A round of applause for the Univ of Michigan Marching Band!

[yellowdogintexas]

They have had a very busy week, folks!

Off to California, rehearse half time, etc.
March 5 miles in the morning
Half time show at the Game
Back in Michigan to great President Ford's Funeral Entourage with the Michigan Fight Song at the airport.

What a whirlwind week!

I say Hail! to Michigan. (the band)


Certified Marching Band Junkie, at your service.


(and I did NOT go to Michigan, heck my college did not even HAVE a football team!!, or a marching band. But we had great basketball!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

[Jimbo S]

1. Did the full band go out to California?

Just wondering. It's possible some at the funeral were left behind in Michigan over the holiday.

[yellowdogintexas]

3. good question, don't know. They sent a very large group to

Pasadena ...filled up the street, and played beautifully.

[Scout]

2. love the U of M band!

could not care less about football, but i do love the band ... especially the Michigan band! they looked pretty damn sharp in the rose bowl parade.

[yellowdogintexas]

5. back when half time was shown on TV, I channel surfed for the

band shows! I just hate that you don't get to see the half time shows on Bowl Days like you used to. New Year's Day for me and my mom was popcorn, marching bands and channel changing...we undecorated the house between halftimes!

my favorites were always Michigan and USC, but I also like the Aggie Band and the Longhorns too. The Aggie Band has its own TV show during the football season which was shown on Saturday mornings on our public TV station.

And of course Grambling, the very presence of which in a football stadium sparks an immediate "Battle of the Bands".

Here in Texas the "Battle" is at the Grambling/Prairie View A & M game during the Texas State Fair @ the Cotton Bowl (which is in the fairgrounds). When I lived in Tennessee, it was when Grambling visited A&I in Nashville, which became Tennessee State University later. The front page of the paper was all about the bands, barring events of national significance of course, with a page reference to the game in the sports section.

[MiniMandaRuth]

4. That is so cool....

I can't wait for college marching band. I love high school marching band more than anything!

[yellowdogintexas]

6. are you in band? Where are you planning to attend college?

SOME colleges have scholarships for their band, check it out!!!!! What is your instrument?

If you truly love marching band now, college will be a blast! Plus you get pep band for basketball too. I went to a basketball school..no football team at all back then. Our pep band traveled with the team as much as possible. The last time KWC was in the Div II final game, the Sousaphone was played by the college president, because they needed an extra one.

At Western Kentucky University, the band carries the tradition of their legendary basketball coach, Ed Diddle, by tying red towels to the slides on the trombones..at their games when the band is rocking, those towels just dance.

Diddle used the red towel as a combination crying rag, signal caller, cheerleading tool and necktie, and in his honor the school adopted it into the mascot "Big Red", who is made of red terrycloth, and every incoming freshman receives a WKU red hand towel for games. LOVE it!

And good luck to you!!!!!

[MiniMandaRuth]

12. God, I want to be in college marching band soooo badly.

We have both pep for basketball and football, and marching in the fall and spring. We get to travel sometimes... like I'm going to Oregon in the spring! Woo!

I play baritone saxophone for marching.

[1gobluedem]

7. Best band in the land

When they burst high stepping out of the tunnel at football pregames and form the block M yelling and screaming, I actually begin to tear up. And when the drum major does the backbend -- floods.

(for those of you who don't know the band, the drum major runs out last and does a backbend until the plume on his hat touches the ground and then he springs up and leads the band down the field toward the student section playing The Victors. The current drum major takes his hat off and touches his head to the turf. Very impressive when you consider that hat and plume have to be about three feet tall).

One of my college roommates played in the band for three years. I asked her if that yelling as they explode out of the tunnel is fake; if they tell the band to do it. She said no, what people in the stands don't know is that the team is behind them in tunnel firing up the band; cheering for them, etc. I think that is so cool.

For the person who asked, yes, the entire 250 piece band went to Pasadena and about 150 make the trek to GR to play for the Ford funeral.

[Crabby Appleton]

10. Best band in the land?

You have your schools confused, that would be The Ohio State University Marching Band.

/go Bucks!!

[1gobluedem]

11. Is that the same band

That learned the script Ohio from Michigan when they did it as a salute to their hosts?

Why, yes. I believe it is.

[Chiyo-chichi]

8. Didn't they play Stairway to Heaven at halftime?

[LanternWaste]

9. Good for them!

Good for them!

Certified DCI junkie & stalker here...