Louisiana State University Tiger Marching Band
The Louisiana State University Tiger Marching Band is the official marching band of Louisiana State University. The full band has 325 members, and performs at all LSU football home games, all bowl games made by the team, and one away game per year. The 100-110-member pep band, which makes up a portion of the marching band, performs at all away games except for the one where the full band performs.
History
Cadet band
The LSU Tiger Band began as a military band in 1893, organized by two students: Wylie M. Barrow and Ruffin G. Pleasant. Pleasant, who later became governor of the state of Louisiana, served as director of the eleven-piece cadet band. Pleasant also played as the quarterback of the football team and, alongside football coach Charles E. Coates, changed LSU's official school colors from blue and white to purple and gold. The band averaged thirteen members in its early years.In his written history of the band, former director of bands Frank Wickes describes the band's formative years:
By the turn of the century, the Cadet Band also became a marching unit. Tours of the state and appearances at Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans became early traditions. In 1904, the band joined four companies of cadets from LSU for a performance at the St. Louis World Exposition.The band performed mainly military duties and later developed into focusing on athletic events. The band marched in its first halftime show in 1924.
Kingfish years
The band experienced growth when Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long took an interest in increasing LSU's national prominence. In an oral history about the governor, Mary Hebert addressed Huey Long's preoccupation with the band, and improving the university became one of his pet projects. Long was at first not attracted by the academics of the school but by their band. Due to this, the governor demanded that the band be enlarged from twenty-eight pieces to one hundred twenty-five pieces. This would make the band one of the largest in the country.Long picked the university's president, James Monroe Smith, and hired a new band director, Castro Carazo, the orchestra leader at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans. Long also changed the band's military dress to a different uniform. Several songs were co-written for the band by Long and Carazo, including "Touchdown for LSU," "Darling of LSU," and "The LSU Cadets March." "Touchdown for LSU" is still played as part of the band's pregame performance. Long often lowered train ticket prices so the band and students could travel to away football games. During parades, he would often join the band to lead them through the streets.
Years after Long's assassination, many of the changes he made to the band and the university were reversed as part of a backlash against his control over LSU and the associated scandals; for instance, Carazo was fired, and the military uniforms were reinstated.
After WWII
The band remained a military cadet band until the end of World War II when the band department became a part of the School of Music. "During the Carazo years, female students had appeared with the band as drum majorettes, but not in the ranks of musicians." Women first joined the band in 1943. During this period, the band underwent changes that shaped its image. The band hall burned to the ground in 1958, and a new hall was quickly built that is still used by the band. The Ballet Corps was added by director Thomas Tyra in 1959, and the band's modern pregame performance was created in the 1960s by director William F. Swor.The Tiger Band program hit its zenith in 1970 when LSU was named the All-American College TV Band in a one-time national contest sponsored by General Motors. After marching in the Orange Bowl Parade on New Year's Eve and performing at halftime of the 1971 Orange Bowl game on New Year's Day, the Tiger Band flew to Oakland, CA. On January 2, the band performed a different show for another national television audience and officially received the All-American College TV Band Award at halftime of the East-West Shrine Bowl. The trophy was presented to Director Swor by Meredith Willson, confirming LSU's prominence among the country's top university marching bands.
Awards and International Performances
In the fall of 1997, the band directors of the Southeastern Conference unanimously voted for the LSU Tiger Marching Band as the best marching band in the SEC, according to a survey by the Northwest Arkansas Times. In 2002, the marching band won the Sudler Trophy, a one-time award given to the nation's best marching bands.Four women have led the Tiger Band as drum majors: Kristie Smith, Mindy Hebert, Mary Bahlinger, and Catherine Mansfield.
The band continues to be a celebrated part of the university community, with some members having reported being asked for autographs. The look of the band has been memorialized in a set of 17 miniature, hand-painted figurines that include the different members of the band and that sell for almost $400. One group of fans has even chosen to memorialize the band's Pregame performance by creating shirts with the first four notes of the band's fanfare. On Saturday, October 11, 2008, ESPN announced that the Tiger Band won first place in a competition amongst university bands from Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, Texas, and USC. Each band played a version of John Williams's Indiana Jones theme, and ESPN posted the videos online for fans to vote. At halftime during the 2009 home football game against Vanderbilt, the band was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
In 2010, the LSU Golden Girls performed in Hong Kong as part of the Chinese New Year celebration, marking the first-ever international performance by the Golden Band from Tigerland. The Tiger Band added another international performance in 2014 when all 325 members traveled to Dublin, Ireland, to perform in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
Traditions
Victory Hill
On game days, the band marches from the band hall to Tiger Stadium, stopping by at Victory Hill, located right outside the stadium. Fans lining North Stadium Drive await the arrival of the band. The band stops on the hill and begins to play the opening strains of the "Pregame Salute." Then, while playing the introduction to "Touchdown for LSU," the band starts running in tempo through the streets and down the hill. The band also marches from the stadium to the band hall upon the conclusion of the game, a practice not usually employed by other bands.Pregame
One of the traditions carried on by the band is its pregame performance at each home football game. The performance includes pieces from the band's repertoire of school songs, including "Pregame Salute"/"Touchdown for LSU" arranged in 1964 by director William F. Swor specifically for the band to play during pregame. The drill design and musical selections pieced together by Swor remain relatively unchanged today. The band uses a more traditional style of marching during pregame, when the band members have to lift their legs to mid-calf as they march.The band begins its performance in the stadium’s south end zone, called to attention by the drum major before he marches across the end zone. Stopping at the goal line, he wields his mace and signals the band to take the field with a whistle. Marching out to the beat of a single bass drum, the band moves in fronts spaced five yards apart. The drum halts at the 40-yard line, spreading the band across the southern half of the field, with the color guard at midfield and the southern goal line. The Golden Girls line up along the west sideline.
Standing at attention, the band awaits the percussion introduction to Pregame Salute. As they play the opening chords from Tiger Rag, they turn to salute all four corners of the stadium. The tempo accelerates as the music transitions into Long’s Touchdown for LSU, and the band sweeps across the field. Toward the song’s end, they break formation to spell “LSU.”
In the "LSU" formation, the band plays the "LSU Alma Mater" and the "Star-Spangled Banner" and is directed at the north 47 and a half-yard line by the director of bands. The band then plays "Fight for LSU" as it virtually flips the formation to spell LSU for the fans on the east side of the stadium. Upon arriving in the new formation, the band plays the second half of "Tiger Rag" which culminates in the crowd chanting "T-I-G-E-R-S, TIGERS!' in unison. This is followed by the "First Down Cheer," to which the east side of the stadium, in unison, responds to each of the three refrains with "GEAUX! TIGERS!" and to the final refrain with "LSU!" To the sound of a fast-paced drum cadence, the band returns to the original "LSU" formation facing the west side of the stadium and replays the "First Down Cheer". The band immediately breaks into an encore performance of "Touchdown for LSU" as it reforms the original fronts, marches to the north end zone, and then breaks the fronts to form a tunnel through which the football team will enter the field.