Link
LONGHORNS FOOTBALL
Band finds benefactor
OSU band paid own way to Austin
By
John Maher
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, September 04, 2006
Ohio State football coaching legend Woody Hayes famously figured that the school's band was worth three points on the road and seven points at home.
But the Buckeye band, famous for its Script Ohio routine, complete with an i-dotting tuba player, was nearly omitted from Ohio State's travel plans for Saturday's big game against Texas. The band received $225,000 from a benefactor and raised another $25,000 to pay its way to Austin.
Ron Alvey
(enlarge photo)
The Ohio State University marching band, known by its acronym, TBDBITL (the Best Damn Band in the Land), parts to allow the Buckeyes to run into Ohio Stadium. The band will be in Austin next weekend.
Ohio State, the first university to top $100 million for its athletic budget, typically takes its band to only one or two road games a year, including every Michigan game. This year's scheduled trip was to Michigan State. No money was earmarked to bring the band to Austin.
Last year for the trip to Ohio State, Texas took more than 150 band members, a fraction of its 400 members.
Typically, the entire Longhorn band will travel to football games within reasonable driving distance — and that includes Lubbock. For plane trips, the band is usually limited to about 100 members.
"We like to have a presence at every road game," said Ed Goble, men's associate athletic director for business at UT.
Texas originally planned to take about 100 band members to Columbus last year until Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told his counterpart and friend DeLoss Dodds that a 100-piece band wouldn't sound like much with more than 100,000 fans in Ohio Stadium. Smith urged Dodds to bring more of the band.
"We ended up taking about 150 or 175 band members," Goble said. "It cost us about $100,000 last year."
Ohio State will bring its full band. Director Jon R. Woods said that at Ohio State, like at most Big Ten schools, bringing the band is an all-or-nothing proposition. (The school doesn't do pep bands.)
The Buckeye band numbers 192 on the field and playing in the stands at any game, but 225 musicians compete for those spots, and all of them get to make the trip. In addition, about 25 student support members come along, a total of 250 people.
At the stadium, not only does each band member take a seat; a sousaphone or drum set might occupy one as well, making a sizable dent in the 4,000 seats that Ohio State has been allotted at Royal-Memorial Stadium.
The Buckeye band's fundraising started a year ago for the Austin trip and got a quick boost from Columbus resident Walt Dennis and his wife, Jane. Neither is a former
OSU band member. He went to Bowling Green, and she to the University of Wisconsin.
"He's been doing several things at Ohio State," Jane Dennis said. "We've become big Buckeye supporters."
Dennis, who owns an automobile accessory business and whose name graces a learning center at Ohio State, contributed $225,000 for the trip to Austin. The band continued to do some other fundraising, which turned out to be prudent.
"We found out we have a gas surcharge of about $6,000," Woods said of the flight to Austin. "But, with what he was able to give us, we more than have the trip covered."
The Ohio State band will practice at Burger Center on Friday. Then on game day, it will be at the Erwin Center performing its famous Skull Session for fans in the afternoon before heading to the stadium.
"Coach (Jim) Tressel was very pleased we were coming," Woods said.
The band should look particularly sharp in Austin, at least at the start of the day. For the first time in 20 years, it has all new uniforms, but in Buckeye tradition the black pants and jackets are designed for Big Ten weather. They're wool.
"We'll be pretty warm," Woods understated.
