Tufts Traditions

Tufts' history dates back to 1852, when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts chartered “Tufts College” at the summit of Walnut Hill in Medford. Boston businessman Charles Tufts donated the land, and Hosea Ballou, a Universalist clergyman, became our first president. Shortly after the founding, Ballou remarked: "For if Tufts College is to be a source of illumination, as a beacon standing on a hill, where its light cannot be hidden, its influence will naturally work like all light; it will be diffusive."

Explore some of the campus traditions that have survived—and been created!—over the past 160 years at Tufts. Below are a few of the most popular, from the esoteric to the esteemed.

The Tufts Fight Song

"Tuftonia's Day," the Tufts fight song, was written in 1912 by Elliot W. Hayes (A. 1916). Performed at most football games, and especially at Homecoming, it can also be heard at Tufts' numerous A Capella concerts.