The following on the genesis of "Wise Men" was shared on the now-defunct TA forums by former 107IST board member Jeremy Wright.

We sporadically sang Wise Men starting in the 02-03 seasons. It was an epic trip to Vancouver in I believe 03 that sealed the deal with this song.

Back then our real supporter group rivals were the Southsiders. The ECS/Pod were a complete joke comprised of 8 guys wearing whale hats. Our rivalry with Vancouver was intense. The friendly relationship we enjoy now didn't exist. For about 3 or 4 seasons there was literally some type of incident during the match (the Southsiders loved to come over to our section and taunt us) and always post match either in the stadium or in the woods around us.

That match the Timbers lost once again in Swanguard and some not so friendly Canadians came over to have a go. Instead we chose to raise our scarves and sing Wise Men for literally 15 minutes in an effort to avoid confrontation. We were a small group that day, maybe 15 folks, and knew if we responded to the aggro things would go badly for us. We had beer thrown on us, smoke bombs tossed at our heads and folks challenging us to fights. We raised our scarves higher and sang louder. The Timbers were still on the pitch warming down and greatly appreciated our efforts. We sang until the stadium was empty.

A tradition was born.