MBA Alumnus Establishes Iconic I Believe Sport Chant

Strong currently lives and works in Memphis, Tennessee

If you’ve ever attended a major San Diego State sporting event in the past 12 years, you’ve probably heard the “I believe” chant roaring from the Aztec faithful before and during the big game. And even if you haven’t been to a major SDSU sporting event, you may have heard the chant in the stands at high school football games, professional tennis matches, hockey games or even watching televised athletic competitions, as the chant has caught on among fans from coast-to-coast. 

For anyone who doesn’t follow sports, the now familiar chant usually starts out with one person on a loud speaker shouting “I!” into the crowd who repeats it back at the top of their lungs. This process is followed by “I believe!”, then “I believe that!”, and “I believe that we!” until finally culminating with the now frenzied crowd jumping up and down and shouting “I believe that we will win!” at ear-splitting decibels. 

Strong (standing, right) was on the cheer squad for the U.S. Naval Academy when he introduced the chant to the crowd

It Didn’t Start with the Show
The SDSU student cheering section known as “The Show” may be able to take credit for popularizing the chant, but it didn’t originate with Aztec fans. Ironically, the first person to use the “I believe” cheer at a large sporting event was too busy earning his MBA at SDSU’s Fowler College of Business from 2009 - 2010 to even notice that “The Show” was in their first season of rocking Viejas Arena with “I believe” during the Aztec men’s basketball games.  

The chant got its start when that SDSU alumnus, Corey Strong, attended the U.S. Naval Academy from 1999 – 2003. Strong had joined the cheer squad as a plebe (or first year student) and learned the chant from his friend and fellow plebe, Jay Rodriguez, who has been credited for creating it.  “Jay came up with the chant while he was attending the Naval Academy Prep School as a squad cheer,” said Strong, a native of Memphis, Tenn. “He taught me the cheer and I would do it during the plebe-formed tunnel before each home game that year. During a fourth quarter timeout of the 1999 Army-Navy game, I did the cheer with the whole brigade of Midshipmen and the cheer rang out throughout a silent Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Navy scored after the timeout, won the game, and a tradition was born.” 

 Strong earned his MBA from the Fowler College of Business in 2010 – the same year the “I believe” chant was first heard at an SDSU men’s basketball game.

Coming to SDSU
While serving on active duty for eight years (including three ships deployments and one in Afghanistan), Strong was on shore duty and stationed in Texas when he began an MBA program at Texas A&M University. He chose to pursue an MBA “to refine the leadership and management skills I learned in the Navy and I wanted to prepare myself for life after the military.” After completing one year of the program, Strong was reassigned to San Diego and he chose to complete his MBA degree at the Fowler College of Business “because of the locale, reputation and student experience” at SDSU. 

By the time Strong arrived on campus in the fall of 2009, the winning ways of the SDSU men’s basketball program under the coaching of Steve Fisher was ascending into the national spotlight and into national television coverage as well. The increased media coverage raised awareness of The Show and the “I believe” chant soon became a part of national sports fan dialogue.

Ironic Timing
But the hype was lost on the man who first propelled the chant into national consciousness. “I was actually not aware of the SDSU connection to the chant until after I finished my MBA,” said Strong, who, at the time, was still juggling his full time role as a naval officer and full class schedule. “While I was in night classes at the business school, I missed the memo.”  

Soon after earning his MBA, Strong left active duty and moved back to Memphis where he eventually became an educational administrator. Currently, he is the COO of Freedom Preparatory Academy Charter Schools and he continues to serve as a naval reservist. 

And while Strong missed the opportunity to shout out the “I believe” chant as an SDSU student, he didn’t miss out on an education that has served him well in his career over the past decade. “The entrepreneurship skills I learned at SDSU have helped me in pushing continuous improvement for my organization, as well as being creative in how we approach vendor management and major facilities projects,” he said. “Also, other skills I picked up have helped me in training my people on managing their teams and navigating change management.”

“I Always Get a Chill”
Strong knows he can’t take credit for bringing the now-famous “I believe” chant to SDSU, but he has his own theory on how it may have caught on. “I cannot confirm this, but I am sure the Shore Club in Pacific Beach, which is a frequent locale for USNA grads on game days, may actually be the location where San Diego-area people learned the cheer,” he said. “I still watch and cheer for the Aztecs — except when they play Navy — and I always get a chill when I hear that the chant that has made an impact on two schools that helped make me who I am.”