From: aelman@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Adam Elman)
Subject: Re: Best marching band
Organization: CS Department, Stanford University, California, USA
Distribution: usa
Date:  5 Oct 92 18:59:47 GMT

swain@girtab.usc.edu (Ronnie Swain) writes:

>As a member of the Trojan Marching Band, I was at first inclined to
>be upset at your remarks.  But then I remembered that 1)Our alumni do
>not boo the band, our football coach does not hate the band, and our
>fans love the band.  Our job is to irritate the opposing team and
>take them out of the game. Most of the times we succeed, other times
>we don't.  At all times we support our team.

That's nice.  Our job is to entertain our fans and support the team.
Irritating the other team has nothing to do with it.  And for the
record, our alumni do not boo the band (I've never been booed at
Stanford Stadium, at least not audibly).  Our football coach does not
hate the band either -- to our knowledge, Bill Walsh likes us.  Denny
Green is now with the Minnesota Vikings.  And most of the people I
know on this campus loves the LSJUMB.

In fact, everyone I've ever talked to who has seen us, be they our
fans, the Cornell Band,  Pac-10 bands that we associate with or other fans,
think we're pretty funny, and that we seem to have a lot of fun on the
field.  (we do. :-)  The USC band, on the other hand, seems to
generate disgust from everybody from the opposing fans to the TV
announcers.  I was talking to a friend on Saturday who had been
switching between radio coverage of the UW-USC game and TV coverage,
and he mentioned (totally unsolicited, of course :-)  that the
announcers for both media kept complaining about that damn USC band.

>I can understand your hatred of us. Most people from Pac-10 or Big-10 schools
>don't like us with good reason.  However, I point towards a certain
>Sports Illustrated article in which they reconized the Trojan Marching Band as
>the 2nd best band in the nation, just behind Florida A&M.

>I know many people who hate USC, but love the band.  We have taken our entire
>band to Notre Dame and played a halftime show that got more applause than
>their own band.  We've had the fans at Cal throw fruit at us, and still nailed
>the drill.

Maybe, but WE throw it back. :-) (well, not most of the time -- we do
wear hardhats when we go to Cal, though. :-)

>  We may be arrogant assholes, but when we are out on the field, I
>challenge you to find a band that marches as hard as we do, and yes, we do
>not take music onto the field at any time. I challenge you to find a band that
>starts practice at 7am and goes for 5 hours on non-game days, and much longer
>when we have games.  I challenge you to find a band that NEVER sits down, at
>any time during the game.  I challenge you to find a band that after spending
>3 hour of almost continuos playing, still has the energy to play a 45 minute 
>post game concert which attracts many fans from the opposing school as well as
>our fans.

Hey, I won't knock you for effort.  Of course, I think you're all
crazy -- we take off our uniforms in the stands, kick back, and enjoy
the game with everybody else.  We get to sit down when we want.  But
we still play at time-outs, and occasionally for other things, and
we're ALWAYS there cheering on the team.  Why you would want to
practice for five hours straight, and then stand up all the way
through a game in wool uniforms in Southern California is beyond me.

Frankly, I think that Stanford students generally have better things
to do than to spend their entire lives practicing minute technical
marching drills.  I barely have time to devote to the LSJUMB as it is.

And just for the record, we also play a 45-minute post-game rally that
attracts fans from the opposing school as well as our own.  What's
your point?

>In other words, you may hate us, we may be arrogant, but we still are the
>Best Marching Band in the History of the Universe.

I guess if all you're saying is that you are great at being a
militaristic marching band who annoys everyone around you, then I
agree.  You're good at it.  If you weren't such arrogant assholes (as
an aggregate group -- I'm sure individually you're nice people), then
the rest of the Pac-10 wouldn't have a problem with you.

>Fight On! Beat the Farm! Beat the Bears! Beat the bruins!
>Ronnie Swain
>swain@aludra.usc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college