Crowd Bursts Into Song as It's Announced There Will Be No National Anthem

No National Anthem? No problem.

When the announcer of a high school softball game in Fresno, Calif., declared that there would be no performance of the "Star-Spangled Banner" on the Friday before Memorial Day, spectators immediately began booing.

The crowd's booing then segued into the national anthem.

“It was a sight to behold, because — come on now — how many times do you see that?” sports reporter Anthony Galaviz told InsideEdition.com.

Galaviz was reporting on the championship game between rivals Clovis High and Buchanan for The Fresno Bee at Fresno State University’s Margie Wright Diamond when he witnessed the moving scene.

“When they said there was going to be no National Anthem, the crowd was stunned," he said. "They were booing. Then the crowd took it upon themselves to sing the national anthem, which was great."

Even the players, who were in the middle of pre-game preparations, stopped what they were doing, placed their hands over their hearts and joined in.

Galaviz pointed out that the protocol at the games is to play the national anthem once before the day's first contest, and subsequent games are held back-to-back without a repeat of singing.

"It’s been that way for a while," he explained. "This was a different session — a different crowd comes in and they don’t know the national anthem was already played earlier that day."

Even so, the organizers took the impromptu singing to heart, and announced they would revise the policy, and arrange a performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before each game instead of only the beginning of the day.

RELATED STORIES