Column: Want to dig up an obscure OCC factoid? See Carnett

I was Orange Coast College’s public relations director for 37 years, from 1971 through 2008.

Disneyland may be the happiest place on earth, but to my mind OCC is the most encouraging, enlightening and accommodating place on the planet. I’ve loved being a Coast student, career employee and alumnus.

As public relations director, I was guardian of “The OCC Brand,” which is a bit like herding cats. Though the college has one authorized logo for the campus, it seemed as if each department had an entrepreneur who wanted to create a knockoff image for department-specific publications.

Talk about a woolly mix of icons.

Public image — and developing consistent symbols to speak for the institution — became my life’s mission. It was my task to communicate the “Essence of OCC” to a host of publics.

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a couple of hundred community colleges nationwide, and there’s not another OCC. My job was to understand and capture Coast’s zeitgeist.

I never resorted to crass, “Try it, you’ll like it,” commercialism. Orange Coast’s innumerable distinctives are striking — and obvious.

Twice during my tenure (20 years apart) I was responsible for heading up the committee that designed the college’s logo; twice I was on the creative side of developing the college’s slogan — “Coast is it” and, later, “We’ll help you get there”; and I managed the team that 22 years ago reinvented the school’s color palette, going from red and black to a more authentic orange and blue.

I was also responsible for three 18-month anniversary celebrations — 40th, 50th and 60th.

Later in my career, I was awarded the honorific, “Mr. OCC.” I was also given the keys to OCC-Landia, and became the repository for all things Coast. Want to dig up an obscure OCC factoid? See Carnett. He’s either got it for you or he’ll make one up.

In 1997, as the college prepared to celebrate its 50th anniversary, President Margaret Gratton came to me with a question.

“Jim, do we have an alma mater?”

“Yes, we do,” I replied. “When I was a student in the early 1960s we sang it after every football game. But it probably hasn’t been sung around here since the late ’60s.”

“Do you know the tune and lyrics?”

I nodded my assent.

“Sing it.”

Being a dedicated Pirate, I warbled … a cappella.

“Resurrect it,” she pronounced enthusiastically as the applause died from my bravura performance. “I want it unveiled at commencement this year.”

And so it was. The alma mater was alive on campus for the first time in decades. It remains today and is performed each year at graduation.

I retired in 2008.

Several months ago, I received an email from Juan Gutierrez, OCC’s talented young marketing director. Juan invited me to visit campus to do a video interview.

Being a ham, and lover of Coast lore, I accepted.

After finishing the interview, Juan had a question.

“Jim, I’ve been researching a few things for OCC’s archives. Has the college ever had a fight song?”

“Yes it has,” I confirmed.

“Have you heard it?”

“Indeed. The football team went 19-1 during the 1962 and ’63 seasons. I went to all those games as a student, including the Junior Rose Bowl. We sang the fight song multiple times every game. I’ve probably sung it a hundred times.”

“Could you sing it for us on microphone so we can record it for posterity?”

I started to sing and, to my great surprise, remembered every note and word. It probably hadn’t been sung publicly since 1966 or ’67 … more than 50 years ago.

Now, I’m proud to say it’s memorialized in OCC’s Archives.

Gene Farrell, the college’s president from 2002-05, said to me recently, “Jim, I bet you’re the only guy in the world who still remembers it.”

Probably so. Hopefully, it’ll never be “lost” again.

Here’s “Go Pirates”:

Go Pirates down the field

fight for your goal.

Their fate is surely sealed,

plunge right through that hole,

FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!

Big Red let’s give a roar

and fight for our fame.

Get that ball and make another score,

go and win this game!

Some things in life are never forgotten.

JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.