The legacy of Phil Lindal’s poem lives on

Many longtime Yale residents know Phil Lindal well. 

He served many years as a popular custodian with the Yale school district (amongst other jobs) and was especially a big hit with the elementary age students. 

In 1989, Phil showed off his hidden talent of writing poems and shared what has become an important part of Yale’s history when it comes to the Bologna Festival. 

Below is a reprint of his work, something that is treasured by many of us in Yale.

Yale Bologna Festival

T.J. Minnie started it in nineteen hundred six.

He sold it in the city and he spread it in “the sticks.”

You remember Mr. Evans, there was also Mr. Knapp,

And Meyer and Hudzinski helped to put us on the map.

Cecil Roy did quite a job and taught it to his sons.

Those boys can really spread it and they sell it by the ton.

Right here in Yale.

We’re full of bologna.

We’re proud of it!

Our festival will serve to say that Yale is our name.

We’re also full of Bologna and that’s our claim to fame.

Some bologna is fun to eat and some is fun to spread.

The first goes in your belly while the second fills your head.

Either way you still can’t lose; you’ll always be a winner,

Because with one you’ll have some fun, with the other, you’ll have dinner.

Right here in Yale.

We’re full of bologna.

We’re proud of it.

Please come help us celebrate our state’s all purpose meat.

It is really big in Lansing and in every county seat.

Politicians love it just like real people do.

Here’s your invitation, now the rest is up to you.

We’ll feed you some bologna, but we’ll do it with a smile,

And after you digest it, well, we hope you’ll stay awhile.

Right here in Yale. 

We’re full of bologna. 

We’re proud of it.

— Phil Lindal