The Ohio State University Marching Band

The Ohio State University Marching Band is considered to be one of the world's largest all brass and percussion marching bands. The band was formed in 1878 as a student led fife and drum corps for the Military Department, but has since grown into a 228 piece band that has enjoyed regional fame for many decades, and has begun receiving international acclaim within the past decade for mesmerizing halftime show performances.

## History

The marching band was founded in 1878 as an all-male fife and drum corps for the Military Department at Ohio Agricultural & Mechanical College, later renamed The Ohio State University. This fife and drum corps was entirely student led and operated, with minimal oversight by the Military Department. In 1896, the University hired Gustav Bruder to be the first director of the marching band, now an organization with a full traditional band instrumentation.

In 1920, the marching band was merged with a newly formed Varsity Band, whose primary function was entertainment at Football games. The band performed year round with a schedule including home football games, concerts, and military parades and ceremonies. The band introduced its first field drum major in 1920, Edwin "Tubby" Essington.

Essington went on to develop a unique showman style that departed from the traditional role of a marching band drum major of leading the block band with the use of mace and whistle signals. He developed twirling techniques and patterned a bright scarlet uniform jacket that made him stand out from the dark navy blue of the rest of the band.

In 1928, Eugene J. Weigel was named the first full time director of the marching band. Prior director Bruder was not a full time director, and there had been several issues over the years that culminated in the decision to hire a full time director. Two incidents described related to interactions between the marching band and a separately run drum and bugle corps: the marching band had stolen the drum and bugle corps mouthpieces so they couldn't play, and another instance involved a joint field performance between the two groups which involved a collision.

Weigel was instrumental in improving the morale, musicianship, and discipline of the marching band. He developed the high mark time "chair step" that many Big Ten bands are known for; he developed the 8 to 5 marching step, and he created the band's signature "ramp" entrance. In 1934, Weigel decided to experiment with instrumentation to get more sound out of the band now that the football team moved from Ohio Field to the significantly larger Ohio Stadium. He removed all woodwinds from the band and replaced them with brass only. The change in volume and performance quality was immediately apparent and the change was made permanent. A student in the marching band with arranging experience, Richard Heine, was asked to rewrite the school songs for a brass only choir. His arrangements worked out so well he began arranging the various marches and showtunes that the band would play on a weekly basis.

In 1936, after seeing the University of Michigan Marching Band form the word Ohio in a cursive script during a pregame salute to Ohio State, Weigel wanted to create a similar formation for the OSU band. Inspired by the blinking lights on the cursive script Ohio Theatre sign in downtown Columbus, Weigel charted out a follow-the-leader style drill in which the band "wrote" out the word Ohio as if a pen were writing on the field. The first performance of the "Script Ohio" was peformed to one of the Ohio State fight songs, and the song was performed approximately 11 times before the drill was completed. Weigel discussed with student arranger Heine about other possible marches or tunes to be played, and they discovered a French march that only had to be played once with a half repeat. This march, Le Regiment de Sambre et Meuse, has been played during every performance of Script Ohio, since 1936. The first musician to dot the i in Script Ohio was an Eb cornet player who marched to the spot without any fanfare or ceremony. Weigel decided to change the Eb cornet with a Sousaphone after a few performances to make the dot stand out a little more. The current tradition of the i dot prance and bow started after a drum major mistakenly led the Sousaphone player out to the spot too many counts early, so the Sousaphone player made up some time with the prance and bow. They were so well received it was made a permanent change to the drill set.

In 1938, Weigel made another drastic change to the marching band: removing trombones. The Script Ohio drill was one of the most complex drill movements ever attempted at the time, and students were regularly breaking instruments as they navigated the crossovers. Weigel determined that replacing slide trombones with tromboniums and Bb tenor horns (also called Baritones in British terminology), a similar tone color could be achieved without the potential damage to the instruments.

The marching band had grown to 120 members in the late 1920s, and Weigel introduced an audition system to keep the band at a steady number. This also allowed for the band to have an "ideal" instrumentation they could write music and drill for, with 110 brass and 10 percussion. Individuals who could not make the marching band, or who played a woodwind, would continue to be accepted into the off-season marching band, which later became known as Military Band.

Weigel retired from the University in 1938, and Manley Whitcomb took over as director. Whitcomb continued to create new innovations for the band, including the first use of drill charts, the first 180 beats per minute tempo, and additional picture and pattern formations. Whitcomb created the first charted "Diamond Ohio" logo, with a superimposed H and I with two triangular shaped Os to create a diamond design. The first charting design for drill sets utilized wooden dowels with nuts glued to the end, on a ping pong table lined as a football field.

Whitcomb was the band's director from 1939 to 1951, with the exception of a leave of absence from 1943-45 while he served in World War II. Assistant director William McBride assumed duties of director. The marching band is unique in that it was able to maintain a full 120 man roster during the war years. McBride was known to have invited band alumni, high school students, woodwind players, vocalists, and even random passersby to perform with the band on game days to ensure the full band took the field. The one exception was that they had to be male due to the policies set forth by the ROTC department. The band's instrumentation would change weekly during this era. Many other school bands were reduced in size, shut down, or simply played from the stands during the war. McBride felt it was beneficial for the fans and students at home to have full entertainment on the field to keep spirits strong.

In 1953, due to policy changes by the Department of Defense, the OSU Marching Band was no longer able to be considered a military unit for funding and course credit. This change also affected the Military band that met in the off season. Both bands were placed under control of the School of Music. During this era of policy changes, Ohio State dissolved its Corps of Cadets, which meant ROTC students would no longer wear the the distinctive navy blue and gold trimmed uniform of OSU's Corps of Cadets, but rather the uniform of their prospective service branch. The marching band bought every last remaining Corps of Cadets uniform to maintain their distinctive look.

As the 1950s continued, the band began experimenting more and more with more modern and popular music, especially Big Band and showtunes. In the 1960s, the band started adding occasional rock and roll or other popular hits to shows, culminating in a groundbreaking performance of Hang on Sloopy, recorded by Ohio band The McCoys. The performance of Sloopy was very well received by the stadium and the band was requested to play it multiple times that season. It was eventually added to the book of school songs to ensure it is played at least once per football game.

In 1970, Paul Droste took over as director of the band, and immediately set out to expand the band. The band had been at 120 members for over 40 years, and the band was being dwarfed in size by many of the contemporary Big Ten bands. Droste expanded the block to 192 regular members, plus 33 alternate members, for a total of 225 bandsmen. This expansion took place over several years.

In 1972, Title IX was passed by the Federal Government, requiring equal access to all education opportunities that receive Federal grant money. The marching band had been all male from inception until this point. While there was initial pushback from the band members, 4 women were selected as members of the band in 1973.

In 1980, Droste conducted an experiment to see if slide trombones could be navigated through Script Ohio, especially now that the band was doing more complex drill for halftime shows. Initial results were positive and by 1982 all tromboniums had been replaced by slide trombones.

In 1984, the marching band was the recipient of the Sudler Trophy, one of the most prestigious awards given to college and university marching bands. That same year, Paul Droste retired and Jon Woods, assistant director, became the director of the band.

Under Woods' leadership, the band continued to innovate in new genres and show designs, adding animation to pictures formed on the field. In 1996, the band's aging inventory of Eb alto horns was replaced with F mellophones. In 1999, Woods augmented the 28 piece tenor trombone section with 7 bass trombones to increase the tonal range of the trombone section.

Woods retired from the band in 2011, and assistant director Jon Waters took over as interim director. Waters continued to expand on the successes of the band through 2012, and after listening to complaints by students for years to do a show of video game music, decided to write a video game themed show. The video game show immediately went viral, with millions of views around the world. The near overnight popularity of the marching band catapulted the organization to new heights. OSU President Dr. E. Gordon Gee named Jon Waters the permanent director, and gave the band a million dollar budget.

In 2013, the band attended every home and away game, starred in an Apple commercial, had numerous interviews, celebrity tweets and posts, and Waters even appeared at a Ted Talk about technology and music.

In 2014, the band had planned to reduce its away trip schedule due to negative feedback from the students. In August of 2014, the university fired Jon Waters for what they deemed as a "sexualized culture." The university claimed Waters knew of the issues within the band culture and was not doing enough to improve the culture and safety of its members. The university released a scandalous and damning report that painted the entire band in a negative light, while dismissing students who had positive examples of band culture and other positive experiences.

The Marching Band Alumni Association released its own report with testimony from dozens of band alumni stating that while the issues published in the university report were factual and indeed occurred, many of these examples were drawn from a timeframe of almost 10 years and condensed into a singular report that did not list offense dates, making the report appear to be referencing the current students in the band only. Due to this report, the university hired an independent investigator to interview current and former band members, and to recommend changes to promote the health and safety of band members. The independent report interviewed dozens of current and former band members and staff and concluded that while there were issues with the culture of the band and that changes needed to be made, Jon Waters was in fact instituting cultural changes to the program that needed to be made. Ultimately the university claimed the changes Waters was implementing were not being done fast enough.