleased and proud to honor Robert Bravender for his Distinguished Service to both the school and our country, by inducting him into the Broncho Hall of Fame