The song in its present form was composed in 1900 and is generally attributed to Allan M. Hirsh, Yale Class of 1901, who in a 1930 letter claimed to have written it in collaboration with his classmates F. M. Van Wicklen, Albert Marckwald, and James L. Boyce in the fall of 1900.
However, the song appears to be based on an earlier one, "La Hoola Boola" (1898), by Bob Cole and Billy Johnson, "extremely popular African American singer-songwriters of the time.
A brass-band arrangement of the "Boola Boola" tune accompanies the sequence in Peter Yates' 1969 film John and Mary in which Mary (Mia Farrow) imagines herself sitting on a bench wrapped in a blanket, watching John (Dustin Hoffman) play tennis with James (Michael Tolan) on a New York City court in the winter, both wearing Yale jerseys.
Then John and James briefly sing the song in the shower while throwing wet towels onto Mary.
In the Simpsons episode "The Great Wife Hope", character Mr. Burns, an alumnus of Yale, is seen playing the song as he comes up against Marge in a practice wrestling match.