Philip Egner (April 17, 1870 – February 3, 1956) was a U.S. military bandmaster who served as longtime director of the U.S. Army's West Point Band.

During his early career he performed with the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic, but left civilian life to join the U.S. Army at the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, spending three years in the Philippines as bandmaster of the 17th Infantry Regiment.

[1][2] Returning to the United States, Egner briefly toured the U.S. as an instrumentalist in the vaudevillian performances of Lillian Russell and the minstrel shows of Primrose and West.

While returning to his quarters, Egner began whistling an improvised tune which he decided would go well with the words for the new cheer, making it more suited for a fight song than a football chant.

He scored the 1916 musical comedy staged by the cadets, The Wasp-Waisted Vampires about a time in the future when half the corps of cadets is women and the academy on the verge of being shuttered by the U.S. government on account of a lack of wars (at the end of the show the "good news" arrives that Highland Falls, New York has been invaded, thereby justifying continued congressional appropriations to West Point).

He died in 1956 and is buried in the West Point Cemetery beneath a grave etched with the first seven notes of the chorus to "On, Brave Old Army Team".