More than 40 years of marching bands behaving badly
By William Hageman | Chicago Tribune reporter
October 8, 2008
Allegations of hazing, alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct got the University of Wisconsin marching band suspended last weekend, making the Badgers the latest in a long line of college bands that have had to face the music for their missteps.
1967: The Columbia University band is banned by the Ivy League from performing at any athletic event after its "A Tribute to Birth Control" show, in which band members formed the shape of a condom and played "I Hear You Knockin' (But You Can't Come In)."
1986: The Stanford University band—officially the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band—is suspended after three incidents: public urination at one game and the spelling out of offensive words in halftime formations in two others. In their first game back after the suspension, the band wears halos.
1990: The Stanford band is suspended for a game after a halftime show at the University of Oregon. Band members offended Oregon fans and officials with a formation in the shape of a chain saw, a reference to the battle over logging in the habitat of the threatened northern spotted owl.
1992: Texas Southern University disbands its Ocean of Soul Marching Band after at least a dozen band members are involved in a shoplifting spree—a reported $22,000 worth of electronic items—during a trip to Japan.
1994: Stanford's band is disciplined after 19 members skip a rehearsal to play outside the Los Angeles County Courthouse during jury selection for the O.J. Simpson trial. The band's song selection included The Zombies' "She's Not There." Before the game against USC, band members drove a white Bronco sporting bloody handprints around the stadium.
1998: The marching bands from Prairie View A&M and Southern University are suspended for two games after a halftime brawl broke out among the musicians. It featured musicians attacking one another with drumsticks and trombones.
1999: Miami (Ohio) University bans its band from performing at halftime of a Parents Day game because members drank, watched pornographic movies and mooned people on a trip to West Virginia.
2002: The University of Virginia Pep Band gets bounced from games after performing a skit that depicted residents of West Virginia as barefoot, overall-wearing hillbillies.
2006: The University of Wisconsin's marching band is placed on probation because members routinely engaged in hazing (a band member was pressured into shaving his head) and general rowdiness involving alcohol and sexual acts (other members danced semi-nude on a trip to Ann Arbor, Mich.).
2007: Rice University's Marching Owl Band (The MOB) is criticized for poking fun at the legal problems of some of the Texas Longhorns. The band, wearing dark sunglasses, opened a halftime show with the theme from "Dragnet," and three members dressed as Texas players are chased around the field by other band members carrying cardboard police cars.
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Remember the infamous line from American Pie when Michelle declares, “One time, at band camp, I stuck a flute in my ****?” Well, looks like those kinds of shenanigans might not be unfamiliar to some delinquent college marching bands. Don’t let the tubas fool you; from the suspended University of Wisconsin band caught hazing to the raucous UC Davis Aggies, band geeks know how to get down and dirty. Read on to find out more about College OTR’s Top 10 College Marching Bands Gone Wrong.
1) The Cal Aggies at UC Davis inspired their director Tom Slabaugh to file a complaint after several incidences such as a trumpeter deliberately breaking a security gate near the Plant Science Building, band members taking photos of themselves pretending to urinate, and the band sending him a Christmas card in which Santa Claus is pictured saying, “I saw you masturbating.” The latter incidence almost kept Slabaugh from reporting the band, since he didn't want anyone to know that his extracurriculars extended to playing the piccolo.
2) In 1995, nineteen members of the marching band attacked the mascot Rex L. the Bat during a University of Texas game. Side note: What does the L. stand for?
3) Prairie View A&M came out the worse after a 1998 fight against members of the Southern University marching band, with Prairie View coming out with $20,000 in damages on their sousaphones. What’s a sousaphone? Couldn’t tell you.
4) At Alabama A&M, the band was put on probation after allegedly blindfolding and paddling eight female students as though in 2005. We now refer to the school as Alabama S&M.
5) The musicians at Jackson State University take their business so seriously that they forced band members to do push-ups when they make mistakes musically, kind of like the military. They were put on probation for their actions, but the military has gone without discipline.
6) What is it about dropping trough that’s so exhilarating? This is one of life’s mysteries. The smarty-pants band members at Yale University in 1985 should probably have been referred to as smarty-no-pants after showing off what God gave them during a halftime show.
7) In 2006, 74 cleptos in the Florida A&M marching band stole things (besides complimentary soaps) from a Detroit hotel and were put on probation.
8) Similarly, at Texas Southern University seventeen members of the marching band were put on probation and twelve were suspended after the band went shoplifting in Japan at the Coca-Cola Bowl. They were not just stealing soda.
9) Some might call it resourceful or creative, but in 1991, the Stanford marching band was banned from Notre Dame when they performed a routine using a crucifix as a baton. Their mascot was also banned in 2006 after performing drunk.
10) This past Friday, the University of Wisconsin band was suspended after caught in hazing rituals which included head-shaving, semi-nude dancing, excessive alcohol consumption, and inappropriate sexual behavior. Sounds like a night out of Britney Spears’ book.
A few of these actions sound more like protests, and not nessesarily 'bad behavior', Its never been clear to me exactly what hazing was. I always use to think it was when one person puts thier hand on you, or when someone is forced to do somthing offensive to themself, by the order of someone else. I later learned making people dress alike, walk in lines, and things like that was concidered hazing...strange.
Nontheless bands will be bands, and college students are DEFINATLY going to be college students. Children in Adult bodies. I can't judge on EVERYTHING, lord know I had my share of..........well..........'doing things'.........but I'd never do anything to embarrase myself, my parents, my school, or my band.
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Remember the infamous line from American Pie when Michelle declares, “One time, at band camp, I stuck a flute in my ****?” Well, looks like those kinds of shenanigans might not be unfamiliar to some delinquent college marching bands. Don’t let the tubas fool you; from the suspended University of Wisconsin band caught hazing to the raucous UC Davis Aggies, band geeks know how to get down and dirty. Read on to find out more about College OTR’s Top 10 College Marching Bands Gone Wrong.
1) The Cal Aggies at UC Davis inspired their director Tom Slabaugh to file a complaint after several incidences such as a trumpeter deliberately breaking a security gate near the Plant Science Building, band members taking photos of themselves pretending to urinate, and the band sending him a Christmas card in which Santa Claus is pictured saying, “I saw you masturbating.” The latter incidence almost kept Slabaugh from reporting the band, since he didn't want anyone to know that his extracurriculars extended to playing the piccolo.
2) In 1995, nineteen members of the marching band attacked the mascot Rex L. the Bat during a University of Texas game. Side note: What does the L. stand for?
3) Prairie View A&M came out the worse after a 1998 fight against members of the Southern University marching band, with Prairie View coming out with $20,000 in damages on their sousaphones. What’s a sousaphone? Couldn’t tell you.
4) At Alabama A&M, the band was put on probation after allegedly blindfolding and paddling eight female students as though in 2005. We now refer to the school as Alabama S&M.
5) The musicians at Jackson State University take their business so seriously that they forced band members to do push-ups when they make mistakes musically, kind of like the military. They were put on probation for their actions, but the military has gone without discipline.
6) What is it about dropping trough that’s so exhilarating? This is one of life’s mysteries. The smarty-pants band members at Yale University in 1985 should probably have been referred to as smarty-no-pants after showing off what God gave them during a halftime show.
7) In 2006, 74 cleptos in the Florida A&M marching band stole things (besides complimentary soaps) from a Detroit hotel and were put on probation.
8) Similarly, at Texas Southern University seventeen members of the marching band were put on probation and twelve were suspended after the band went shoplifting in Japan at the Coca-Cola Bowl. They were not just stealing soda.
9) Some might call it resourceful or creative, but in 1991, the Stanford marching band was banned from Notre Dame when they performed a routine using a crucifix as a baton. Their mascot was also banned in 2006 after performing drunk.
10) This past Friday, the University of Wisconsin band was suspended after caught in hazing rituals which included head-shaving, semi-nude dancing, excessive alcohol consumption, and inappropriate sexual behavior. Sounds like a night out of Britney Spears’ book.
Nontheless bands will be bands, and college students are DEFINATLY going to be college students. Children in Adult bodies. I can't judge on EVERYTHING, lord know I had my share of..........well..........'doing things'.........but I'd never do anything to embarrase myself, my parents, my school, or my band.