There is a current effort by some alumni of the UVA Pep Band to produce a documentary chronicling the band’s history from its beginnings to the present day. The University’s traditional-style marching band had last performed at a home football game in the early 1960s. With the efforts of Frank Block and Steve Mershon, the Pep Band formed as a student-run organization and first performed on the field at home football games in 1974. Frank, a medical student, received his undergraduate degree in Music from Yale and brought his experience with a saterical scramble band format to UVA. New ACC member Stanford’s band continues to use this format.
My first year at the University was 1974. A dorm hallmate, a trombonist, knew I played drums and recruited me for the band. He was involved in the show committee, and I tagged along to the committee meetings where we brainstormed ideas.
In those years, Scott Stadium had a capacity of 30,000 with no upper deck. The south end zone was not enclosed, and it lacked lights. The games started at 1 pm, and the home crowd sat in the east stands. With an eleven-game schedule and no bye weeks, the first game was played in mid-September, and the last game took place on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The visiting team’s fans occupied the west bleachers.
Our last home game was against Maryland on that November Saturday. Their band was scheduled to attend the game and perform on the field at halftime. Mid-week, their band cancelled, and we needed to fill their portion of the show.
With short notice, three of us on the show committee formed the world’s smallest marching band. A marching band typically consists of a drum major, a percussion section, and melodic instruments. Our band had Jordan on the accordion, me on the bass drum, and I don’t remember who the drum major was. In the regular show, Frank was dressed as Santa Claus.
Using old Virginia Marching Band uniforms, we duct taped the backs to make the V look like an M. We were introduced as the Maryland band and played to the visiting stands. Because we were the Maryland Band, the film archive does not include our portion of the show.
An integral part of a scramble band performance is the announcer’s dialogue,
My high school band director would have been proud of my marching form that I had learned in my Freshman and Sophomore years.
Remember those cliques from high school. I’m not sure where I fit. Was I the football and track jock? Band geek? Math sqyad and chess club nerd? Or Newspaper Staff whatever? I digress.
Coming in from the south end zone, the world’s smallest band maintained a perfectly straight line at 8 to 5, marching into our first formation: two points make a straight line. I still remember my part of the music, it was thud, thud, thud-thud-thud and repeat.
We got complex on the second formation and added the drum major for: three points make a plane. And the music remained the same. Filling enough time, we marched back to the south endzone, joining the pep band for the remainder of the show.
During my four years, the football team won eight games. Many fans stayed until halftime, watched the show, and then left. We were more entertaining.
To entice students to attend sporting events, the University instituted Sabre Points. Students with more points have a better chance of winning the lottery for seats at home Men’s Basketball games. The highest point totals are allowed the earliest entrances to the games. With a competitive basketball team, students strive to earn points.
I wondered why students at football games tend to melt away during halftime, with the student section and hill becoming vacant. To accumulate points, they need to stay at the game for a while. It wasn’t because they had to get to Alderman before it closed. Perhaps the event needs to become more entertaining to keep them engaged.
I played in the pep band my first year. In my second year, I became involved with a small rock/blues band that played a few gigs on ground,s and my grades suffered accordingly. By my third year, I was involved in too many other activities, and my music career came to an end.
Frank downloaded the films from three 1974 shows to YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/wildcardciswildcardcis. I can neither confirm nor deny any involvement when the feathers flew at halftime during the 1974 Tech game.
Donations are being accepted to cover the documentary production cost at https://pepbanned.com/donate/