00:10 - We're joined today by Thomas Range.

00:11 - You've you're a member of the Alumni Blue Band board of directors.

00:15 - You've also written several books

00:16 - about the Penn State Blue Band and you were a member at one time.

00:20 - How do you tell the story differently than somebody who was not a participant?

00:25 - Oh, well, I mean, especially when it comes to the history of the band

00:29 - as well as being in the band.

00:32 - Actually being in the band is is,

00:36 - definitely a positive role trying to share stories.

00:39 - It is interesting that no matter what, if I was in the band in the 80s,

00:44 - which I was, I have friends who are in the band in the 70s.

00:47 - I have friends who were in the band in the 90s and the 2000.

00:51 - Yet we could always come together at homecoming and share stories about

00:55 - all this. Director.

00:56 - When I was in the band, we did this and I did that.

00:58 - It's a shared experience that goes over so many generations.

01:02 - So if you're outside looking in,

01:06 - you might not understand the camaraderie, you might not understand things.

01:10 - And I think one thing, I'm an ex teacher, and one of the things

01:15 - that I'd like to blow my own horn about is being able to explain things

01:20 - to people that don't understand.

01:23 - And, yeah, it just gives me a, I think a

01:28 - a good perspective, because I could talk about it outside,

01:31 - like I have children who went to Penn State that were not in the blue band,

01:35 - but they saw what I did, and they know about the history.

01:40 - What first interested you in, auditioning to be a member of the Penn

01:44 - State Blue Band?

01:45 - I'm out of the ordinary, because there's plenty of students

01:49 - that go to Penn State specifically to be in the blue band.

01:53 - I had no idea that Penn State had a marching band.

01:56 - I applied, I ended up, summer session,

02:01 - went up, said goodbye to my,

02:04 - mom and my brothers and sisters.

02:07 - Sister, went into the dorm,

02:09 - got into the elevator, and there's a guy drumming all over there.

02:13 - You know, all over the place.

02:16 - And, he stops like, we're going to the third floor,

02:19 - and he stops and points to me.

02:20 - He's like, you went to Pendlebury High School?

02:22 - And I was like, okay, am I where am I?

02:24 - Pendlebury High School jacket or something?

02:27 - And it turned out I'm a cello player and I was in the orchestra

02:31 - and he was a drummer, and he was also in the orchestra.

02:34 - He's four years older.

02:35 - So Flash flood, we called him and, we just got to talk.

02:40 - It turned out that we were right next to each other.

02:42 - His dorm was right next to my dorm.

02:44 - And when he learned that, oh, yeah, I was in the Pittsburgh

02:47 - marching band, but just for two years, I was.

02:49 - They needed an extra drummer. So I was a drummer.

02:51 - My junior year, they needed a sousaphone as my senior year.

02:54 - So I played sousaphone my senior year.

02:57 - So I had some drum,

03:00 - marching band experience, but I had no I had no inkling.

03:04 - I was like, I don't have time for this, I don't know.

03:06 - And he just every day during that summer, you gotta you got it.

03:10 - You just got it. You're going to love it. You just got it.

03:12 - And he brought me up to the band office.

03:14 - He introduced me to then director, medical assistant director, Doc Bondy.

03:20 - All these different people that got me a sousaphone,

03:24 - and I basically was up there every other day practicing,

03:28 - and I don't know if they took pity on me because believe me, like I say, I'm

03:31 - a cellist.

03:33 - I'm a much better tell us than I am a sousaphone.

03:35 - But I became an alternate.

03:37 - My, first year, my second year, and then my third year.

03:41 - I had a spot in, pregame and my senior year, but I was also a helper,

03:46 - so I was an officer basically all four years

03:49 - until I became the president my senior year.

03:51 - What was the audition process like?

03:53 - Oh, well, there's three major parts.

03:56 - There's musical,

03:58 - and then there is the marching part,

04:00 - and then the musical is broken up into your concert piece.

04:05 - Obviously scales. That goes with anything.

04:07 - And then you also have an audition piece,

04:09 - and then you have what is known as band camp, and you basically learn the

04:14 - the blue band way of marching, which is more of a big tent style.

04:17 - And it was funny,

04:18 - we were calling it the Big Ten style before Penn State was in the Big Ten,

04:22 - but it's called a chair step where you have this very high

04:26 - and delineated, marching step.

04:29 - Compared to high school, certain high

04:30 - schools are more drum corps, which is like nonstop movement.

04:34 - Others are just your traditional military kind of marching band.

04:39 - So bands have their own style.

04:41 - The blue band style is taught, and then you're also graded

04:45 - on your marching style, and that's the audition process.

04:49 - I feel bad

04:52 - mostly for

04:52 - woodwinds because a lot of high school bands are woodwind heavy,

04:57 - so they come to the blue band, which is more brass heavy,

05:01 - and they have a much harder time making the band.

05:04 - Usually the best marches were the piccolo players

05:08 - because at my, my, my years the only took six of them.

05:13 - So usually the playing was about equal.

05:16 - So they had to decide who was by marching, who was going to make the band,

05:21 - what characteristics would make somebody

05:24 - a good member or a good, potential member of the blue band?

05:28 - Want musicality,

05:30 - the ability to work with others, obviously.

05:33 - Punctuality.

05:35 - There's the saying, you know,

05:38 - if you're

05:40 - if you're early, you're on time.

05:42 - If you're on time, you're late. And if you're late, you're out.

05:45 - They'll just say, okay, we have alternates.

05:47 - You're going to sit out this next game or you're not coming back to the band.

05:53 - Dedication, loyalty,

05:56 - work ethic, understanding that, hey, you have you have to work for this.

06:00 - It's it's Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, 4 to 6.

06:04 - It's Tuesday night.

06:05 - If there's a game on Saturday, it's an all day event.

06:09 - And if it's an away game, it might be a 2 to 3 day event.

06:14 - And then if you're an officer or the drumline especially,

06:17 - they have special rehearsals or, meetings on Thursday nights.

06:21 - So you're talking 5 to 6 days a week.

06:24 - It's basically a part time job.

06:26 - Can you talk about the challenges of having the role of an alternate

06:29 - and how that's different than somebody that has a regular spot every week?

06:32 - Sure, sure. So,

06:36 - pregame is is set

06:38 - like you can't have okay, this week we have 150 people.

06:42 - Next week we have 160 people.

06:44 - Pre-game is preset with how many people can be in pregame.

06:49 - Now you could make the band,

06:52 - and the band

06:53 - has 300 and let's say pregame is to 280.

06:56 - Now, I'm not sure what the number is because

06:58 - it's it's gotten bigger because they've added things,

07:02 - but that leaves 20 spots

07:04 - that people say you're an alternate.

07:07 - And what that means is if someone gets sick

07:10 - or is disciplined or what have you, you can be plopped right into that spot.

07:14 - Now, sometimes they have shadows, so they purposely have you shadow someone,

07:19 - but really it could.

07:21 - Hey, you're in Saturday and it might be Thursday.

07:24 - And it's very nerve wracking because pregame is quite different.

07:29 - Every single person on that spot

07:31 - has a different spot,

07:34 - like I was G1 and right next to me was,

07:39 - S1 and we never saw it.

07:41 - Like we marched and then we never saw each other again.

07:44 - We marched onto the field

07:45 - and then our spots were were just different because of that, that

07:50 - you know, the floating lions and the PSU formation and this formation,

07:55 - every person has their own individual spot.

07:56 - We always I don't want to say we make fun of Ohio State and mind you,

08:00 - I would love to adopt the I in Ohio State, but,

08:04 - we always jokingly say they're pre-games or follow the leader.

08:06 - The only person that needs to know what they're doing

08:08 - is the very first person, because everybody else just follows

08:11 - that one person.

08:13 - Well, the blue band, everyone has their own spot.

08:17 - Now when it becomes halftime,

08:20 - they pretty much keep all the phones the same.

08:22 - And the guy next to me, to my left and the girl to my right,

08:27 - all I have to really do is follow them, because we're probably all going up

08:31 - 5 or 8 steps, mark timing and going back together as a group.

08:36 - But pre-game is a total different, animal.

08:39 - And an alternate just has to be prepared to be thrown in at any time.

08:43 - It's they're the members of the band.

08:46 - Don't get me wrong.

08:48 - It's just

08:49 - maybe musicality wise or marching wise or whatever,

08:53 - that they they don't have a permanent spot yet.

08:56 - And, I mean, I usually it's one year I, I was an alternate for two years

09:01 - and then I finally had my own spot my junior year.

09:05 - How are members of the Blue band perceived by others on campus?

09:10 - Quite different from high school, completely different from high school?

09:15 - I still remember my very first game, and this is before the blue band building.

09:20 - This is before you could eat at other people's dorms.

09:24 - So I was living in South Halls

09:27 - and I had to go to rehearsal, which was on the other side of East Halls.

09:32 - And back then you showed up in full uniform

09:34 - because there was no place to change.

09:36 - You'd get a box lunch from the cafeteria in your cafeteria

09:39 - area, and then, you'd walk up to practice.

09:43 - And I remember walking up to practice, I was in full uniform

09:46 - and people looking, you know, surprised, like, oh.

09:50 - And then all of a sudden I heard, heard, like, windows opening

09:53 - and I'm like, oh, here comes oh, look at that jerk low.

09:56 - You look so funny in that outfit.

09:58 - Oh, and it was totally opposite.

10:00 - It was so positive.

10:02 - And like blue band, you go out there, you kick some butt, you are some blue band.

10:06 - We love you.

10:07 - And I'm like, who wants this is a total different,

10:12 - completely different feel.

10:14 - I think it was not that game, but the next game and again, no blue band building.

10:19 - So we didn't march back anywhere. Like the game's over.

10:22 - Okay, go home and we just walk out of the stadium in uniform.

10:27 - Walking back to the dorms and I had this mother come up.

10:31 - It's like,

10:32 - hey, can I take a picture?

10:34 - My my son wants to play tuba, and and he'd love to,

10:37 - you know, can we get a picture with you and the tuba?

10:40 - And I'm like, where am I?

10:43 - What is this?

10:44 - But it's it's totally different.

10:46 - The marching band program and the blue band especially is

10:50 - it's put up on such a high pedestal, like there's a lot of great respect

10:55 - given to the band, which for me, and I'm not saying

10:59 - I went to a poor high school or the high school,

11:01 - we were respected as well, but nowhere near as much as the blue band.

11:06 - Had written

11:06 - that the Blue Band was originally formed as a cadet band in 1889.

11:10 - How did that band come together?

11:11 - It was actually 1899.

11:13 - 1899.

11:15 - Was the original now there were they were bands before that one.

11:19 - There was like, did come and go.

11:21 - There's a fife and drum.

11:24 - Corps that I think was the 1819, 1889.

11:27 - But 1899 is where the blue being completely traced and say,

11:33 - yes, that's the date.

11:34 - That's the year that we started.

11:37 - And it all started with, George Dickey,

11:40 - who actually has a building named after him on the University.

11:43 - Nothing.

11:44 - And not because of the blue band, because of, what he did with mine safety.

11:49 - But, and, like, he was an incoming freshman,

11:53 - and he fought in the Spanish-American War,

11:56 - and he was a trumpet player, bugler for the Spanish-American War.

12:01 - And, Taliaferro came in who was the commandant of cadets

12:05 - doing a normal everyday inspection, noticed

12:08 - the bugle and asked, can you actually play that?

12:11 - And he was like, yes, sir. Yes, sir.

12:12 - I was in the Spanish-American War.

12:14 - It's like Conway office tomorrow.

12:16 - I want to I want to say came in with the bugle,

12:19 - had him play some normal drill kind of stuff and said, you know what,

12:25 - I'm tasking you to

12:26 - find some more musicians and we'll create a cadet band.

12:30 - So he found five more.

12:32 - Think it was a snare drum. Bass drum.

12:34 - And then three other bugles.

12:35 - So there was the six of them, and that's.

12:38 - That's how it started.

12:40 - And it gained in popularity.

12:42 - They needed funding for, school instruments.

12:45 - So they'd send out messages to different people.

12:47 - Hey, who would who can give us money?

12:49 - And Andrew Carnegie heard and there's Carnegie.

12:53 - Used to be Carnegie Hall on Penn State campus.

12:57 - Now it's just the Carnegie building.

12:59 - But, Carnegie, I think some people pronounce it like that, too.

13:03 - And, he said, here's $500,

13:06 - which if you think $500 in 1900

13:10 - compared to 2020 for that $500,

13:14 - probably thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

13:17 - And, he wrote a little note.

13:19 - What was it? It was.

13:21 - I think

13:22 - there's nothing better to get the devilment out of a boy

13:26 - than to blow it through a brass horn and, they use that funding.

13:30 - And the band just grew and grew and grew.

13:32 - Now it became the Blue Band.

13:35 - Not until 1923.

13:38 - And what had happened is it was all student run.

13:41 - And then they said, hey, we want an original,

13:45 - a real conductor, director of some sort.

13:49 - And I mean, there's the the John Philip Sousa.

13:52 - But then they were friends of John Philip Sousa, and one of them was, Wilfred Otto.

13:56 - Tommy Thompson, and Penn State hired him.

14:00 - And I'm pretty sure the president of the university at that time,

14:05 - was, an impetus to get an army

14:08 - because he was an Ohio State,

14:11 - graduate, and he was in Ohio State marching band.

14:14 - And so, Thompson was hired.

14:18 - And in 1923, now, back then, it was all military.

14:21 - Penn State was a military school, so to speak.

14:24 - It was part of the requirement to be a land grant.

14:27 - And they got new uniforms.

14:28 - And in 23, but only 50 new blue uniform showed up.

14:34 - The rest were all the normal khaki.

14:37 - And who was going to get the blue uniforms.

14:40 - And it was only the best players.

14:42 - So basically the best players were in the blue band,

14:46 - and the blue band was the band that would go to special

14:49 - reception scenes or play for football games and stuff.

14:53 - So everyone wanted to be in the blue band and the name just stuck.

14:57 - At what point were women integrated into the band?

15:00 - Well, there's the technical and then there's the we kind of had to,

15:06 - the kind of had to was World War Two.

15:11 - Most of the men, I mean, 1941

15:13 - season was was okay, but 1942,

15:17 - 43, 44 when, basically most of the male musicians

15:22 - were being shipped overseas, they were letting, women in.

15:26 - They were letting professors in.

15:27 - They were loving high school students.

15:28 - And many colleges didn't have a band program.

15:32 - During the war years.

15:33 - Penn State tried to keep it going, and women were allowed to audition

15:38 - and be in it.

15:39 - It's funny because if you see pictures back then,

15:42 - they're wearing guys like jackets in the,

15:45 - you know, the coattails go all the way down to their knees.

15:49 - They were two, sisters, Edith and Edna Murray,

15:53 - who were considered, two of the first band, female members.

15:58 - One was piccolo, the other was,

16:03 - an a bassoon.

16:04 - I think it was like a not a marching instrument.

16:06 - So she became a symbol player, and they gave her some symbols to perform on.

16:11 - So that's when, you know, women were in the band.

16:14 - And then in 47, when men started to come back,

16:18 - they decided to split the band program up, and it became the Marching

16:23 - Blue Band in the concert blue band, which a lot of people don't like.

16:26 - A lot of times you're Pennsylvania State University

16:28 - Marching Blue Band, and everyone's like, why do they put the word marching?

16:33 - Isn't the blue being just the marching band?

16:35 - And back in the 80s and 70s all the way on up,

16:39 - they were actually concert band, concert blue band.

16:42 - There was a concert white band, there was the university band.

16:46 - There were many different bands,

16:48 - but women were allowed in the concert

16:51 - blue band than the marching band all the way until 73.

16:55 - Basically, title nine kind of said, hey,

16:59 - it's got to be and I was shocked.

17:02 - Being in the band in the 80s, in 1985 was my first year, and being like,

17:06 - one of them are only allowed in here for ten years.

17:09 - But you know, things you take for granted and that's, that's, that's crazy.

17:14 - That's but but yeah, it first

17:17 - started off with majorettes allowed in 72

17:21 - and then female musicians in 73, and then the Silk Line.

17:25 - There was a slow climb, but it was more flag bearers.

17:29 - But in 74 when they actually came up with a silk line.

17:34 - And those are flags for those.

17:36 - A lot of times I say silks and people like when you talk about, say,

17:40 - flags, we could have just said polyester because that's what they are.

17:44 - What notable

17:45 - element of the pregame show that's well known is the drum majors?

17:48 - Philip, how did this tradition get instituted?

17:51 - Well, that's that's very interesting. So,

17:55 - before the flip drum majors

17:58 - could do anything we want,

18:01 - we're used to now, the floating, lions drill

18:05 - that was made by Doctor Diehl, who wasn't a doctor at the time.

18:08 - He was an assistant director.

18:09 - And all the way down in 1965.

18:13 - And the drum major would, you know, lead the band out.

18:16 - And most of the time they'd baton twirl or throw

18:18 - the mace up and catch it and everyone be like, oh, And, Jeff

18:24 - Robertson in 1971, here's the drum major in 1971.

18:28 - He basically was like, I'm not good at this stuff.

18:31 - I'm not good at this baton stuff.

18:33 - I am an acrobat.

18:34 - So he ran out and he actually did a backflip,

18:38 - not the the current foot, but he did a backflip.

18:40 - And everyone's like, what was that like?

18:43 - I guess we should clap.

18:44 - That was an accident.

18:46 - And then he did it the next game.

18:47 - And, Doctor Dunlap, who was the director at that time, came up to me was like,

18:51 - do you plan to do that after every game?

18:53 - He's like, yep, well, don't screw it up.

18:55 - And that's how the, the, the flip became a tradition.

18:59 - Well, wasn't a tradition yet.

19:01 - And I feel bad for the,

19:04 - blue band, drum major of the year after that.

19:07 - Robertson was there for I think three years, four years

19:11 - he graduates and then comes drum major Eric Phallic.

19:16 - Now, remember,

19:18 - this wasn't a tradition like the drum major can do anything they wanted.

19:22 - So he went back to baton twirling, mace twirling,

19:25 - whatever, and he was being booed off the field.

19:28 - It was very sad, I feel so I mean, I have never seen him back for homecoming.

19:33 - Like, I would love to talk to him someday,

19:36 - but, he was there for two years,

19:39 - and it was just a bad taste in his mouth, you know, to to do all that.

19:43 - So after his his tenure,

19:46 - it was now mandatory to do a flip.

19:50 - And in comes Ron Loud.

19:51 - I think by now it's like 1977.

19:55 - And Ron Louder comes up and he does a front flip

19:58 - and he makes it and everyone claps and says,

20:02 - hey, why, why, why did you change it to a front flip?

20:05 - And he begins, he says, I can't do a backflip.

20:08 - I just, I can't.

20:09 - So I made it a front flip and that's where it all started.

20:12 - The next drummer after that.

20:15 - So Ron would do the front flip.

20:16 - Now the drum major does the front flip and jumps down

20:20 - and does the salute that was added the next year after Ron.

20:25 - Talk about the tradition.

20:26 - I'm sorry.

20:26 - The superstition. That's a sign to the things.

20:29 - Yeah, yeah.

20:30 - Well, it's it's it's right.

20:31 - So as long as the drum major makes the flip, Penn State will win the game.

20:37 - But I think it's more if the drum major doesn't make the flip,

20:42 - they will lose the game because nine times out of ten,

20:46 - the drum major makes it even more than nine times out of ten.

20:49 - I mean, it's that's they have one job.

20:52 - So, you know, it's hard to say oh he made the flip.

20:55 - We're going to win

20:56 - because they still have to play the game or it's not like we have 100%.

21:00 - So it's more the other way where if he misses it

21:02 - it's like, oh no, we we could end up losing this game.

21:07 - But it's, it's neat to see that.

21:10 - And then in 89, 90,

21:15 - Mike Carroll, the drum major,

21:17 - added another flip in the south end.

21:20 - Yes. South end zone.

21:22 - Because some of the students can't see the flip, the marching bands coming down.

21:25 - So they added another flip for the students there.

21:29 - You had noted earlier that the blue band finally got their own building in 2004.

21:33 - Why is this notable?

21:35 - I would say one of the best things to happen for

21:38 - the Blue Band was Penn State joining the Big Ten,

21:42 - because then Penn State football, but as well as a band

21:45 - program, could go visit the other Big Ten schools and be like,

21:50 - oh, Michigan has their own building, Ohio State has their own building.

21:54 - Michigan has its own practice field.

21:56 - Ohio State has its own practice field.

21:58 - Wisconsin, you know, all the other schools already had their own buildings.

22:04 - And it was like a shock years ago,

22:07 - like having those bands come visit us.

22:10 - It's like, yeah, yeah, you have to visit, but

22:13 - you need to get out of the way because the cars are coming in to park.

22:17 - Like that's where we practice.

22:18 - And that's why the band had always had to practice at like 6 or 7 in the morning

22:22 - on a Saturday because the lot opened up at eight

22:25 - and we had to get off the field so cars could be parked.

22:28 - So it was a very, very big deal.

22:31 - The Penn State Alumni Association, I think, also realized like,

22:35 - oh, this is ridiculous.

22:37 - We look like idiots not having at least a band building.

22:42 - So they they did this great fundraiser where

22:46 - if you put in $1, they would put in two to match it.

22:50 - And they and then there was an award winning,

22:54 - commercial made for it that was shown on Beaver Stadium.

22:57 - I mean, everyone remembers the commercial, mostly because,

23:00 - you know, when we practice, if we had to go to the bathroom,

23:03 - we had to go to a porta potty.

23:05 - So the commercial is a porta potty there, and there's a line of four sousaphone

23:09 - players waiting.

23:10 - Come on, let's go. I have to go.

23:12 - And, you know, ridiculous.

23:14 - Trying to go into a party with that thing.

23:16 - So the band building has its own bathrooms.

23:18 - And on top of that, another set of bathrooms for non blue banners to go to.

23:22 - And then there's lockers.

23:24 - It was nice to finally get things centralized because,

23:30 - the basement of of the music building room three was where you'd store

23:35 - your uniform, where uniforms were stored and some instruments.

23:39 - During the season, the instruments were moved to two

23:43 - trailers, I mean, two trailers and eventually three trailer trailers,

23:48 - because the band grew on the side of,

23:51 - you know, a roadway on the the,

23:55 - directors had offices, but they were not in the music building.

23:59 - They were over across the street in chambers building because the band

24:03 - was partial music and partial music.

24:07 - You it was just we were the band was just spread out everywhere.

24:10 - So they having a blue band building was just an incredible thing.

24:15 - You had a place where uniforms could stay.

24:17 - No longer would I get a band person would get the uniform

24:21 - a week before the first game and then have to take it home

24:25 - after every game and if it was muddy or whatever.

24:28 - I mean, some people just

24:30 - threw the uniform in their closet, not hanging it up,

24:33 - and then they'd come out the next week and look horrible.

24:36 - Can you talk about when the Alumni Blue Band became an entity

24:39 - and the role that they play?

24:40 - Sure, sure.

24:41 - That was 1963, and that was,

24:45 - a brainchild of Doctor Dunlap, director of the Blue Band at the time,

24:50 - and some, x,

24:53 - x members of the band who were in the area there was,

24:56 - let's see, there was,

25:00 - junk check.

25:01 - There was,

25:05 - oh. Who else was there?

25:07 - Chuck was one of the I mean, he was a state

25:10 - college, high school, band director.

25:13 - I want to say Allen tick.

25:14 - But it's not tick. Allen.

25:17 - But basically it was a bunch

25:19 - of x blue band officers that were rich.

25:23 - Victor. That was the name.

25:26 - That we're interested in.

25:28 - Hey, we've done this all this time.

25:30 - Let's get together.

25:31 - And, could we come back for homecoming?

25:36 - And he was very open.

25:37 - Dunlop was very open to the idea.

25:38 - He he stayed in touch with most of his students anyway, the letters were sent out

25:44 - and they had a good group of 40, 50 people saying, sure, we'll come back.

25:48 - And the first homecoming,

25:50 - they just sat with the current band and played from the stands.

25:54 - And it wasn't until the next year there's okay, I think there's more people

25:58 - interested in coming back, and that's where Alumni Band kind of started.

26:01 - Now, though, it was just the alumni band for years and years and years,

26:05 - and then it doctor, Bundy decided

26:10 - late 90s we should really make it

26:14 - an official group of Penn State because it was it was an outside source.

26:18 - You know, everyone did everything their own, their own way.

26:21 - And Bundy really thought, you know what?

26:23 - It's it's it's a Penn State group.

26:26 - It should get that.

26:27 - So the Blue Beard is actually a was an alumni affiliate group

26:34 - compared to alumni interest group.

26:38 - And the blue band could have went either way.

26:39 - But the blue bands under the College of Arts and Architecture.

26:42 - So that's why they went with the affiliate group.

26:45 - So we're an affiliate of the College of Arts and Architecture.

26:49 - What's it like standing in the tunnel,

26:50 - getting ready to go out onto the field to to perform your pre-game?

26:56 - Well, I remember president

26:57 - and and talking to incoming freshmen because I had gone through it.

27:01 - And so it was right before the first game.

27:03 - And I was like, all of you freshmen,

27:08 - don't worry about playing.

27:10 - Just enjoy the moment, get out there,

27:13 - follow your spots, because you're going to be distracted.

27:16 - And you might say, no, it's not going to be a big deal.

27:19 - You're going to be distracted.

27:20 - In my day, it was 85,000.

27:22 - People are going to be screaming and yelling as you come out onto the field,

27:28 - and it will be a distraction, and you don't want to mess up you.

27:33 - Not playing is not a big deal,

27:35 - as you're making a left when you should have made a right.

27:39 - It is a the adrenaline gets you going.

27:43 - There's nothing that I've ever experienced that can compare to running it

27:48 - at the total, especially with the drummers going at and an hour day.

27:53 - It was like 180 beats per second.

27:55 - I mean, it was super, super fast.

27:57 - It slowed down a little bit.

27:59 - One thing that us older

28:00 - people like to hold over the younger kids is like, when I was in the band,

28:04 - we ran a back and forth backwards

28:07 - without shoes and all this other stuff,

28:10 - but, yeah, it's it's definitely a different feeling.

28:14 - One of the quotes that we've all we always said

28:17 - to prepare everyone because you're stacked up,

28:21 - no one behind you can see past you.

28:24 - So the first line will say,

28:25 - hey, the drums are out, which means we're about to start.

28:29 - And they would say, drums are out, drums are out, drums are out, and going

28:32 - all the way back. And,

28:35 - that's when we knew.

28:35 - Okay, we better get ready and listen.

28:38 - Listen for the whistle

28:41 - and come rushing out.

28:42 - What really was very funny was when we got the alumni band and Doctor

28:47 - Bunny set up this affiliate program group, and we're gonna,

28:50 - you know, officially do this.

28:52 - He signed it.

28:53 - You know how you say best wishes or for the glory.

28:55 - He wrote, drums are out, you know, to prepare us.

28:58 - Well, he got some messages from drummers were.

29:02 - What do you mean? We're not allowed to join that? We're.

29:04 - Because they never hear that term. They're out.

29:06 - So they never heard that term before.

29:08 - And it was like, oh my God, I never really thought of it that way.

29:11 - Unfortunately, we are pretty short on time.

29:13 - But before we wrap up, what's the most valuable thing

29:16 - that you think you acquired from being a member of the Blue Band?

29:19 - Friendship, friendship, complete and total friendship.

29:23 - And it's not just friendship with the people I marched

29:26 - with, it's friendships with people I never marched with

29:31 - that I just met through Alumni band,

29:34 - one of my best friends, Lou Lazaro.

29:39 - We never marched. He.

29:40 - I graduated and he came, but we met at homecoming

29:44 - through a mutual friend, and we just hit it off.

29:47 - And, I mean,

29:48 - he lives just a few miles away from me, and we talk about things all the time.

29:52 - It's just friendship and the common experience

29:56 - that we've all experienced together, whether it's been

30:00 - the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 89 is we all have something.

30:05 - It's just a great feeling.

30:06 - Thomas Range, thank you for joining us.

30:08 - Oh, you're very welcome.

30:09 - Thank you for having me. Hey.