prior to 1908, the university was known as the western university of pennsylvania (w.u.p.), which was often termed "wup" for short. the lyrics for the alma mater for w.u.p., per the 1907 "the owl" student yearbook, are below. the references to the old name of the school in every stanza of the song suggest that, upon the university taking the name of the university of pittsburgh in 1908, that a desire grew to replace it with a new alma mater.