page_title: University of Wisconsin Marching Band
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: University of Wisconsin Marching Band / History
caption_attribution_description: UW military band. Message on postcard: "Hello Justin: I hope you are better. This is our military band taken in front of the gym. I know the drum-major well. You ought to join it when you come out. Tom" n: 1910. Image ID# S06258. For more information about this image or UW-Madison campus history, contact uwarchiv@library.wisc.edu.
context_page_description: The University of Wisconsin Marching Band is the marching band for the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It was formed in the fall of 1885 to support the university military battalion. Today, it has grown to about 300 members and performs at all home Badger football games.
context_section_description: The University of Wisconsin Marching Band was created in 1885 as the Wisconsin Regimental Band. Previously, the University Military Battalion had marched to only a drum and the Battalion commandant, Major Chase, stressed in 1883 that there was a "need for a fife and drum corps to play for the Battalion drills."  The first band consisted of 11 members, with two or three more joining before the year ended.  It was not until 1894 that the 26 members of the University Band began playing at football games.
  In September 1928, it was announced that all football engagements would be handled by 100 men, to relieve the strain from concert performers.  This was the beginning of the current band.  Under Edson W. Morphy, the "Second Band" became more active with athletic department events.  In 1934, the band gained a new director, Raymond F. Dvorak, a veteran of the Goldman and John Philip Sousa bands.  Dvorak changed the band in many ways, including expanding it to 120 marchers, introducing new steps, creating the run-on entrance to the pre-game, and developing animated formations. He also introduced the arm-waving tradition during the singing of Wisconsin's alma mater, Varsity. When the Badger football team qualified for the 1963 Rose Bowl Game, the band was still wearing uniforms based on United States Marine Corps Dress Blues, with a broad red stripe down the leg.  Lacking time to order and manufacture new uniforms, the band wore white duck pants for the Rose Parade, causing at least one wag to call them "Salvation Army milkmen". The fall of 1963 saw the introduction of cardinal and white uniforms that have characterized the band's look ever since.
  In 1969, the band hired a successor to Dvorak, Mike Leckrone. Leckrone expanded the marching band's membership and popularity during the Vietnam War era, a time when the band's connotative association with the military had become unpopular among some students. Women were first eligible to join the marching band in 1974, enabling a major expansion of membership. Leckrone introduced a physically demanding style of marching called “stop at the top,” which required much more athleticism and physical conditioning. He required every member to attend Registration Week fundamental drills to learn the new marching step, updated the pre-game "run-on" Dvorak had introduced, filmed every performance, and scheduled viewing sessions in which he provided feedback. Leckrone's band played a repertoire of Badger songs and tunes, creatively arranging and weaving them into field-show programming.
  During Leckrone's first decades, the Badger marching band was on the ascendancy as the football team was in decline, mired near the bottom of the Big Ten. Halftime shows maintained interest in the Saturday afternoon festivities, and the band's "fifth quarter" performances kept fans in the stands after the games ended.
  Leckrone, after 50 seasons as the band's director, retired upon the conclusion of the 2019 Spring Concert.
  Corey Pompey, former assistant director of bands at the University of Nevada-Reno and Pennsylvania State University, was selected to succeed Leckrone and began his tenure in the Fall of 2019.
caption: Band on Langdon Street in front of the Armory, circa 1910
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