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Editor’s Note: The deadline for our $50,000 Tuition Giveaway is January 31. Rather than nag you every day with a post that starts and ends with “TIME IS RUNNING OUT,” we’ve decided to keep the scholarship top of mind by re-running some of our favorite college-centric stories and quizzes. Today’s selection comes from our former marching band correspondent Steven Clontz.
In my first full-band rehearsal for my university’s marching band, our director emphasized one thing: Class. Wherever we go, we are representatives of our state and university. Therefore, we must always be vigilant in portraying the best image possible. This dedication to class is, tragically, not universally shared. If you would, I’d like you to join me on a journey, examining the seedy underbelly of the marching band world. Maybe you’ll find out what happens… when MARCHING BANDS GO BAD!
1. University of Miami
First stop on our tour of terror: Miami, Florida. The University of Miami banned its own band from performing during halftime for at least one football game in 1999, after band members on one bus were caught drinking, watching pornographic videos, and mooning passers-by on an away game road trip.
2. University of Wisconsin
The Hurricanes could have learned from The University of Wisconsin, as far as avoiding the long arm of the law is concerned. UW’s band was placed on probation just this past year, when accusations of hazing surfaced. The claims were of a relatively innocuous nature, at first, with one band member being pressured into shaving his head before a September 2006 game. Upon further investigation, it appeared that band members were also disrobing and dancing seminude on one of their buses returning home after the game. Crazy thing is, this type of behavior had been going on for years.
UW-Madison’s Chancellor John Wiley: “It has become increasing clear that certain types of sexualized and hazing behavior are an ingrained part of the band’s culture.” I prefer my section’s tradition of singing the word “trombones” to the tune of Amazing Grace, personally.
3. Prairie View A&M
Let’s move on to Prairie View A&M, facing off against Southern University. Shortly before the September 19, 1998 game, Prairie View was voted the nation’s top historically black band. This slighted many members of the penultimate selection, Southern University’s “Human Jukebox”. What should have remained a distant flame war spilled over into a game, billed by many as simply The Battle of the Bands. (Prairie View’s football team had a losing streak which had lasted for nearly a decade.)
What followed is open to interpretation. Southern’s band had taken the field first, and was trying to exit via the sidelines, when they were blocked by Prairie View’s band. Prairie View claimed that Southern’s band was “charging” them, while Southern claimed that Prairie View was actively trying to stop them. Whatever the case, the result was Southern’s drum major Terrell Jackson being smacked in the face by a couple trumpets. This, in turn, spurred on an all-out brawl, with members of both bands bludgeoning each other with drumsticks and trombones, sending many to the hospital. Perhaps Prairie View would have been better served sending their marching band out on the field to play football instead; once order was restored and play could continue, their losing streak was extended to eighty games. Instead, both bands were suspended for the next two games.
4. Stanford University
But not all marching band aggression is taken out in fisticuffs (Tubacuffs?) The kids in the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band know that more damage can be dealt by attacking the heart and mind of your opponent. Strictly speaking, the LSJUMB isn’t a marching band at all; rather, it is an example of a scatter band. Rather than using precise drill to move the band between formations, scatter bands, well, scatter between sets. In addition, a scatter band’s show tends to be of a more satirical nature than your average marching ensemble. And of course, sometimes the jokes can get out of hand.
For example, consider Stanford’s 1991 show at Notre Dame. Preceding halftime, the LSJUMB drum major was dressed like an Orthodox Jew. Kindly, he changed attire before their halftime show…and took the field dressed in a nun’s habit. Apparently the Fighting Irish took offense to the use of a wooden cross as a conductor’s baton; Stanford’s band has been banned from Notre Dame’s campus ever since. LSJUMB apologized in 1997 by dedicating another show to Notre Dame, “These Irish, Why Must They Fight?” The Catholic Church isn’t the only group to be targeted by LSJUMB – their show during a game against Brigham Young University featured their drum major being betrothed to a member of their dance team, followed soon by the other four members. LSJUMB was suspended for unrelated hijinks off the field in 2006, helping them to embody the title of their 2004 album, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.
Comments (21)
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Wow, apparently I took that representing our school stuff too seriously. In band we were taught to tell the other band that they did a good job. Once a band member told the drum major of the other school that they did a great show and he said, “Thanks, y’all sucked.” Now that’s class.
posted by Kate on 11-3-2007 at 8:39 am
You think this stuff is out of hand? Check out All Age Drum and Bugle Corps. No educational affiliation, legal drinking age, and grudges that last decades. A good time is had by all…
posted by andrew on 11-3-2007 at 9:04 am
This is why I would not allow my son to join a marching band. I am proud, however, to see him play bass in a hardcore band, “The Dioscuri”.
posted by gus on 11-3-2007 at 10:55 am
I think Stanford’s band also got in trouble last year – something about tearing apart the band shack or something.
A couple of years ago, when the Hawkeye Marching Band traveled to Ann Arbor, there was a little too much drinking going on, and some people uprooted the potted trees in the lobby, broke the hotel’s piano bench, and then for good measure people threw glasses into the hotel’s fountain and the motor broke. We aren’t welcome back at that Holiday Inn needless to say.
Then last year someone trashed a room at the hotel when we went to play at Illinois, and a bunch of people got suspended.
posted by Lindsay D on 11-3-2007 at 6:49 pm
During my sophomore year at college, the Columbia University Marching Band (CUMB), another scramble band, got in trouble when during a Fordham (a Catholic university) game, the band made a joke about Fordham’s tuition “going down like altar boys”. The “band laureate” ended up on MSNBC debating Bill Donohue.
CUMB has been involved in a number of incidents since the early 60s.
(Look up Wiki on CUMB)
posted by Johnie on 11-3-2007 at 7:51 pm
The marching band I was in was strictly professional…. kind of a pain, but when I look back on it, I’m really proud that we were forced to stand at attention , and to only respond with “Sir, Yes Sir” , while the other bands lost their cool..I miss those days…
posted by Erin on 11-3-2007 at 8:34 pm
I heard a couple other stories about the Stanford band, although I cant swear to their validity. The first one, which many people have probably heard, is that the band was flying to a game, and all at once ran to one side of the plane, causing it to tilt, and causing them to be banned from that particular airline (I’ve also heard this story attributed to the Wisconsin band). The second, and by far the funnier, was that they sent a pep band to the verdict of the OJ Simpson trial, with selections including “She’s not there.” Just goes to show how far being student led can take you…
posted by Kyle on 11-4-2007 at 1:09 am
During my time at Columbia, I’ve seen CUMB perform at many Columbia sporting events. They are probably the worst marching band I’ve even seen in my life. They are an embarrassment to Columbia, which is quite an accomplishment even compared to the football and basketball teams over the years.
posted by Jim on 11-4-2007 at 4:17 am
What is this world coming to when even the erstwhile geeks can’t behave?
posted by Bassman on 11-4-2007 at 7:55 am
Stanford has always set the bar for band misbehavior. The first suspension I can remember was for their 1990 show at Oregon, when the PA guy intoned, “Mr. Spotted Owl! Mr. Spotted Owl! Your environment has been destroyed, your home is now a roll of Brawny and your family has flown the coop.” One of their show sets formed a chainsaw taking down a tree, as I recall. True class. The Notre Dame stuff is a couple levels of escalation above that, though.
posted by ianrey on 11-5-2007 at 10:06 am
This one time, at band camp…
posted by cazart on 11-5-2007 at 6:41 pm
Hey, first off, you’re awesome. This is such a great idea for articles.
I’m in the UND band (go irish go!). I hadn’t heard of the standford story till now! I personally think that if things arent’ on national TV, that they are just kept underwrapps.
I love and am proud being in a band that is a good portion ‘no nonsense’. Though it can be tough, it is wonderful to say that we have class and respect for the other bands we play. No matter what the school rivalry is, or how bad the team does, you always congradulate them on a show well done.
How bout an article on ‘a day in the life’? Show everyone what a real home game day is like. I’m sure it’s equally as crazy as ours!!
-Julie
posted by Julie on 11-10-2007 at 7:33 pm
I was in my high school marching band but didn’t join the Humboldt State University Marching Lumberjacks (or, if you prefer, Lumbering Marching Jocks). They, too, had a rep; a friend who went to UC Davis remembered them coming onto the field with plastic bare-asses attached. Some of them marched down the sidewalk in front of the dorms one cold, gloomy morning and mooned the entire breakfast group in the Jolly Giant Commons. They were thrown off campus that year for that and a number of other incidents… I love marching bands. I think the classy ones are boring. Get all that stuff out of your system while you’re young enough to enjoy it!
posted by Anne M. on 11-11-2007 at 1:19 pm
A minor correction: You say the Wisconsin band’s behavior has been “going on for years” — that should read “decades.”
I was in the band in the ’80s — pretty much the most fun I ever had (what I can remember of it, anyway).
posted by Brachinus on 1-8-2009 at 5:36 pm
Ahhhh if I could turn back the hands of time ,, I would go to Stanford!!
posted by Paul on 1-8-2009 at 8:28 pm
1987 Western Kentucky University Marching Band. 18 yrs old, walking with my parents on Parents Day. Every band member I see asks me if Im coming to the Kegger that evening. I think they figured out why I had a .018 gpa after my Freshman yr. Ohhh the laws we broke.
Class of 93
(yep, took a couple of yrs extra to recover)
posted by Shane on 1-8-2009 at 11:31 pm
Seems the elite schools have the biggest problem acting in an appropriate way. Given the attitude of the student bodies at these schools that they are better/smarter than everyone else and that standards of behavior are worthless, I am not surprised by this. If they did similar things to the Notre Dame or BYU stunt to a different minority group, can you imagine the outrage?
posted by kate on 1-9-2009 at 7:40 am
Are you sure #1 is U of M and not Miami University in Oxford, OH? I was a freshman in ‘99 and distinctly remember the bus drama.
posted by Ern on 1-9-2009 at 1:28 pm
Reading about the scramble bands reminded me of something. I have a cousin who played football for Shippensburg College in PA. We were there watching a game once, and my uncle told us to be sure to watch the Shippy band at halftime. Instead of marching in an orderly fashion onto the field, they ran disorganized onto the field into their formation. For the rest of the show it was organized. Very funny. I guess it was their tradition.
posted by crocostimpy on 1-9-2009 at 1:37 pm
Crocostimpy, running onto the field is a tradition for many bands and is not unusual at all to come across.
posted by Cori on 1-9-2009 at 5:44 pm
I was a member of the Prairie View Marching Storm that fateful day, however the assault didn’t start as the media always reported. I was next to the person that started the fight, and long story short no man should ever put his hands on a woman. It sickens me that my school is on this list, because we were an awesome band, but because of the stupidity of others, we’ll always be remembered for this dumb fight. We didnt even get to perform that day, sdo all the work and practices mornings and evenings were wasted. It was a loss all around for my school and to top it off, we came out looking like the bad guys in the end because we didnt have the money at the time that SU did to put :the right spin: on it… you can call me bitter about it, because I was for a long time, but not anymore. I am just happy to see PV getting recognition for the athletics it deserves, cant wait to see who wins the OK vs PV NCAA womens game this week
posted by missPCAT on 3-17-2009 at 4:17 am