Ballad Index entry, gives Sandburg's verson as the earliest reference - 1927. But in this book A Game That Forged Rivals (about a football match between two New England teams), there is a reference to the first line being sung:

Apparently, still buoyed by their "victory" over Leominster, the Fitchburg team returned from Gardner by train, "in a merry mood, humming, 'There's a red light on the track for Boozer Brown"[54]

The [54] footnote gives the source as Fitchburg High School Yearbook for the Academic Year 1898-1899.


This suggests that the song was around at least in 1898 and also suggests that the U.Toronto story quoted by Jim above is a later (incorrect) attributed origin for the song if that 1930 date is true.

I still can't find out where it came from.


Mick