With bowl games and such in flux, I didn’t post after the excellent Bedlam series game in Norman on November 28, when our Sooners finished the season strongly by shutting out #12-ranked OSU, 27-0. As put it at the time, “Oklahoma beat Oklahoma St 27-0, potentially costing the Big 12 $4.5M. The Cowboys have been knocked out of BCS contention. The only chance the league has now of putting a second team in the BCS is if Nebraska beats Texas next week.”
If you watched the game, you know that this literally came within one step of happening. Colt McCoy revealed this week that he did not know that the clock runs on incomplete passes until it hits something out of bounds. Had he scrambled for just one more step, it’s likely the ball he launched would not have hit the ground until time had run out, flushing Texas’s undefeated season, conference championship, BCS Championship game bid, and McCoy’s Heisman hopes right down the Bevo Basin. The Longhorns are extremely lucky that ball didn’t stay in the air for an extra ½ second.
Had it done so, Nebraska would be in the Fiesta Bowl, Texas would be a BCS at-large team, and Oklahoma probably would have been chosen one earlier in the pecking order and be heading to the Alamo Bowl. Instead, with five losses, our Sooners have been invited to play the 8-4 Stanford Cardinal in the Brut Sun Bowl (December 31, 1:00 PM CST on CBS). Cardinal running back Toby Gerhart is one of the five finalists for the 2009 Heisman Trophy, but Stanford’s starting quarterback is injured and will not play in the bowl game. OU can tell them a few thing about losing starters to injuries.
The Cowboy Marching Band played Carry On Wayward Son and Bohemian Rhapsody for their halftime show. The Pride’s seniors voted on their favorite tune from the past four years for the opener, and they selected the theme from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which they had last performed in 2006. (I know it was done once before that, then once in 1993, and maybe before that but I don’t think so. I could be wrong.) The concert number was New Divide from Transfomers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, and that was followed by the (at least) 32 seniors who will join us as Pride Alumni after the Sun Bowl.
That includes outgoing drum major Jason Marshall, who was presented with a Bob Stoops autographed football on the field after the game by assistant athletics director for marketing Charlie Taylor, who himself served as drum major of the Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band and knows first-hand how difficult the job is. The Norman Transcriptreported on Jason’s final game, in no small part because his mother was there to see it:
Shirley Marshall wasn’t missing her son’s final strut across Owen Field Saturday, even if she had to be wheeled in on a stretcher.
And for the first time this season, she didn’t.
Wheelchair, yes. Stretcher, no.
I say “at least” 32 new alumni because the number is likely to be higher. Most of you remember that Pride auditions involve enrolling in the class, signing up for audition material, and so forth, so the band department has a strong idea by July 1 how many people are going to audition for each year’s band. This year, there was a significant drop-off from the number of people signed up on July 1 and the number who showed up for pre-camp just six weeks later.
There was some burn-out—with three BCS bowl games in the previous three seasons and a 2007 term that included the Oklahoma Centennial and the Macy’s® Thanksgiving Day Parade, I can certainly sympathize with those now-alumni who felt they got five years’ worth of experience in three seasons. When I had this year’s Macy’s parade on TV, I got tired just thinking about that year. And I didn’t even go!
But most of those folks had made up their minds before July 1. The attrition is largely due to the economy. Students used to piling on work hours in the summer to save for the fall and spring terms found that there were fewer hours available in 2009. Others realized that they needed to keep working during the fall to make ends meet, and that just wouldn’t work with a class schedule and the grueling Pride schedule.
Remember, that means a minimum of six hours per week for road games. For home game weeks, it’s ten hours of rehearsal and six hours of game (from rewarm through post-game concert), and that’s not counting downtime before the game when things like work are impossible. And it also doesn’t count road trips (this year twice to Dallas, for the BYU and Texas games), pep bands, individual practice, or the rest. The minimum committment this season averaged to over 12 hours per week, and that’s without full-band trips to Stillwater, Lincoln, or (sadly) the Big 12 Championship, and does not include the upcoming bowl trip. Add in the extras and most Pride members probably spent around 250 hours on Pride and its related activities during the Fall 2009 semester. Each.
That’s why the new programs that Karen Renfroe mentioned both here and on the mailing list this week. The endowed spots are, I think, a particularly great idea—a way to make sure that every position in The Pride has a uniform, an instrument, and a stipend for the student in perpetuity. All those new Yamaha trombones a couple of years ago were great (and still are), but won’t it be even better when we know that each and every one of them gets replaced every ten years? And the same with everything else?
That alone takes a big headache off the hands of students who play the more expensive instruments. Combine it with a stipend and we’ve really got something. Granted, a stipend can’t financially replace 250 hours of work (a version of “The Pride” that paid minimum wage would look a lot different than the tradition we know—there’d probably be five people auditioning for each spot), but even a few hundred dollars per semester can be incredibly helpful.
I think all any of us want for future Pride generations is a level playing field, so that anyone who wants to be the band and passes the auditions can be in the band—that the time or cost of doing so will not prohibit talented students from being part of this organization. It’s a difficult challenge, more so in an economic downturn, so I hope everyone who has the means to do so will seriously consider the programs Karen has outlined.
As for the Sun Bowl, we already have the game on our Events calendar and will add any more opportunities to see The Pride in El Paso as we learn about them. Maybe later this week I'll post about why a college football playoff is still a horrible idea, but I'll leave you with this hint:
Finals start at OU on Saturday. If the football team were in the BCS top sixteen for a "playoff" system, then the best case scenario is a home game. On Finals Saturday, and again after Finals are over, and again the day after Christmas, and so on. Or worse, a road game on the same timeframe. Or at a "neutral" site with one week's notice. As a Pride member, do you think you could have managed that kind of December schedule? Would you consider it an OU football game with no college trappings except the team itself? Do you think anyone at any of the schools wants this?
Greetings and blessings during this holiday season. It was great seeing some of you at Homecoming. If you were there, you heard about our two new Pride giving programs (and you can’t stop doing that dance every time you hear the Thriller music)!
We have some exciting news and ways you can continue your legacy with the Pride and help others at the same time.
I hope that you will consider joining the Pride Patrons. The Patrons will be an affinity group designed for anyone who loves The Pride, wants to become more closely involved with its activities and who would like to offer their financial support to support the good works of its members. For those that join in 2009-10, you will be charter members. The yearly dues are $100. More information is available here in PDF format.
I also hope that you will consider endowing a position (or section) in perpetuity in the Pride. Our goal is to endow the entire Pride so that the legacy will continue and ensure that it continues to be the very best organization of its kind in the nation! These sponsorships will cover uniforms, instruments, equipment and a scholarship for each Pride member. For a limited time, a financial match is available. These endowments start at $15,000, and they can be payable in many different ways. A full explanation of the opportunities is on our Web site here, again in PDF format.
Contact me if you have any questions! My days in the Pride were my best memory of OU, and I am grateful every day for that experience. I hope you will join me in helping others have that same kind of experience in the years to come.
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Five interceptions one week. Five touchdowns the next. Such is life as a freshman quarterback for Oklahoma’s Landry Jones.
It’s no secret that Sooner fans have gotten more accustomed to the latter extreme than the former, but despite having lost an estimated 256,782 starting players due to injury this season, our Sooners made it look like most Texas A&M games of the past decade, extending the streak to seven consecutive wins over the Aggies and making the injury-plagued team bowl-eligible.
We know the administration is already getting mail disputing this, and of course, we have documented evidence that even Texas newspapers thought The Pride won halftime the last time the Aggies came to Norman.
That, of course, was Thriller night. It's a little bit rough on the Aggie Band that their past two visits have come during such special shows—first the 2007 Halloween show, and this weekend, a Veterans Day tribute that included the Carmen Dragon arrangement of America, The Beautiful, complete with a vocal performance from the 200-member strong University of Oklahoma Singing Sooners, and a nice nighttime fireworks show from the press box and south of the stadium.
The Noble Men (and Women) of Kyle—The Pulse of the Spirit of Aggieland Nationally Famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Marching Band has a long and distinguished tradition, and they are always appreciated at Owen Field. I personally believe it's kind of silly to suggest that The Pride could do something in a Halloween or Veterans Day show that would make them look like anything other than the disciplined and focused organization that they are. They're just about the only band in the country who does what they do, and our crowd always respects their show (especially the fans in the end zones, who hear them louder because of how their drill is written). They were recognized for this excellence when they were awarded the Sudler Trophy in 2001, just as The Pride was in 1987. Both bands do what they do very well and are nationally recognized for it.
With two games left, the Sooners are now all but certain to head to a bowl. The Big 12 has seven bowl tie-ins, and we already know that Colorado cannot win the six games this season necessary for bowl eligibility (the Buffaloes are 3-7 at the moment). Baylor is 4-6 and can't be bowl-eligible with one more loss; Texas A&M is 5-5 and must win one more game to be bowl eligible—but A&M's next two games are against Baylor and Texas, and Baylor's are against A&M and Texas Tech. If Baylor loses either game, they're staying home; if A&M loses both, they're staying home, so at most one of those two schools will play in a bowl game this season. Even if more teams hit the 6-game threshhold, there are already seven Big 12 teams that are bowl-eligible (Nebraska, KSU, Iowa State, Missouri, Texas, OSU, and Oklahoma), and it seems reasonable to guess that bowls would pick these teams first.
Texas's win over Baylor on Saturday morning clinched the Big 12 South division for the Longhorns, so even the most remote "OU could get into the BCS somehow" scenario is now off the table. The Cotton, Holiday, Alamo, Sun, and Insight Bowls are all in play, and Alamo Bowl representatives were spotted on the field Saturday night (on the A&M sideline). But now the Sooners have to travel to Lubbock to face a Texas Tech team, in their house, with an identical 6-4 record. Kickoff is at 11:30 AM CDT on the regional Fox Sports Networks, so keep your red and white at hand.
Want to see what both pre-game and halftime looked like from above last Saturday night? Click here.
(Adobe Flash required, so it won't play on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The video starts with the BYU Pre-game, but skip along the bottom row of thumbnails by clicking the "->|" icon and the last two, as of this writing, are the Kansas State Pre-Game Show (starting with the Alumni Band!) and Kansas State Halftime.
This is provided courtesy of CVWmedia, the videographers for The Pride, who are taking orders for the 2009 Pride of Oklahoma DVD—:$30 if purchased before November 15th, and $35 if purchased afterward.
Update: And now, a day later, we know that the next home game on November 14, when the Sooners host the Texas A&M Aggies, will kickoff at 6:00 PM CST with regional coverage on Fox Sports Networks (FSN). That’ll make the schedule very similar to the Homecoming schedule, but without the parade and the OUBAA participation, of course.
The Athletic Department just announced that Nebraska vs. OU will kick-off at 7:00 PM CST on ABC. The network had taken what I think was the last of their “six-day notice” opportunities for the season and not set the kickoff time until today or tomorrow. This is good news, because the game will be more widely available—had ABC not aired the game at either 2:30 PM or 7:00 PM, it would have gone to the Comcast network Versus, who would have aired it at 11:30 AM.
(A huge number of people do not have Versus, including the tens of millions DirecTV subscribers, because DirecTV was already paying Comcast more than the channel was worth given its ratings before September 2009. Then Comcast demanded something like an 80% increase in the cost to carry the channel, even though the ratings hadn’t gone up significantly in the four years that DirecTV had been paying more than it had already been worth. DirecTV stood firm, and Versus left DirecTV on September 1. ABC’s decision to carry the game means millions more people will see the 5-3 Sooners battle the 5-3 Huskers in one of the Big 12’s most traditional grudge matches.)
We’ll have a lot more on the aftermath of Homecoming 2009 in the next few days as everyone recovers, but please allow me to say both “thank you” for your kind words yesterday and for the treats, and to say that I thought that halftime exceeded my wildest expectations. When we start seeing videos of last night (as opposed to from November 1, 2007—you can tell the difference because last time, the Pride was wearing white coats, not red ones), we’ll start linking and embedding them on a special page here. But from me, thank you for an exceptionally memorable and fantastic Homecoming. I’m very proud to have been able to support all of you in ambitious performances like that one, and you all came through magnificiently.
You asked for the schedule, and we have it! It's already on the Events calendar, but here it is as well:
10:45 AM
Marching Rehearsal—Meet at the Everest indoor practice facility southeast of the stadium for Rehearsal with the Pride and Pre-game. Please be ready to take the field at 10:45 AM. We suggest being there by 10:30 AM.
12:45 PM
Registration—for those who didn’t attend Friday’s Rehearsal (Beaird Lounge in Student Union). Refreshments served
1:00 PM
Business Meeting—Beaird Lounge – Second Floor Oklahoma Memorial Union
2:30 PM
Lunch—served in the Beaird Lounge, Oklahoma Memorial Union, for those who purchased lunch tickets. Serving will stop at 3:30 PM.
3:00 PM
Homecoming Parade Begins—for those wanting to watch
5:00 PM
Get instruments—Get into the game (leave plenty of time to get through tickets and security), get your instruments, and head towards the tunnels.
5:45 PM
Step-off—Pre-game Begins
6:00 PM
Kick-off—Time to take the Wildcats!!
Click on the link above for a computer-generated version that you can get in printer-friendly form (and that's combined with The Pride's schedule), or click on the image to download your own version in PDF format.
The only ambivalence in the above schedule is "5:20 PM"—honestly, based on what we know, OUBAA Pre-game step-off is likely to be anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes after that actual time. We'll know more on Friday and will communicate the time and the procedures thoroughly on Saturday morning at rehearsal, but you can't go wrong if you're ready to go at 5:20 PM.
If there are any changes to this schedule, we will alert you through the mailing list so everyone gets it in their inbox, as well as posting it here. So if you haven't signed up for our mailing list yet, this would be a really good time to click this link and do that.
Ask Rita Heath if you have any questions, as this is Homecoming Week! Boomer Sooner!
Most FCS-division football schools would be really proud of a team that had three losses under these circumstances:
All in road games
All to ranked teams (#20, #11, and #2)
The total margin of defeat in all three games was just five points
Your Heisman-winning quarterback knocked out of two of those games in the first half with a shoulder injury
Still in position to win late in the fourth quarter, but just…didn't
I think in a place that didn't have an incredibly strong football tradition and seven national championships, they wouldn't feel bad about that record at all. We're not in such a place, and that means we always expect the best and are disappointed for our team and our band when it just doesn't happen. The Sooners are now 3-3 (1-1 in conference play) with six conference games left in the season.
It's not the season anyone imagined in August, but we don't wear the Crimson and Cream because they're fashionable. We wear those colors rain or shine. Some of you reading this are Pride alumni who marched for four solid years and yet never took a bowl trip. Others marched for five consecutive years and went to five bowl games without repeating a single destination. The bad times show how incredibly difficult it is to win a national championship, and make it all the more amazing that OU has seven of them.
It's now extremely unlikely that the networks will use a six-day option to set the kickoff time for the Kansas State game, so we should know the homecoming kickoff time at some point during the day on Monday. Once that's set, your officers will finish up the Saturday schedule, and we'll post it on here, on the Events calendar, and send it to the mailing list as soon as we have it.
UPDATE: Kickoff time for the homecoming game has been set at 6:00 PM. If you are on our mailing list or read our Events calendar, you probably knew that before you read it here! Schedule to follow when it's available.
By the way, we're starting to get some mailing list subscriptions disabled because too many messages have bounced, or the errors they're returning are fatal errors ("this account doesn't exist" and the like). If you haven't been getting any E-mail lately from our mailing list, please take a moment to sign up again by clicking on this mailing list link. We wouldn't want you to miss any news about Homecoming 2009. The game may not be a stepping stone to a national championship, but it's going to be great fun and a halftime you'll always remember!
It’s time for the second longest-running tradition in Sooner Football, right after The Pride of Oklahoma (106 seasons and counting): the 104th matchup between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas, still in the world-famous Cotton Bowl, this Saturday!
The 3-2 Sooners are ranked #18 in both polls after their 33-7 win over Baylor and the return of Sam Bradford, and, if the BCS were published today (the first release comes Sunday after the game, and right now one of the six required computer rankings is not yet published), would rank #20, the fifth-ranking Big 12 team. The 5-0 Longhorns would be #3 in the BCS behind Florida and Alabama, and are split in the polls: #2 in the Harris poll, #3 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ poll. Despite beating Colorado at home 38-14, the Longhorns trailed the unranked 1-4 Buffs 14-10 at halftime, and it was 14-3 with under two minutes left in the half. That was enough to cause some consternation in the Coaches’ poll, which is kind of flaky to begin with. (UCLA lost 24-10 at home to Oregon and yet still got a new vote on one coach’s ballot. Go figure.)
SoonerSports.com has extensive game notes you can read, and our Events calendar already has The Pride of Oklahoma‘s public events listed—a Friday morning rehearsal and exhibition at Ada High School, a Friday evening performance exhibition at the Richardson-Lake Highlands football game, a couple of private or invitation-only rallies, and then on to the Cotton Bowl!
I believe most of the country will see the game on “ESPN on ABC” in high definition at 11:00 AM CDT, but if there is regional coverage, then this page will be updated by Thursday at the latest to show which areas get which games. If you’re not getting OU-Texas, a one-day purchase of ESPN GamePlan from your cable or satellite provider, if it’s available, will give you the game.
There’s a lot of “I dunno…” about the Sooners’ chances on Saturday. I remember the 2000 season, when the undefeated Sooners were barely ranked and not considered a threat to the Longhorns, having defeated only UTEP, Arkansas State, Rice, and Kansas. And then Roy Williams made you believe a man could fly. OU won 63-14 and marched on to its seventh national championship.
A BCS Championship may seem unlikely this year, but Oklahoma is a good team, and sɐxǝʇ appears to think it can't lose. I have different opinions. If you're in Dallas, be sure to show up and support The Pride as well as the Sooners in various events. The halftime show concludes with a fantastic number that couldn’t make it into the end of last week’s Parents’ Day show, so look forward to that.
I'm a little late in talking about this week's game, but I think I'm finally dry from last week's.
It wasn't the flash flood that we saw last year, nor the heavy pour I remember from the 1986 King Orange Jamboree Parade, nor was it cold like during the UTEP game. It was just gentle, steady, soaking rain that continued until midway through the 4th quarter—stopping, of course, right after The Pride had finally finished the (paper) boxed dinner in the stands.
But all that's water under the tunnels (ugh) when you can leave with a 64-0 victory! The Sooners needed a bit of a tune-up after losing Sam Bradford for a few weeks (and Jermaine Gresham for the season), and they took advantage of the opportunity with an old-fashioned Owen Field home rout.
The Golden Hurricane of Tulsa blows into Gaylord Family/Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday, and don't let their unranked status fool you. Tulsa got one vote in this week's USA Today poll (and would have tied for 44th place). When combining the computer rankings that are out so far with the polls that are out, Jerry Palm's indispensable CollegeBCS site says Tulsa would rank 60th, tied with South Carolina. That's exactly halfway through the list of 120 Division I-A Football Bowl Series teams—and the Gamecocks barely lost to higher-ranking Georgia.
Georgia, of course, lost to OSU, which itself got dismantled at home last weekend by Houston (whose band is directed by fellow alum David Bertman!), and Houston and Tulsa are both Conference USA teams. C-USA has regularly produced surprisingly good teams, and let us not forget that Tulsa itself has been to four consecutive bowl games, winning three of them. Our Sooners are favored, but after the first game of the season, I don't think any of us are taking anything for granted.
There's emotion on both sides: Mike Bryan, the son of former Sooner great Rick Bryan who died this summer, is a linebacker for the Golden Hurricane.
The Pride of Oklahoma will perform a new show this week with hits from within the past 12 months, a nice balance from the Heisman Trophy medley that stretched back to the 50s. The Sooner Fan Fest, which has moved from north of the stadium to the Jacobs Track Complex (just north of the indoor Everest Training Center), has been cancelled for this week due to the poor grounds condition and the possibility of more rain. But cross your fingers!
The game begins at 2:30 PM with coverage on regional Fox Sports Networks such as FSN Southwest; check your local listings if FSN Southwest is not your regional FSN channel. The gameday schedule is on our Events calendar and we hope to see you there. BOOMER SOONER!
I think it hurts more when you know you could have won the game but did not. I’ve seen the Sooners in off years (like about 12 years ago) in games where it was obvious they were overmatched, and while the losses were still disappointing, anything else would have been a miracle. Against BYU, just like at the BCS National Championship nine months ago, had 2-3 plays gone just slightly the other way, the outcome would have been different. For me, that’s always what really hurts—some for me, but just as much for the team and for our successors in The Pride of Oklahoma. As with last year’s Texas game, a mid-game injury to a key player causes real trouble for the Sooners.
We’ll see how well they bounce back this Saturday night at Owen Field, as the Sooners host the Idaho State Bengals in a game available only on pay-per-view in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa markets. Kickoff is at 6:07 PM or thereabouts, but if you’re in the stadium, you’ll see something really special.
We are very excited to tell you that thanks to the cooperation of Mr. Joe Castiglione, Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Programs and Director of Athletics, and our Athletics Marketing Department, The Pride of Oklahoma is once again inviting high school band members to join us on the field as part of a special Band Day performance! This exciting event will take place on Saturday, September 12, 2009 in conjunction with the Oklahoma vs. Idaho State game.
I, your humble Webmaster, was fortunate enough to participate in the last such event held in Norman—but as a high school band member, still a few years from auditioning for The Pride. Unlike those events, where only entire high school bands could participate, this year’s event welcomes some entire bands as well as individual musicians from any band in the state.
(If you’re a band parent, you know how ridiculously crazy schedules are for students who participate in extra-curricular activiites have gotten in the past decade or so. A lot of great musicians at larger schools would love to be on the field with The Pride, but the school itself might not be able to arrange for a 200-member band to all show up, all day Saturday, in uniform, for such an event when there might have been an away game requiring the full band’s participation a hundred miles away on Friday night. Allowing individual participants lets students from schools take part in Band Day even if their entire bands can’t make the commitment.)
It’s the home opener as well. “The Pride” will reprise last night’s performance of a salute to all five Sooner Heisman Trophy winners (including the injured-for-a-few-weeks Sam Bradford) and perform a new tune with the high school musicians. The game also features the home debut of feature twirler Megan McGeary, a world-class twirler and a very nice person, much like her predecessor, Meredith Sigler (who helped recruit Megan!). I’m sure you’ll agree that Megan will make an outstanding addition to the Pride’s rich history of champion feature twirlers.
Meanwhile, the countdown on the red box on the home page continues to tick away as registrations for Homecoming 2009 are due by October 1. They’re arriving steadily, so make sure yours is one of them—don’t delay!
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch (you may even be reading this on such a device), Click on this button to download the new, official, student-driven “OU2GO” application for iPhone OS 3.0 and later. It’s free!
The free application features:
Campus Map: pan and zoom across the map with the interactive interface, search for buildings, mark favorites, and access information about department locations and phone numbers.
Weather: view current campus conditions, a 7-day and hourly forecast, and current radar.
News Feed: select from a number of OU news sources to access information about campus, sports, and OU departments. [This includes School of Music news!]
Media: OU YouTube channel and streaming audio from KGOU.
Tradition: play OU fight songs, look up information about the university, and access OU facts.
Both iPhone and iPod Touch include “location” features that find where you are on the planet (original iPhone and all iPod Touch models do this by triangulating the location of known wireless access points or cell phone towers; iPhone 3G and later use a built-in GPS receiver). I tried the application’s “Find me” feature in the Newman Band Hall last week, and it immediately highlighted Catlett Music Center as my location. Impressive!
Also, as you can see from the picture above, the application includes spirit songs from The Pride of Oklahoma, with a background that’s the current Flute/Piccolo part to Oklahoma! Count along with the multi-bar rests!
In May, Pride alumni Jeff Jahnke, who has served as Assistant Director of Bands for the past three academic years, announced his resignation in a letter to members of the 2008 Pride of Oklahoma. An excerpt:
This spring semester I had some things go on in my life that really made me think a lot about what I should be doing and how short a person’s opportunities can be to make a difference in the lives of young people.
Over the past few weeks an opportunity has presented itself to my family that will enable me enter back into the high school public education world and teach those things that I spoke of earlier on a daily basis. It’s what I love to do and it’s what, when I look in the mirror, I think I should be doing.
I have accepted a position as the high school band director and Director of Fine Arts for the Lovejoy Independent School District in Lucas, Texas. It is a district just outside of Allen. I am very excited about the opportunity there but at the same time I am very sad to be leaving a place that I love so much and a group of people who I admire so much. The University of Oklahoma and its band department means so much to me. The people who wear its uniforms and represent this place mean even more. I cannot thank you enough for letting me stand in front of you on a daily basis. As much as I was one of your band directors I was even more one of your students. I have learned so much from you and will never forget the things that you have done for me, and my family
In another letter that same day, Brian Britt said (in part):
We have been truly fortunate to have Jeff Jahnke serve as Assistant Director of Bands for the past three years. His tireless efforts in service to the student members of our band program have been truly inspirational and the entire program is better due to his outstanding teaching and his administrative skills. Mr. Jahnke has been a great friend to our program and a fantastic colleague. Over the past three years, he, Carrie, and Sarah have become a part of our family and we have been blessed to count them as our friends. We will miss the Jahnke family very much as they leave us to pursue this new opportunity for their family.
The students at Lovejoy High School are getting a phenomenal teacher, effective administrator, and a passionate leader in Jeff Jahnke. I am excited for them and look forward to seeing and hearing what those children are able to accomplish under his leadership.
Jeff contributed a lot to the band department over the past three years and I hate to see him go, but I’m really happy for his opportunity to do those things he both loves and excels at doing. Other than “won the lottery,” it’s just about the best possible reason to say goodbye.
A week later, Brian announced the Interim Assistant Director of Bands for the 2009-2010 academic year: Debra Traficante, whom many of you may have met during the past two years at Homecoming, as she’s been a graduate assistant with the band department. Here’s Brian again:
Mrs. Traficante has been serving as a Doctoral Conducting Associate the past two years and has done outstanding work throughout the band program in that capacity. Prior to coming to OU, Mrs. Traficante served the University of Florida Bands for two years as a graduate teaching assistant while earning her Master’s degree in conducting. She has also held positions as a high school band director in the State of Florida, including a three-year stint as the head band director at New Smyrna Beach High School. While at New Smyrna Beach High School, Mrs. Traficante was the Head Director of the Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Jazz Bands, Marching Band, and various Percussion ensembles. She also founded the schools first Visual Ensemble, Steel Drum Ensemble, and Tri-M Music Honors Society.
Graduate students usually come from other universities so they can get broader experience—even Roland Barrett got his degree in Nebraska (and was director of two high school bands there) before coming to OU in 1983 for graduate work. Debra faced the ultimate football fan conflict this past season: she earned her master’s degree at Florida where she was with the “Pride of the Sunshine” Fightin’ Gator Marching Band, and then had to face a Florida vs. Oklahoma BCS National Championship football game in Miami. That would just make me weep for weeks.
After that, she got through a foot injury, and took the Women’s Basketball Band to the NCAA Final Four just a few months later. She knows the program and is an excellent choice for the upcoming academic year.
Congratulations to Jeff Jahnke in his new position (you can click on his name to send him E-mail) and to Debra Traficante in hers. Change always makes me a little bit uneasy, but I think these folks are going to do well.
The Second Annual Pride of Oklahoma Scholarship Golf Tournament will be held at the OU Jimmie Austin Golf Club on Thursday, June 18.
This event provides Pride staff and students the opportunity to interact with band alumni, supporters, and friends, all while raising funds for the band scholarship endowment. A wide array of participation and sponsorship opportunities are available to fit virtually everyone’s interest and availability.
Space is limited so act now to ensure you have a spot for this terrific event. We hope to see you there. Boomer Sooner!
(Click here to read more about the rest of Tuesday night's program.)
In 1985, just before Rod Harkins put together the first West Side Story show for The Pride's 1985 Texas show, this groundbreaking musical's composer decided it was time for him to conduct a definitive recording of the music.
The resulting recording (also available for purchase on if you want to hear it right now) is often called "the operatic version" because the roles were performed by the world's leading opera singers: José Carreras as Tony, Kiri Te Kanawa as Maria, Kurt Ollmann as Riff, Tatiana Troyanos as Anita, and the composer's own children as the dialogue voices for Tony and Maria. The dialogue substitutions were because the operatic singers, especially Carreras, had significant non-New York-gang accents. Indeed, while the performances are brilliant, it's hard to believe that any of the singers have ever been on a street, much less in a street gang.
It's a masterpiece, in part because the music is all Bernstein. He conducted it, and as the "making of" documentary showed, he didn't hesitate to be a bastard about what he wanted. There were no cuts in the music for staging, no tempos reduced to accommodate singers or musicians—just the brilliant, riveting music (and lyrics) of the show as the maestro intended them.
Even without lyrics, the music is powerful—possibly explaining why The Pride has been called back to this show in every decade since its 1985 debut, most recently in 2007 for the Broadway musical's 50th anniversary. While I'm the first to advocate for the power and clarity of the modern marching ensemble, a symphonic group still has more colors available to it—the ability to hear a solo clarinet, the flexibility to use Bernstein's demanding changes in time signature (and the original key signatures, which lean heavily towards sharps because they're more natural for string players), and little details like oboes and multiple horn parts.
In 1961, to make West Side Story available to symphony orchestras, and not just musical theater, Bernstein created Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, a 24-minute suite of orchestral music faithful to the original Broadway score. It includes not just the moments you'd expect from having seen the musical (Somewhere, Cool), but also the most dynamic parts of the score (Mambo! as well as the Prologue, the quiet Finale, and the Rumble [molto allegro]).
Earlier this year, PBS's Live from Lincoln Center presented a concert in honor of Bernstein's 90th birthday, and it opened with the Symphonic Dances. It was amazing—every fantastic moment from the score, just like the original, but pure music without other distractions. I was an instant fan, and if you'd heard it, you would have been as well.
The 50th anniversary of the musical also inspired renowned band arranger Paul Lavender to revisit the Symphonic Dances for the modern wind ensemble: three flute parts (one doubling piccolo), two oboes (two parts, that is), one English horn, two bassoons, one contraboassoon, E♭ clarinet, three B♭ clarinets, bass clarinet, two E♭ alto saxophones, tenor sax, baritone sax, three B♭ trumpets, four horn parts, three trombones, euphonium, tuba, string bass, and five percussion parts not including separate timpani, harp, and piano. (This turns out to be remarkably similar to the original, adding more harmony saxophones and additional flute and clarinet parts to help deal with the absence of all strings except for the string bass.) It's in the original keys, just like the orchestral version.
And in case the image to the left hadn't filled you in, the University of Oklahoma Wind Symphony presents Symphonic Dances from West Side Story in concert this Tuesday night, April 21, at 8:00 PM, on the stage of Sharp Hall in Catlett Music Center. This is a monster work, challenging even to the professional musicians who performed it on Broadway and for the operatic version under the composer's baton. That's why it's the final piece on Tuesday night's program—it's really hard to top.
Click here to read more after the jump about the four other pieces on the program by Chabrier, Pann, Salfelder, and Lauridsen, and about how to get (cheap) tickets for Tuesday night, or even to listen live for free at home!
This year will be the second consecutive year that the Pride of Oklahoma Drumline and Colorguard will be participating in Sooner Scandals, an event sponsored by The University of Oklahoma’s Campus Activities Council.
“Scandals” is a mini-musical (around twelve minutes long) that showcases the musical and dancing talents of the participants. Prior to last year, it was unheard of for organizations such as ours to be involved in Sooner Scandals, an event usually dominated by fraternities and sororities. After being extremely successful in last year’s show, the Drumline and Colorguard as a whole decided to once again take on the endeavor of devoting some of our time to making another successful Scandals show.
Because we are not fortunate enough to have a steady income coming from pledge dues and house dues, we rely on donations to fund our show. We use these donations to buy such things as props, costumes, and to pay for music to be arranged to fit the needs of the house band. We look at Scandals as an opportunity to showcase the many talents of the Pride of Oklahoma members, and it is another way to positively reflect on the Pride as a whole, and even the School of Music.
We need to raise around $2,500 to be able to put on another successful show. We would be very thankful for any donations towards our cause. If you would like more information about Scandals or our show or how to donate, feel free to contact either of us.
Thank you so much for your time, and once again your continued support of the Pride of Oklahoma!
You can call either of them if you have some support for them, or you can click here to send E-mail through the site in a way that keeps their addresses from being spam-harvested, because not protecting them from that would be a rotten thing to do to future Pride alumni!
Mack Brown demands that the Philadelphia Eagles be voted into the Super Bowl anyway since they're clearly the better team.
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
The actual news isn't as funny but is more important: the OU Foundation has worked with us to provide secure online forms for donations directly to our scholarship funds. Rather than wait for a newsletter, or mail a check, or bring one to homecoming, you can put a few bucks into your favorite scholarship fund any time you're browsing the Web.
These scholarship funds become even more important in slower times, because even a modest scholarship can make the difference between a student who wins a place in The Pride of Oklahoma and can accept it, and one who cannot because he or she can't make time for both work and performance.
Since the OU Alumni Club matches our scholarships with an equal amount of tuition waivers (up to $1000), a little can go a long way. And your employer may match your gift, so it could be doubled in value going into the funds and doubled in value coming out as well!
We've posted a new page with all of the information on donating: how the scholarship funds work, how the money is used (with links to the Foundation's guidelines for using funds), the payout rate, and more. Our other new page for making donations has links to all nine of our scholarship fund (eight named funds and one general scholarship fund), plus Foundation links for both OUBAA and University Band non-scholarship funds, and a link for sending non-scholarship money to OUBAA via PayPal (not tax-deductible).
The donation page has all the details. It's easy to find because it's right there in the left side of the page from now on, right underneath our logo. The URLs for both the donation page and the reasons for donating page are stable and easy to remember, too, so feel free to send them to anyone you know who might want to throw in a few bucks for future generations of Pride.
Even small donations add up quickly, and now anyone can make small donations anytime they want. I hope we'll see those funds grow like never before so the most talented musicians, in Oklahoma and elsewhere, will know they can get assistance if they can earn a spot in The Pride of Oklahoma!
The modern connected world takes a bit of getting used to. We had heard from current Pride members and staff that they were looking at the videos we posted of their bowl game performances at a rest stop before heading on to dinner in Tallahassee at about 8PM CST on Friday night.
Five hours later, video of that dinner stop was online at The Norman Transcript, courtesy of the Tallahassee Democrat.
We were going to embed the video here, but we can't do so without it automatically starting (with audio) before you started reading this, so you'll need to click the link above to view the short video. Still, pretty cool!
By the time most of you read this, the 2008 Prie of Oklahoma will have returned to Norman and officially finished its performances. Our thanks again to all of this year's members for a hard-fought season and their fantastic work moving our tradition forward!
If you didn't get to see The Pride of Oklahoma during Thursday night's bowl game, you can purchase the entire game from FOX on iTunes for $4.99 if you want. An abbreviated version will also replay on most of the regional Fox Sports Network channels for much of the next 3000 years, especially Fox Sports Southeast (and Southwest, which is based in Texas).
If you just want to see the band, we've got you covered! First up is the segment of Oklahoma! that FOX aired during pregame:
And, of course, the segment of halftime that aired, to the delight of Barry Switzer. This features part of Roland Barrett's arrangement of Pinball Wizard from this year's The Who show.
Finally, if you read on the mailing list that FOX's live streaming Web video showed all of halftime from the cable-operated skycam that floats about 15 feet above the field, we have that as well. The good news is that it shows all of both halftime shows, with audio (although choppy at the end of each show). The bad news is that it's only from the overhead camera (although it moves around all the time), and since it was streaming Web video, it wasn't super high-quality to begin with. Nonetheless, it's the only place you'll see all of both halftime shows unless you were in the stadium, and here it is:
Thanks to FOX for the great video, and remember to go buy the game in iTunes if you want to own it.
Any Sooner loss is disappointing to Sooner fans, particularly in a big big game. Speaking only for myself, I'm not as disappointed as I might have thought. After the 2003, 2004, and 2007 seasons, I was really crushed by the bowl losses, because the team I saw playing the bowl game was not the Oklahoma Sooners team I saw play much more strongly throughout the rest of those seasons.
The Sooners who played the Gators tonight were the Sooners I'd seen all season long.
Their only two losses were to top-five teams (and guess which of the two was the lower-ranked team), by ten points, after leading or being tied at halftime. In Dallas, the Sooners lost a key defensive player in the third quarter and couldn't compensate.
In Miami, the Gators just made some tremendous plays. While it is apparently in FOX's BCS contract that they announcers must not go ten seconds without complimenting Tim Tebow, to me, the real play of the game was that final Florida interception, where the defender literally took the ball out of the Sooners' hands. Had that drive completed, the Sooners would have gone ahead, and even Tim Tebow tends to get flustered when he's behind. (Did you see him run for 12 yards in the third quarter and react as if he deserved a trophy? That was…odd.)
(The more disappointing aspect of the evening was the aforementioned FOX booth team. I realize that Tebow's speech after Florida's loss to Ole Miss took the cynical sports media by surprise, but it was not the Sermon on the Mount.)
On the way to tonight's game, however, the Oklahoma Sooners picked up their sixth Big 12 South division title over the screaming objections of the guys who didn't beat Texas Tech, as well as their 42nd conference championship, and played in what is at least their 12th bowl game to decide the national championship. Bob Stoops got his 100th win as head coach, making Oklahoma the first and only program in major college football to have had four head coaches with at least 100 wins each (the other three are Barry Switzer, Bud Wilkinson, and Benny Owen). They set the record for the most number of weeks ranked #1 all-time in the AP poll, and extended their all-time lead for number weeks ranked #1 in the BCS.
And this quiet kid from Putnam City North won the Heisman Trophy, and made Kirk Herbstreit die just a little bit inside.
So you can see why I'm still proud of that team, and of the 2008 edition of the organization we have in common. The Pride of Oklahoma earned their name the entire way—as you could see for yourselves, because FOX had them on streaming webcam live throughout the entire game. Even now, well after the game is over, I'm still watching the drumline live in the stands at Dolphin Stadium during the BCS trophy presentation. (It just cut off at 11:00 PM CST.)
They did the uniform and Sooner Spirit proud, and we're honored to welcome the outgoing seniors into our membership.
You can now view the broadcast video of pregame and halftime, the broadcast video of the Florida band's halftime show ("Big Noise from Winnetka!" No kidding!), and the streaming webcam live footage from the overhead cable cam that showed all of both bands' halftime shows right here on our site. Just click here.
BTW, we sent both the streaming webcam news and the halftime video link to everyone on the OUBAA Mailing List before or during the game, so those of you on the list got the news faster and may have seen more. If you're not a member of our list, click here to join today and stay in touch with your fellow former Pride members.
With the end of the football season, news here slows down until we start planning for Homecoming 2009, sometime after we actually learn when it will be. (So far, we know it will be during a home game in the fall of 2009. Other than that, it's a bit up in the air.) We'd welcome Sooner Showmen or WBB alumni who wanted to keep the home page updated for basketball season, so if you're interested, drop me a line.
Also, very soon we'll have ways to donate securely, online, to the OU Band Alumni's accounts at the OU Foundation, so you can help future members of The Pride in their academic and musical careers. Donations to these accounts are tax-deductible and will be made securely, online, through the Foundation's Web site but directed to our specific scholarship accounts. There will even be a link on the page to click to see if your company will match your gift, doubling the scholarhip potential of your donation. We'll have more about that when it's ready, but I wanted to give a heads-up about how easy it's going to be.
Until we meet again, it has been a privilege bringing you news this year, and —hmm, do I hear a concert A♭?
O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A
Our chant rolls on and on!
Thousands strong
Join heart and song
In alma mater’s praise
Of campus beautiful by day and night
Of colors proudly gleaming Red and White
’Neath a western sky
OU’s chant will never die.
Live on University!
A two-minute video from FOX Sports, taken at Monday morning's rehearsal with The Pride in Miami. Featuring small interviews with Brian Britt, drum major Jason Marshall, and flute section members Lauren Brockman and Heidi Fioretti.
(Probably for copyright reasons, the background music is a repeating recording of Boomer, not sound from the actual rehearsal. Still, worth a watch!)
It's not quite like last year, when KWTV's launch of news9.com (separating from The Oklahoman at the time) led them to send a crew withThe Pride on the Fiesta Bowl trip and publish blogs from no fewer than six Pride members during the trip (as chronicled here), but it's a nice standard short piece about the trip, with quotes from Brian Britt and drum major Jason Marshall, whom many of you met at Homecoming 2008.
We continue to bring you today's news yesterday! We posted details of public performances on Friday. What's more, the "More Info" box with the list of public Pride performances looks (to my eye, but I'm jaded) a bit more like the slightly reworded version on our Events calendar than the itinerary sent to Pride members, so maybe they came here for info! If so, welcome to Oklahoman reporters and staff—click on the name of any member who posted a message to send them E-mail if you want to ask them questions!
There are some interesting comments to the article, including someone wondering if the band members hate Boomer Sooner! Feel free to sign up at http://www.newsok.com/ and post your own comments! And keep wishing our men and women in crimson and cream a fun, productive, relaxing, and trophy-producing trip starting tomorrow! Several dozen of them are about to join our ranks, and we welcome them all!
The Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl were played yesterday; the Cotton Bowl and Fiesta Bowl are played today, and the Sugar Bowl follows on Monday night (so as not to get trampled by first-round NFL playoffs on Saturday and Sunday).
The Sooners, however, play in the BCS National Championship game next Thursday. Since the bowl trip is usually about a week long with the bowl itself 2-3 days before the trip ends, that means The Pride of Oklahoma has not even left for the bowl yet. The team only left today. This is only the third year of the "Plus One" BCS championship, and the first time the Sooners have played in it, so it's the first bowl game I can remember that takes place after the 3rd or 4th of January.
I don't know about you folks, but no matter how much I think about it, this still blows my mind a little bit. The Sooners are playing for their eighth national championshp, and The Pride got to spend both Christmas and New Year's Day at home with their families. Can anyone remember a bowl trip later in the season than this one—or, for that matter, any trip involving the full Pride that took place this long after the fall semester ended? It's wild!
Our Events calendar has been updated with The Pride's public schedule for the trip, including rehearsals and pep events. Keep a few things in mind if you're making the trip to South Beach:
Like most modern computer calendars, our event calendar is aware of time zones. If you subscribe to the calendar in iCal or Windows Vista calendar (or even Google Calendar), then be sure to change the time zone on your computer when you get to Miami. (If it's Google Calendar, you'll also have to tell Google about your new time zone.)
All of the events are correctly listed in Eastern Standard Time, so when your computer is set to EST, they'll show up at the right time. If you're in Oklahoma now and your computer is set to Central Time, then the events show up in Central Time. (For example, kickoff for the game shows up at 7:15 PM CST, which is correct, but it's 8:15 PM EST.) Make sure you set your computer time zone correctly or you'll be an hour early for everything.
If you use the online version of the calendar, then go to this page on your computer and set the time zone to "America/New York" or "EST". That sets the calendar preference for that computer. Until you do that, all the online stuff shows up in the server's time zone, and the server is right here in the OKC Metro area, so it's all in Central Time.
If you rarely use this stuff, I'm sorry if this seems like a pain. If you subscribe to the calendar in Mac OS X or Windows Vista, though, and live outside the Central time zone, then all of the game times and other events have shown up in your correct time all along. It's only a bit annoying when you change time zones, like on a national championship trip! Woohoo!
Practices are at two separate facilities. We've tried to be sure that every event's details have either an address or a link to a page with a map or more details. If you use iCal, the details are in the event. For the online calendar, click on the name of the event in the calendar and you'll get a little pop-up window with more details and any hyperlinks to more information.
Performance times for pep events (and even for pregame) are approximate, because we all know how these things go. The OU Touchdown Club party and the Boomer Bash require tickets, but the links in those events tell you how to get them. The bowl-sponsored events appear to be free, but I can't swear to that, so be aware.
This has certainly been a crazy season. I can't remember a clearer distinction than this year between Sooner fans (at least the ones I hang around) and Longhorn fans (at least the ones I hear from): when OU lost to a high-ranked Texas team in early October, we thought that meant we'd never get to the BCS title game. When Texas lost to a high-ranked Texas Tech team in late October, they saw absolutely no reason why that loss should be held against them. If you'd told me it'd go down this way in August, I would have laughed at you, probably with some pointing and mockery.
And yet the Sooners' workmanlike demolition of the Red Raiders, the Cowboys, and the Tigers in three all-but-playoff games have gotten them to the third attempt for the eighth national championship, in the same city (and same bowl committee) where the Sooners secured or won the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh national championships.
Third time the charm? If you watched lots of college football this holiday season, it was pretty obvious that the pundits think Florida's going to win, but after the Sooners' late-season comeback and Sam Bradford's Heisman Trophy, they keep trying to hedge their bets—a lot moreso than they did in 2000, where their pre-bowl discussion was all about whether Miami should be declared national champions "when" Florida State beat Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. You may remember that game's final score of Oklahoma 13, Florida State 2, with those two points coming on a fourth-quarter bad punt snap that OU knocked out of the end zone. The heavily-favored Seminoles scored no offensive points.
I don't predict these things, but I know that the Sooners can win this game and bring that eighth national championship home to Norman. Whether you're in Dolphin Stadium or just planted in front of a good TV tuned to FOX on Thursday night, put on your reds and whites and get ready to cheer. BOOMER SOONER!
The page is a slightly edited script of the TV news report, but if you click on the tiny "View Hi Speed Video" link just above the dateline on the page, you'll get a streaming video window where you can see the report, including interviews with Brian Britt, drum major Jason Marshall, and member Alyssa Baker.
Free tech tip: on my system, the video comes through QuickTime, but the volume is low. If you hold down the Shift key while clicking on the "volume" icon in the movie controller of any QuickTime movie, you'll get an über-controller that lets you shift the whole volume slider louder or softer. If yours isn't handled by QuickTime, I don't know what to tell you, but this always works for me!
You know, honestly, when I made this argument here on Sunday morning, I had not heard it anywhere else—that's why I posted it. Yet despite a paucity of page views, "Texas knew the rules" seems to have settled in as the explanation that Mack said he couldn't provide. A Texas Tech group even paid for a banner flying over Austin this week reading, "HEY MACK. QUIT WHINING U KNEW THE RULES". Jerry Palm referred to this as "In the two wrongs make it even wronger department."
Nonetheless, the Longhorns are eagerly rooting for Missouri in Saturday night's Big XII Championship, because if Missouri wins, Texas is in prime position to play for the BCS National Championship against the winner of the SEC Championship. The bad news for them is that Oklahoma is in better position: if OU wins vs. a Missouri team the Sooners have not seen this season, the Sooners will play the SEC winner. Jerry Palm at "CollegeBCS.com" says the math makes it all but impossible for USC to jump into the #2 spot even if Missouri wins the conference, so it's the SEC champ vs. either OU or Texas for the national title.
The Pride of Oklahoma has no public rehearsals or off-site events tomorrow—it's all at the stadium, including both pre-game and halftime performances. Since the Sooners are the "home" team for the championship, The Pride marches second in both cases.
Arrowhead Stadium is a fine football facility, currently being made even more fine with ongoing renovations. That means some roads inside the Truman Sports Complex are currently blocked. You'll want to plan to arrive at the sports complex no later than 6:00 PM to be sure you can park and get to your seats before The Pride takes the field for pre-game, scheduled for 6:49 PM. If you can be there earlier and clap for our friends in the Marching Mizzou, all the better.
The Tigers have a lot to prove and little to lose; the Sooners are essentially in their third consecutive week of playoffs. As with Texas Tech just two weeks ago, there will be a game after this, but it doesn't matter nearly as much if the Sooners don't prevail in this one.
As with last week's game, the Sooners are on the road against a team that's capable of surprising everyone at any given moment, led by a quarterback who sat as a Heisman finalist a year ago but will not do so this year and who therefore may have something to prove on the biggest stage he'll get of the year. As you can see from the survey on the left (click for a larger image) taken on ESPN.com, most of the game is paying more attention to the SEC Championship, with two states as notable red exceptions. All the more reason not to let up on the intensity!
Kickoff time is 7:10 PM CST with national coverage in high-definition on ABC. If you're there, don't let up for a moment. If you're not, don't let up either. Boomer Sooner! Game on.
It's a phrase you hear in far too many Sooner seasons: It all comes down to this. It was true Saturday night in Norman, and it's true again Saturday night in Stillwater.
I really haven't experienced anything quite like last Saturday Night at Owen Field. I remember saying this ahead of time:
Texas Tech is favored to win the game, but I can't help but remember what huge favorites the Longhorns were going into the 2000 OU-Texas game. No one seemed to think OU's defense could stand up to the Texas attack. Then something…happened.
I’ve been attending Oklahoma football games since 1985 and I can honestly say that I don’t remember having ever seen a home crowd like the one we had Saturday nigh for the Texas Tech game. Bob Stoops threw down the gauntlet earlier in the week and the fans rose to the challenge.
The crowd of 86,646 (a record at crowd at OU) came early, stayed late and made constant noise. There is no way you’ll ever convince me that the Red Raiders weren’t rattled. Don’t believe me? Check out the looks on Mike Leach’s and Graham Harrell’s faces when the crowd took a moment to “Jump Around."
I was inThe Pride in 1985, and I never saw anything quite like it, either. It wasn't like the OU-Nebraska game eight years ago, where the fans stormed the field afterward—but the crowd energy was tangible. You could feel it. After the game, the players came over to the band and the other student sections, and climbed on the walls, thanked the fans, took laps around the stadium—I've seen that at Big 12 championships, or bowl games, but never at a home game. I can't find anyone else who remembers anything like that at a home game, either.
Something…happened.
And now the regular season ends Saturday night in Stillwater, in Bedlam, but not (if forecasters are right) in Ice Bowl II. The Sooners need to win to stay in the Big 12 South (and, more distantly, the BCS National Championship) race. It would help if Texas A&M wins on Thanksgiving night, but because of the odd ways the tie-breakers work, if Texas wins on Thursday night, we need Texas Tech to bounce back at home and beat Baylor on Saturday afternoon.
If all three teams win (not including OSU, since obviously OSU and OU can't both win, and OSU can't win the division no matter what happens now), the division title goes to the team with the highest BCS ranking on Sunday afternoon. In this scenario, OU significantly narrows its gap behind Texas in the computers by beating #11 OSU, but neither Texas nor Tech does all that well by beating unranked teams.
According to the invaluable Jerry Palm, assuming that the poll vote numbers stay exactly the same, OU needs to jump one rank in three of the four computer rankings that could help (there are six BCS computers, but the formula throws out the high and low scores for each team from the six, so only four of them count), OU would pass Texas in the computers and take the #2 spot in the rankings. Texas needs to expand its lead in the polls, or needs Florida State to beat Florida, because that might give the Longhorns more points in the polls since Florida is between OU and Texas in the Coaches' poll.
So, if you're a Sooner Purist, this weekend, in addition to rooting for OU, you're rooting for Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Florida. I'm not sure if an Alabama loss would give Texas more points than Oklahoma in the polls, but it would complicate the situation even further.
As for The Pride, I take it as a compliment that clips of them in last year's Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade dominate NBC's commercials for this year's parade, but they're all at home resting this year, as we hope you are too. The band's public schedule for Saturday is now on our Events calendar, and they'll be wearing those all-red uniforms—debuted just a year ago in the Macy's Parade—to Stillwater for the very first time.
And it all comes down to this: 7:00 PM CST on ABC in high-definition, broadcast from coast to coast. Put on your red and white and prepare to shout until you lose your voice!
The ESPN Road Trip crew visits Norman in preparation for tomorrow's game, including a trip to Pride rehearsal and a visit to the saxophone sectional (well, you see Drubner getting near the tree, at least…)
They're already touting it as the "Game of the Century" for this Saturday in Norman, but haven't we already had one or two of those in Norman this decade already? I vividly remember when #1 Nebraska came to play #3 Oklahoma in October 2000—"Red October"—and it was the loudest day I've ever experienced in Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. It was easily the loudest thing I've ever heard, and I've been in enclosed rooms with the drumline.
And that game kicked off at 11:00 AM. ESPN College Gameday was in town, and the entire atmosphere was crazy. This time, of course, it'll be completely different. #1 Texas Tech comes to play #5 Oklahoma with the Big 12 South title (and potential national championship game slot) on the line, ESPN College Gameday will be in town, but kickoff is at 7:00 PM. Completely different.
(Did I mention that since that Nebraska game, they've added about 10,000 seats to the stadium? No? Well, maybe it's going to be a little bit crazy too.)
The Pride will perform for College Gameday in the morning, and then it's going to be one wild Senior Day for those members who are on the brink of joining us as OU Band Alumni. The rehearsal and concert schedule are on our Events calendar if you want to come show support for this final home performance of the 2008 season, too. If not, put on your reds and whites and get in front of a good HDTV with ESPN at 7:00 PM, because this may be a game for the current Pride members like that "Red October" game of 2000.
Texas Tech is favored to win the game, but I can't help but remember what huge favorites the Longhorns were going into the 2000 OU-Texas game. No one seemed to think OU's defense could stand up to the Texas attack. Then something…happened.
If there's one rule for Sooner Football, it's "don't rule anything out." We hope to see you there!
This pumpkin, carved by Pride of Oklahoma drum major Jason Marshall, is one of many colorful and creative decorations marking Halloween festivities, which culminate with trick-or-treating and various other activities around Norman tonight. The Pride will have its usual Saturday date at Oklahoma' 7 p.m. football game against Nebraska.
Oklahoman sports columnist Berry Tramel watched the OU Homecoming Parade last week, like many of you did, except this was the first one he's ever seen:
With that said, the floats were fun and the band was totally cool. Watching the Pride of Oklahoma walk by literally 15 feet from you is like watching a football game from the sidelines. Totally new perspective.
For one thing, the marching of a band is totally underrated. The musicians have to take these tiny little steps, sort of like moving furniture, carrying a sofa or something that blocks your knees and you have to baby-step it. Same with the trombonists. Definitely not easy to do.
Also, I never noticed, but the tuba players don’t wear hats. I wonder if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
But the band is totally cool. I love marching bands and OU has a good one.
I'm not saying anything about the hats. I know better.
The networks of Disney have picked up the OU vs. Nebraska game on November 1 for nationwide television coverage at 7:00 PM CDT. I phrase it that way because they will not decide until next weekend whether they show it on ABC or ESPN, but either way, the kickoff time is the same and the game will be televised to the entire country—no regional coverage maps, no members who don't get it in their area! Hooray!
We've posted The Pride's full schedule for the day on the Events calendar, and you can see the online Web version for gameday on this page.
The following week, on November 8, the full band travels to College Station when the Aggies of Texas A&M host our Sooners. I heard at least one alumnus on Saturday wondering about how to see the band in Texas during the year, and outside of a Texas-based bowl invitation, the A&M game will be the 2008 Pride's last performances in the Lone Star State. When we have that kickoff time and schedule of performances, we'll be sure to post it as well so anyone who wants to support both The Pride and the Sooners can show up in crimson and cream (as opposed to maroon and white)!
Of course, it was fantastic to see our Sooners beat the #11-ranked Jayhawks 45-31 for 2008 Homecoming, as that puts OU at 6-1 and gives the Sooners the #4 spot in today's first-of-the-season BCS rankings! We're ahead of #5 USC, and also ahead of #6 (eek!) Oklahoma State.
But our part was a great day too! Seven former drum majors and 130 alumni returning to Owen Field in a true homecoming. May I say, having watched from the side, that all the alumni marched really well. If you'd had two rehearsals, you might have been good enough to make SportsCenter!
And so the red box at the top of the home page vanishes until next fall, when it's time to start planning for Homecoming 2009! Just to be on the safe side, we've removed everything but the annual dues from the Pay Online page, but fear not: if you want to pay for something easily, contact Ann Darnold and she can tell you how to use the PayPal account for anything you want. (I believe it was mentioned that because of the way bank accounts work, donations or other fund transfers through PayPal are not tax deductible. Those have to go through the OU Foundation and can't be for actual goods (like tickets, shirts, lunches, and so on).
It may have been the longest OU football game I've ever seen (four hours!), but it was a great day for The Pride and the OU Band Alumni Association. Please feel free to comment here and share your thoughts on the day.
(And if you weren't there, why not? We had seven former drum majors, and would have had eight if Eric Shannon was not recovering from illness [hi Eric! We missed you!]. You really missed a fun day, so make sure you don't repeat that in 2009!)
Up next for the Sooners: playing Kansas State in Manhattan at 11:30 AM on Saturday. The Pride will send a pep band, and will next perform in full on the field in two weeks when the Nebraska Cornhuskers return to Owen Field. Kickoff time should be set within the next 24 hours, so watch our Events calendar for details on the game and all Pride performances!
There's even coverage today in The Oklahoman's online blogs:
The University of Oklahoma’s Pride of Oklahoma marching band has a big weekend planned in honor of this weekend’s OU-Texas game.
My friend, OU freshman trumpet player Stephanie Gonzales, says the band is playing and rehearsing at 9:30 this morning at Duncan High School and then continuing the long bus ride deep into the heart of Texas.
The band will be in Grapevine’s Colleyville Stadium at 7:30 tonight and will make an appearance afterward for OU alumni.
On Saturday, the band will play a pregame concert at 9:15 a.m. at the Dallas Fair Park Coliseum near the Cotton Bowl. The band then will march into the stadium before the 11 a.m. kickoff.
After the game, the band’s reward for its hard work will be a jaunt through the Texas State Fair before heading back to Norman.
Good luck to Steph and the rest of the band. And good luck to all Oklahomans who will be in Texas this weekend.
With OU's 49-17 victory at Baylor yesterday to open Big 12 Conference play, the deck is now cleared for the Red River Rivalry. #1 OU next faces #5 sɐxǝʇ at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. ABC-TV coverage in High Definition starts at 11:00 AM CDT on Saturday, so if you don't have a ticket, be in front of the best TV you can find, wearing your red and white and prepared to cheer on our Sooners and our Pride of Oklahoma!
The Pride begins the sɐxǝʇ trip Friday morning, as usual. They'll rehearse and exhibit at Duncan High School at about 9:30 AM on Friday morning, followed by a performance Friday night at a Dallas-area high school football game, and two pep bands headed to two separate alumni functions. Check our Events calendar to see where you can see The Pride this weekend if you're in Big D for the Big Game.
At halftime, The Pride performs a salute to The Who, featuring Dr. Roland Barrett's new arrangements of Pinball Wizard, Won't Get Fooled Again, and I Can See For Miles. If you're in Dallas, be sure to watch the show, because the following weekend's show will be completely different.
That's because the following Saturday is Homecoming 2008! We should know the game's kickoff time within the next 36 hours, and we'll try to get a schedule posted here and on the Events calendar just as soon after that as we can. Do you need music to practice? Click here. Are you marching? Click here to see your name on the list of this year's marchers. If it's not on there, contact Rita Heathimmediately!
Have you not registered or paid your dues or anything like that? Click here to pay your dues or any homecoming fees instantly and securely with PayPal right now and take that off your mind. You can still bring or mail checks or pay any traditional way, but you can pay with any major credit card right now and not have to worry about any of it.
Start warming up and get ready to cheer, because it's time to Beat sɐxǝʇ and then it's Homecoming 2008! Fire up for alumni excellence!
As expected, the TV networks decided on the games for weekend-after-next today. ABC-ESPN passed on OU vs. TCU, but Fox Sports Network picked up the game with a 6:00 PM kickoff time. Check your cable or satellite provider for channel details (here in Crimson & Cream Country, the game will be on Fox Sports Southwest, but it's likely to show up on other FSN channels as well).
We have also updated the "event calendar" with gameday information, amplified because September 27th is the annual Pride Parents' Day, where the Pride welcomes all the proud parents and has dinner and pictures with the members (probably including some of you—we know some of you are both alumni and Pride parents!). We've put the broader schedule up at our sister site for the OU Band Parents Resource Association if you'd like more information, or want to get in touch with Betty Wiseman about "Pride Wear".
Last week's home game against Cincinnatti was much nicer than the Drenching in the Trenches from week 1: in addition to a lovely 52-26 Sooner victory against a team that never gave up (Cincinnatti scored a touchdown as the game ended and went for 2 on the untimed conversion, but did not succeed), there was no rain! The sun was out with occasional shade from the clouds, the stadium was packed with Sooner fans, and The Pride of Oklahoma did their thing with a show for the fans on the east side of the stadium with three popular hits: Dirty Little Secret by the All-American Rejects, Ocean Avenue, and First Time.
And did I mention that Meredith Sigler twirled three batons that were on fire? On both ends? Yeah, that too. That's why she's a champion!
The non-conference schedule picks up again on Saturday with the Sooners' first road trip—to Seattle, to face the Washington Huskies on their home turf. Most of you probably remember (vividly) the last time OU visited the Pac-10 for a football game
, but there's been a new controversy this week: last Saturday, Washington scored a touchdown late in the game to pull within one point of visiting BYU, but when quarterback Jake Locker threw the football in the air in celebration, the referees threw the flag for unsportsmanlike conduct. The resulting try was therefore spotted from the 17-yard line, not the 2-yard line, making it about a 35-yard attempt—and it was blocked.
Washington fans (and several rabble-rousing sportswriters, as if there is another kind) are convinced that the flag should never have been thrown. Unlike the OU-Oregon debacle of almost exaclty two years ago, though, the Pac-10 says the referees got it right, which has only intensified the controversy.
You can read the 2007 NCAA Football Rules in PDF format here, but the rule in question did not change for 2008. On page FR-122 (page 123 of the PDF file), Section 2, Article 1, section "a" lists "specifically prohibited acts and conduct". Subsection 2 of that section reads (with emphasis added):
After a score or any other play, the player in possession immediately must return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot. This prohibits:
Kicking, throwing, spinning or carrying (including off of the field) the ball any distance that requires an official to retrieve it.
Spiking the ball to the ground [Exception: A forward pass to conserve time (Rule 7-3-2-d)].
Throwing the ball high into the air.
Any other unsportsmanlike act or actions that delay the game.
PENALTY—Dead-ball foul. 15 yards [S7, S27] from the succeeding spot. Flagrant offenders, if players or substitutes, shall be disqualified [S47]. If a player or an identified squad member in uniform commits two unsportsmanlike fouls in the same game, he shall be disqualified.
So, basically, the argument is that conduct "specifically prohibited" by rules that explicitly define the offense is somehow not something specifically prohibited and should not have been flagged because other people have broken this rule and gotten away with it. It's kind of easy to see why the Pac-10 isn't buying that argument.
Nonetheless, we have the unusual situation of the Sooners visiting a Pac-10 team where both teams are convinced that the Pac-10 referees screwed up and cost them the game "last time" (last week for Washington, last time OU visited the Pac-10 for Oklahoma). You couldn't get me to officiate that game if you gave me all of McCain's, Obama's, Biden's, and Palin's houses combined.
The Pride of Oklahoma shall be represented by a 140-member pep band, so look for them on ESPN (and ESPN HD) at 6:45 PM CDT for the national telecast. They should be easy to spot: they'll be wearing the all-red uniforms debuted during last year's Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade. If you're in Seattle, you can catch the pep band at 3:00 PM PDT as part of the OU Alumni Association's "Boomer Bash" at the UW Baseball Field.
If you're in the Puget Sound area, we hope you can show up to cheer on the Sooners as they play in a tough venue, and to support The Pride. If not, pull up a chair in front of the teevee at 6:45 PM. BOOMER SOONER!
On Saturday night, we learned that if the Sooners are head of the opponent by 50-0 at halftime, and it then rains on the stadium so hard that they ask people to take cover on the concourse, and extend halftime by 72 minutes to let it pass, then many of those who left their seats will not return for the second half.
The picture at the right (a crappy phone picture, sorry) shows the view from the foot of the northeast tunnel during the storm. Click on it for a larger version if you like, but it's not much better. Other than the huge light, you can see the rain falling and the mostly-empty stands. When the "take cover" instruction came down, they shut off the scoreboards and most (not nearly all) of the field lights to "encourage" people to take cover rather than think they could see fun shows on the wonderful new SoonerVision HD, but those came back on after a few minutes.
Unlike the shorter but colder deluge during 2002's UTEP game, this time The Pride took cover in their pregame waiting tunnels, making things more bearable for all concerned. (Though we did feel sorry for the new Boomer and Sooner ponies pulling the Sooner Schooner—not only was it their first home game, but they literally got ridden hard during all the first half's scoring and put away wet during the delay. We're sure they're sturdy ponies, though, or they wouldn't get to pull the Schooner. And their handlers take good care of them. But think nice things for them this week.)
The storm hit just moments after The Pride of Oklahoma finished its first halftime show of the 2008 season—pop hits First Time (Lifehouse) and Ocean Avenue (Yellowcard). They got into the stands and then, almost immediately, got back out of them. The day went from hot and muggy to soaking in a very short time, so the new members of the 2008 Pride have quite a first-game experience to remember!
The challenges continue as the Pride works on this week's show through threats of rain. The game vs. the Cincinatti Bearcats kicks off at 2:37 PM CDT with coverage on ABC in HD, but coverage will vary by region. Click here for coverage maps later this week to see if the game will be on in your area. For reasons unknown to us, ABC and ESPN have chosen to cover both the other 2:30 PM CDT games in HD, but not OU vs. Cincinatti.
The gameday schedule for Saturday is posted on our Events calendar, and we hope you'll get to show up in Norman on Saturday afternoon to support the Sooners and see The Pride of Oklahoma!
Hanging on the wall of my office is a picture of Chauvin Aaron, the 2007 drum major of OU's Pride of Oklahoma. It's a peculiar image, although one that any University of Oklahoma fan will recognize immediately.
You think for a moment that you are looking at a headless man. You can't see Aaron's face because he's bent over so completely as he charges out of the band in the school's beloved pre-game tradition. His back is arched so improbably that the top of his hat nearly drags the ground behind him as the state song bursts out of the trumpet section.
Looking at it, you can almost hear the trumpets swelling: "Oooooo-klahoma!"
If my office were suddenly to burst into flames, and I had to run from the building, I might leave my paycheck sitting on the desk, but I'd grab that picture on the way out the door.
It goes on from there, and is well worth reading, and remembering how hard everyone worked to make it and keep it The Pride of Oklahoma.
Were any of you marching at that Nebraska game on November 23, 1973, that had such a big impact on Mr. Greene?
Update: The gameday schedule on our Events calendar has now been corrected to match Saturday's actual rehearsal and performance times, including the Boomer Bash pep band, which we left off for unknown reason.
The Oklahoman ran a nice feature in today's Sunday Living section on alumnus (and, of course, Director of The Pride of Oklahoma) Brian Britt. Some excerpts:
One hot day in the north end zone of Owen Field, Britt knew this would become his life's work. It was 1984, and he had been recruited to help teach a complex routine to the OU percussionists. It was painstaking work, but once the players were able to execute the drill flawlessly, Britt knew he wanted to pursue music as a career.
… Britt relies on six graduate assistants and two dozen student leaders to drill small groups of players in every aspect of a new routine. Once learned, these sections can be strung together to create the pomp and pageantry of a visually stunning halftime show.
This season, The Pride of Oklahoma will offer tributes to the rock band The Who, the music of Duke Ellington, a patriotic show and an iPod shuffle [show] that will feature tunes that might be found on a student's digital music player.
"There are benefits to doing themed shows and more eclectic shows," Britt said. "With an eclectic show, you have the potential to reach a broader audience. With a themed show, you often lock in on a specific demographic. Our job is to play with a lot of energy and do as varied a repertoire as we can. With fans ranging from elementary age kids to octogenarians, we hope they will hear something ... that resonates with them.
"To watch these players have so many amazing experiences, individually and collectively, to see them begin to develop adult thought processes and problem-solving skills, to send them out of this place to be community leaders regardless of their chosen profession, that is at the heart of why I do this."
You can always use our site to drop Brian Britt an E-mail, but keep in mind that since the first home game is this Saturday, and that the band was selected just this past Wednesday night, there's an awful lot going on this week, so responses might be delayed.
The "iPod Shuffle" show is up first this year, and we'll have more details on it as Saturday approaches. We don't have the full gameday schedule Check out the gameday schedule on our Events calendar; as the article notes, the pre-game concert is 90 minutes before kickoff. This weekend, that means 4:30 PM on the lawn north of Jacobsen Hall. You can also see The Pride Friday night at this year's Big Red Rally, and of course, during the game against the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. We hope to see you at some or all of these performances as the 2008 Pride of Oklahoma carries on our tradition!
Congratulations to Pride of Oklahoma feature twirler Meredith Sigler, who this summer won the "Strut Champions" and "Two Baton Champion" events at the Twirling Unlimited 2008 International Championship competition in Canton, OH! Meredith placed second in the "International Solo Champions" competition, but nonetheless she's a three time world champion twirler!
The Norman Transcript has more on her upcoming final year with the Pride, including this unforgettable tidbit:
She also designs her own costumes for her performances. She searched far and wide to match the red of the Pride uniforms, and has to get all her red material from Illinois.
She has a special uniform for the OU/Texas game with an upside-down longhorn on the bum. It’s specially designed to snap off in case a Texas fan gets too worked up and tries to pull her bottoms down.
Let's hope it never comes to that. Congratulations, Meredith!
The first ever “Pride of Oklahoma Scholarship Golf Tournament will be held at the OU Jimmie Austin Golf Club, Saturday afternoon, June 21, 2008. This event will provide Pride staff and students the opportunity to interact with band alumni, supporters, and friends, while raising funds for the band scholarship endowment. A wide array of participation and sponsorship opportunities are available to fit virtually everyone’s interest and availability. Space is limited so act now to ensure you have a spot for this terrific event. Click here for more information.
Due to the time demands of band membership, as well as ever increasing academic responsibilities, Pride of Oklahoma members find it difficult if not impossible to work outside jobs during fall semester. As a result, scholarships are an essential resource to sustain the quality of the Pride.
Presently, The Pride of Oklahoma is able to offer scholarships to approximately one third of our members each year from existing endowed funds. Our desire is to increase both the number and size of these awards to offset increasing educational costs. Achieving this goal will allow us continue to attract and retain the best collegiate band members in the nation. Your participation in this event as a sponsor, a golfer, or both, makes it possible for us to grow the endowed funds necessary to support the band scholarship program.
Thank you for helping us continue the tradition of excellence for which The Pride of Oklahoma has become known throughout its 104 year history. See you on the course!
Additionally, plans are being made for a “Dance Band Reunion” to be held in the evening following the tournament. OU Band Alumnus Joe Windes, and OU Band Alumnus/OU Jazz Ensemble Director, Jay Wilkinson are heading up this event. Stay tuned for more details!
[From the webmaster: we've also added the event and the registration deadline to our Events calendar, so if you're subscribed to that, you'll see it all in place for June 21. Who can resist the chance to whack the bejeebus out of some golf balls to raise money for the next generation of alumni?? If you play golf at all, sign up today!]
From today's Oklahoman, discussing the OU Board of Regents' approval of the charter airline service for the Sooner football team for the 2008 season:
The Regents also awarded a separate contract to Northwest Airlines in the amount of $148,504 to fly the Pride of Oklahoma marching band to Seattle next fall when the Sooners play Washington.
More details on the trip as we get them, for alums in the Puget Sound area. The game is scheduled for Saturday, September 13, and is now on our Events calendar since we know The Pride is going!
This was announced two weeks ago at the Band Banquet, but since today's Norman Transcript has a nice write-up of Jason and the audition process, delaying doesn't seem to have hurt anything. I didn't know all that stuff.
(Ignore that, for some reason, the article is dated "August 13, 2002." It's current.) Congratulations to Jason! Everyone else, start nagging Chauvin to join OUBAA! (And any other former Pride members you know who aren't haunting these halls, for that matter!)
Our beloved Sooners are now 0-4 in their last four BCS bowl games, including two national championship games and two consecutive Tostitos Fiesta Bowl appearances. All hail to the Mountaineers, who overcame significant turmoil to play a fantastic game. Plus, a 11-3 season is nothing to sneeze at, nor is OU's second consecutive conference championship (#41 in an ongoing series).
We've got a few videos from KOKH-TV (Fox 25 in Oklahoma City) and from the national FOX Broadcasting's coverage of the BCS and the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. First up, from KOKH news reporter Jaime Cerreta—an Arizona State University alumna, who's very familiary with the Fiesta Bowl and its festivities—a segment on The Pride's two-time world champion feature twirler, Meredith Sigler:
Next up is a live interview Jaime Cerreta conducted from the field at University of Phoenix Stadium with Brian Britt (not only one of us but, of course, director of The Pride of Oklahoma) at approximately 6:11 PM CST, or just about 70 minutes before kickoff, when The Pride entered the stadium:
Of course, what we really want to see is The Pride on the field, and FOX's BCS coverage in high definition obliged at both pregame and halftime! And if you can't have John McCormick, George Ryan, or Jeremy Gossett doing the honors on television, who better could you imagine to introduce The Pride of Oklahoma than legendary Sooners coach Barry Switzer?
And finally, nearly two full minutes of the halftime performance itself, featuring Jerry Goldsmith's score to The Wind and the Lion, and Michael Jackson's Thriller. FOX's timing did not include the Thriller dance, to everyone's great disappointment, but what did make the air looked pretty darned good:
The armchair coaches will have plenty to chew over until Pride auditions start in August, but there was no question to anyone watching the broadcast that The Pride was there for all sixty minutes of that game. Long after the TV shots made it clear that most Sooner fans had left the building, the young men and women in the new red uniforms finished strong, never giving up, never flagging.
We're proud to have had them carry on our tradition in this just-completed Oklahoma Centennial Season, one in which band members traveled over 10,000 miles supporting the Sooners and representing our state. Thanks, 2007 Pride of Oklahoma—and for those who have completed your time on the practice field, welcome to our ranks.
It's quite likely that even once you see this, you won't believe it:
It takes seven buses and a tractor-trailer rig to haul the 300-member Pride of Oklahoma marching band halfway across the United States. Is it a long, grueling bus ride? Or, a giant slumber party on wheels?
Three hundred college students equals how many iPods, ringtones, laptops, PSPs, DVDs and MP3s?
How many dead cell phone batteries constitute a crisis?
Inquiring minds and News9.com's INsite Team wanted to know. So, we asked OU band members to chronicle their daily adventures in this blog.
"This blog" features KWTV's "iNSite" crew that's traveling with the band, posting video reports, feature articles, and providing blogs of the trip from six members of The Pride: drum major Chauvin Aaron, pit performer Caitee Boxeur, trombone player Michael Harp, mellophone player Jensen Mecca, trombone player Jason Marshall, and trumpet player Margaret Perry.
This is part of the launch of "news9.com", as KWTV ends its partnership with The Oklahoman in the "newsok.com" Web site. It's brand new, so you have to expect a few things to be messed up. In particular, being TV stations and absolutely obsessed with things like advertising and copy protection, they're using Windows Media for video (ironic, since the entire OU School of Music, much less the band department, as well as this Web site are all Mac-based and have been for pretty much the entire time).
Because of that, Mac users actually have to download Windows Media Player for Mac. The "news9.com" site does not support the more common Flip4Mac Windows Media plug-ins, even though for well over a year, Flip4Mac has been Microsoft's recommended Mac software for viewing Windows Media. The player you have to download has not been updated in over four years, but KWTV can't figure out how to make you sit through the commercials using Flip4Mac, so you have to use the older player if it's supported on your system (it's not universal; it will run on Intel-based Macs, but it's slow). It obviously will not work on iPhone.
I'm not sure why they haven't figured out how to do this, since every other video news site on the planet seems to have it, but there ya go. The non-video parts don't require any special software, so you can read all the reports and the blogs from The Pride members right now. Here's hoping KWTV gets a better clue about online video so we can all see it more easily soon, but either way - YAY! Thanks, channel 9!
We're just a couple of weeks away from the 2008 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, when our beloved Sooners take on the Big East champion #9-ranked Mountaineers of West Virginia in a nationally-televised football showdown on the FOX network. The Fiesta Bowl is the new Orange Bowl, for those who were members during the days of the Big 8 Conference—the bowl that the conference champion always attends unless playing for the national championship—so the Sooners attend by virtue of being repeat Big 12 Conference champions!
For those who went last year, you'll find a similar schedule, with the Fort McDowell Fiesta Bowl Parade being one day earlier so it doesn't fall on Sunday. The men and women of the 2008 Pride of Oklahoma are thought of so well that the bowl and the university took extra care to make sure they'd be in Phoenix a day earlier than planned just so they could participate in the parade! (Sadly, the longer distance for their compatriots in The Pride of West Virginia Mountaineer Marching Band can't make the trip that fast, but will certainly be showing Mountaineer spirit during the block party and the actual Fiesta Bowl! If you have a chance, be sure to stop by the West Virginia University Alumni Band site and say "hi!")
We have updated our Events calendar with all of The Pride of Oklahoma's public rehearsals and performances during the bowl trip. If you subscribe to the calendar in iCal (Mac OS X) or Windows Vista Calendar, you'll automatically get everything, including URLs with maps and other information. A few notes for those planning on making the festive trip:
Our calendar contains time zone information. For example, the game kicks off at 7:00 PM CST, 6:00 PM MST, 8:00 PM EST, etc. If you subscribe to the calendar and view it in iCal or Windows Vista or another similar program, it should display times in your computer's current time zone. If you go to Phoenix, change your time zone to Mountain Standard Time when you get there and all the times should update to match local time.
If you're reading the online version, note that by default, all times are displayed in US Central time. We've hacked in a new version of the calendar software that supports time zones, so if you want to read the page from the bowl site, scroll down to the 'preferences' link and set your time zone to something appropriate (like "America/Phoenix"). If you get errors on setting preferences, delete all cookies in your browser from "static.oubandalumni.org". The only cookies from that domain should be your online calendar preferences. (The cookies from "oubandalumni.org", though, include your login session, so if you delete those, you'll have to log back into the site next time.)
The Fiesta Bowl Committee runs two bowls: the Fiesta Bowl and the Insight Bowl (formerly the Insight.com Bowl, formerly the Copper Bowl). This year's Insight Bowl is on December 31 in the Phoenix area, and features Indiana playing (wait for it) Oklahoma State. In other words, there will be lots of Oklahomans in orange floating around during the days before the Fiesta Bowl, so don't be surprised to see them.
The Pride's planned halftime show ends with a certain number that has, in the past, featured a certain dance. All plans subject to change, your mileage may vary, void where prohibited.
The Fiesta Bowl is a great experience and a fantastic bowl trip to the Valley of the Sun during a time that, as we've seen this week, can be a bit frozen around these parts. They're excited to welcome back the Sooners and The Pride of Oklahoma, and we hope all alumni who can make the trip can support the bands in the various parades, performances, and spirit events. And as alumni, feel free to drop by rehearsal and say "hi" if you want, but don't try to vote for next year's drum major. Let's not get into recounts and hanging chads and the like, thanks!
So BOOMER SOONER and we hope to see you at the Fiesta Bowl! GO SOONERS!
For those who think the Fiesta Bowl is a bit of a letdown, that it's "just" another conference championship, chew on these facts:
With the win over Missouri last night, Oklahoma becomes the first team in Big 12 history to win back-to-back conference titles. Really!
2007 is the Sooners' first conference championship win in an odd-numbered year in 20 years (1987, when the Sooners won the Big 8 title but lost the Orange Bowl and the national championship to Miami).
This is the ninth consecutive year that OU has gone to a bowl game, and that's a school record. The Sooners have gone bowling every year that Bob Stoops has been head coach.
The Sooners are the designated home team for the 2008 Fiesta Bowl, so if either band gets to play the national anthem, it'll be The Pride of Oklahoma! Last night, our boys and girls in very red performed Tonight from West Side Story, and the Gnarls Barkley tune Gone Daddy Gone.
The bowl show and schedule is all to be determined in the next several days, of course; we'll post details of public Pride appearances on our Events calendar as we know about them, as we did last year. Our opponents are the Mountaineers from the University of West Virginia—2007 Big East Conference champions, #9 in the final 2007 BCS rankings, and owners of a similar 10-2 record. This will be the first time OU will play WV outside of Norman, and the first meeting between the two schools since 1982 (when WV won). OU holds a 2-1 edge in the series.
The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl is a great bowl with a strong tradition of all the trappings of college football: band competitions, a good parade, lots of celebrations for both participating schools, and a New Year's Eve block party that, this year, is headlined by Barenaked Ladies. Everyone had a great time last year right up until the end of overtime (grr), and this year can be even better!
We'll post updates as we have them, but for now, congratulations to The Pride of Oklahoma nearing the end of a spectacular Oklahoma Centennial season, and to the Big 12 champion Oklahoma Sooners!
Forget what you read from sportswriters: the Sooners had clinched the Big 12 South division title Friday afternoon with Texas's loss to Texas A&M, a victory that was not enough to save Dennis Franchione's job.
The rules for breaking a Big 12 divisional tie are ambiguous at best (leave it to the Big 12 to write confusing rules intended to clarify a situation), but presuming the first tie-breaking step, "The records of the three teams will be compared against each other," means that they'll compare the overall records of all tied teams, that would have immediately dropped OSU from consideration (had the Aggies Cowboys won yesterday, they would still have been 7-5, while both OU and Texas would be 9-3). By rule, that drops OSU from consideration, leaving a two-way tie between OU and Texas, which OU would win because OU won the Red River Rivalry in October.
If the rule really means that they'd compare the three teams' records in playing each other, that would remain a tie (OU beat Texas, Texas beat OSU, and OSU would have theoretically beat OU or we wouldn't be doing this exercise). It would then stay tied through the fourth tie-breaking rule, "The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish - 4, 5 and 6." The fourth-place Big 12 South team (had OSU won yesterday) would have been Texas Tech. Texas and OSU both beat Texas Tech, but OU did not. By the same rule cited above, OU would then fall out of consideration, and Texas would win the tie-breaker with OSU. It would not have gotten as far as BCS rankings, the fifth tie-breaker, and no one who reads the tie-breaking procedure can possibly think it would have.
Fortunately, it didn't matter: the Sooners defeated the Cowboys 49-17, returning to the form that had previously kept them in BCS National Championship consideration. The Pride was hot on a cold day as well, providing the home debut of the new bright red uniform coats as seen in the Macy's Parade, and ending halftime by sharing the field with the Cowboy Marching Band in a Centennial-inspired rendition of Dr. Roland Barrett's arrangement of the state song from 1989 (for OU's centennial), You're Doin' Fine. (The OSU band also, wittingly or not, paid a little tribute to The Pride by opening with Roland's 2000 arrangement of Luck Be A Lady, written and performed during Coach's final season.)
NBC really did love feature twirler Meredith Sigler—we learned this weekend that the network's TV coverage people moved her to the position in front of the drumline, which was not the position in which she practiced, so they could feature her more prominently. There's really no question why, either: during the concert feature of Mambo from West Side Story, Meredith wowed the crowd from the north end zone by flawlessly twirling three batons that were each on fire at both ends. FSN may yet regret not showing halftime performances. Meredith repeated the feat during the post-game concert. It's easy to see why she's going for her third world twirling championship in 2008—good luck, Meredith!
The Sooners now travel to San Antonio for next week's Big 12 Championship, kicking off at 7:10 PM from the Alamo Dome on ABC-TV in high definition. This will likely be the toughest game the Sooners have faced in years: their opponent, the Big 12 North champion Missouri Tigers, already played OU hard this year in Norman and came up short. Many of you will remember this, since it was Homecoming 2007.
OU is Missouri's only loss this year, and with the victory over previously undefeated Kansas and LSU's second loss on Friday, Missouri will be at least #2 in this week's BCS rankings, and may be #1 (West Virginia will hold the slot that Missouri does not). Plus, for better or worse, the Sooners have not done well on the road this season.
If OU wins the Big 12 championship, the Sooners are in a BCS bowl—most likely the Fiesta Bowl, where the Big 12 Champion goes by default, but other bowls are possible, especially if Ohio State somehow makes it into the championship game. If the Sooners lose, the team may fall out of BCS at-large consideration. On the other hand, if Missouri wins their first-ever Big 12 championship, they will play for the National Championship. By the media's rules, even though the Sooners are playing for a BCS berth, OU will be cast as the "spoiler" to Missouri's national championship hopes.
There may be an opportunity to support The Pride at a public rehearsal in San Antonio on Saturday, December 1; we'll update our Events calendar if such information becomes available. We've made the Macy's Parade coverage into its own page so you can find the video more easily, too. The post-season destination is on the line Saturday night, and The Pride will do its best to boost the Sooners into the BCS. Cheer like a champion!
The Pride of Oklahoma debuted the new red uniform coats in New York City on Thanksgiving Day in the Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade. The previous red coats were retired after Coach's last season in 2000, and this is the first time in seven years that The Pride has appeared in public all in red. The new coats feature an interlocking "OU" logo on the front in white parquet, with "OKLAHOMA" on the sleeves in white embroidery on a black background with gray piping. They sure did look sharp on two national television broadcasts!
First up was the coverage from CBS, called the "CBS Thanksgiving Day Parade" because NBC has the rights to the name "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" and to the performances in Herald Square. The Pride appeared on CBS approximately one hour and 55 minutes after the coverage started, and showed the band playing Fight for OKU in Times Square. Here's the video from the CBS broadcast—you can hear The Pride behind an interview long before you can see them. Be sure to listen to Dave Price and Hannah Storm after the commercial break as they're unable to distinguish between Oklahoma and another Big 12 (heck, Big 8) school.
CBS's position was about 20 minutes ahead of NBC's Herald Square performance platform at the end of the parade. The Pride appeared on NBC approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes into the parade coverage, and while they definitely looked good in high-definition in those new red coats, we do wish NBC had shown more of the band members actually marching. It would have been nice to actually see those shiny new matching trombones!
Congratulations to all Pride members and staff, who should all be back in Norman by now preparing for rehearsals for Bedlam just 36 hours from when we post this. This is certainly a week they'll be talking about for many years—the members traveled over 3600 miles in the past week representing OU and Oklahoma, and those who performed in the Texas Tech band have logged an astonishing 4400 miles in just one week for The Pride. We couldn't be more proud of the way they've carried on our tradition!
My inner hunch that I'd have more fun in Austin than Lubbock grows stronger every other year.
Barring a set of circumstances that can most charitably be described as "mammothly improbable," the Sooners' loss to Texas Tech last night knocks them out of contention for the BCS National Championship. But in a sense, that just makes this Saturday's game hosting Oklahoma A&M State even more important.
The Sooners clinch the Big 12 South division title with either a Texas loss to Texas A&M on Friday, or an OU victory over OSU on Saturday. Texas is currently a strong favorite over A&M, but everyone remembers last year: Texas lost QB Colt McCoy to injury in the next-to-last game, and lost that game and their last game at home to their hated in-state rival. That double loss turned Texas's "sure-thing" division championship into an OU division title, with the Sooners going on to beat Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship to earn a berth in the Fiesta Bowl.
With Sam Bradford injured in last night's loss, OSU is without doubt looking to repeat that pattern north of the Red River. OSU can't win the Big 12 title, but at 6-5, the Aggies Cowboys are barely bowl-eligible, and would improve their chances of a good post-season trip with an upset of the Sooners. If OU wins, they'll face the winner of Saturday night's Kansas-Missouri game for the Big 12 title in San Antonio on December 1.
If Kansas wins that game and the Big 12 championship, they'll play for the national title. If Missouri or OU wins the Big 12 championship, they'll go to the Fiesta Bowl. Interestingly enough, as of this weekend, Jerry Palm of CollegeBCS.com is predicting that OU will win the conference title, and that Kansas will be a BCS at-large team—and that the two will meet in the Fiesta Bowl. I can't tell if he believes Kansas or Missouri will win the Big 12 North title, but I think he think it'd be Kansas, because the Jayhawks wouldn't be an attractive BCS at-large team with two losses. (Palm currently believes OSU will be invited to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio with a loss to the Sooners on Saturday.)
There's a lot at stake in this final home game, made all the more serious for our men and women of The Pride of Oklahoma because they leave tomorrow for New York City and the Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade. Keep them in your thoughts on Thursday, as they get the wake-up call for the parade at 1:30 AM on Thanksgiving morning, just the start of a very long day that doesn't end until very late Thursday or early Friday when they arrive back in Norman.
We've got the Events calendar updated with Saturday's tentative schedule. There do not appear to be any public rehearsal or spirit opportunities in NYC before the parade itself (sorry, East coast alumni ), but if any present themselves, we'll update the calendar. The Bedlam game kicks off at 2:30 PM CST and will be televised regionally by FSN on cable and satellite—that's channel 37 for Cox OKC customers, channel 416 on Dish Network, and channel 643 on DirecTV, though some customers can get HD versions on other channels if the game is broadcast in HD).
It's also Senior Day, and The Pride's halftime show not only salutes our seniors, but ends in a spirit of Centennial cooperation that should be a sight to see. We hope to see you at the concert and the game, and if not, we hope you cheering for the Sooners in front of the TV. It's the last and most important game of the regular season! BOOMER SOONER!
Check out this KWTV "News 9" report from Tuesday night showing the new uniforms coming out of the boxes from Fruehuaf, along with interviews with Brian Britt and members Laura Ramsey (uniform manager), Cameron Robinson, and Samantha Coppedge. There's even a little impromptu Thriller dance, if you can handle Gan Matthews' singing.
It also gives a hint of the crazy schedule, which you can also see on our Events calendar.
In case you missed the Oklahoman's recent article on The Pride's three-year feature twirler, Meredith Sigler, it's now available online.
The article doesn't mention Meredith's scholastic achievement, though. Here's some description from the OU Club of Dallas from four years ago, when she won one of the organization's scholarships:
Meredith graduated from Lakeview Centenial High School in Garland, and will major in Microbiology. Her SAT Total was 1040, her ACT total was 22, her GPA was 3.86/4.0, and her rank was 19th in her class of 442. Her mother Judy and father Frank are Teachers.
Of course, Meredith is just one of the latest in a long line of Pride members who received scholarships or help from the OU Club of Dallas, but has distinguished herself in so many ways both in and out of the Pride, including membership in ΤΒΣ—and is going for her third world championship next year. Congratulations and good luck, Meredith!
Last night's 52-21 victory over Baylor puts our Sooners at 9-1 and, with Ohio State's loss, at #4 in the BCS ratings, behind LSU, Oregon, and (yes, I know, but it's true) Kansas. There's a lot yet to be determined as the Sooners travel to Texas Tech on Saturday night, and host the Oklahoma A&M Aggies OSU Cowboys a week later.
The Pride is so busy during that same period that we may have to start a Red Bull Scholarship ("Red and White Bull?"). The entire Pride will be in Guthrie on Friday for the Centennial Statehood Day Parade on, appropriately enough, the 100th anniversay of Oklahoma Statehood. Then a pep band takes off for Lubbock in preparation for the game, which was set this week for a 7:00 PM kickoff and primetime coverage on ABC-TV.
And then it's off to the Big Apple to represent Oklahoma in the Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade! Although the parade will be televised on both NBC and CBS television networks, NBC has paid for the rights to the parade, so only NBC can show the performances in Herald Square, where The Pride will perform its show.
The bad news is that, because NBC time-shifts Today to air from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM in all time zones, the network is doing the same for the parade. It starts at 9:00 AM EST (8:00 AM CST), but airs at 9:00 PM in all time zones. That means it's delayed by one hour here in Oklahoma. The CBS broadcast is live in the Central time zone (at least here in the OKC area), but as noted above, will not include The Pride's prepared performance. (We should also note that since most local TV stations around the country still lack the ability to record and rebroadcast HDTV signals, NBC's coverage will be in standard definition, not high definition. CBS's coverage is SD as well.)
The Pride then rushes back to Norman to prepare for Bedlam two days later. Kickoff time is not set yet, but we hope it will be set by Monday—hopefully before we see you all at the Wind Symphony and Symphony Band concert tomorrow night! Our Events calendar is current as of tonight, and we'll update it with more Pride appearances as we know about them.
Update: This news story from last week says that ABC-TV has one "six-day option" left and is using it on the OU-OSU and KU-MU games on November 24. If ABC chooses to air KU-MU in primetime, OU-OSU will air on Fox Sports Net and kickoff at 2:30 PM CST. If ABC chooses to air the OU-OSU game, it will kickoff at 7:00 PM CST. But we won't know until Sunday, November 18. Sorry.
The Sooners kept the Aggies in check all night, leading 21-0 at halftime and 35-0 in the third quarter, on the way to a final OU 42-14 victory in Norman last night in primetime. With two higher-ranked BCS teams (Boston College and Arizona State) posting losses yesterday, the Sooners' BCS chances are definitely improved today—but a lot of things still have to break OU's way for the Sooners to have a chance at a post-new-year's trip to New Orleans, not the least of which is winning the next four games.
There's a book about The Noble Men (and Women) of Kyle—The Pulse of the Spirit of Aggieland Nationally Famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Marching Band, published by Texas A&M Press. Entitled The Fightin' Texas Aggie Band, the book's description begins, "They always win the halftime."
The Austin American-Statesman newspaper (which, by the way, has now figured out that Oklahoma defeated Texas this year) would agree, as one columnist wrote today:
The Aggies were the fourth-best group on the field Saturday, behind the Sooners, the A&M band, and the OU band, which provided a nice little dance rendition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
That's neither the only nor the first column to rank the Texas A&M organizations in that order.
However, I'm reasonably certain that if I'd had an applause meter on the field last night, The Pride would have won in a squeaker. The Noble Men (and Women) of Kyle—The Pulse of the Spirit of Aggieland Nationally Famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Marching Band always gets a fantastic reception in Oklahoma Memorial Stadium during their biannual visits, but the 64-count Thriller dance in The Pride's tribute to Halloween easily was one of the most loved performances ever.
If you're lucky, you might get to see some of this Saturday, as the Sooners host the Baylor Bears in home game #6 of the 2007 season. The game, but probably not the dance, will be televised live on Fox Sports Network, with kickoff scheduled for 5:30 PM CST.
Update: Watch the Thriller dance performed during halftime from the view of The Pride seats here, or again during the post-game concert here.
We knew two days early that Saturday's game vs. Texas A&M is scheduled for a 7:00 PM kickoff, because while I was watching ABC, the network scrolled the kickoff time across the bottom of the screen during the Ohio State vs. Penn State game.
Now we also know that the Baylor game will kickoff in Norman at 5:30 PM on November 10.
Our Events calendar has been updated with the gameday schedule for this weekend, and the tentative/standard schedule for next weekend as well. "The Pride performs and entirely new show this week, playing to the East ("Student") side of the stadium at halftime.
Our current members also continue to prepare for the the Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City in just over three weeks; we'll keep you updated with any opportunities for Pride and Sooner Spirit in the Big Apple as we get word of them.
Update #2: Now we also know that the Bedlam game on November 24 will kick off at either 2:30 PM or 7:00 PM in Norman, meaning that The Pride won't have to face 6:00 AM rehearsal just two days after the Macy's parade. Something else to be thankful for!
We are delighted to have everyone joining us this weekend. It should be an exciting experience for all of us! Below are some logistical issues that will aid all of us in having as smooth and enjoyable a day as possible. Thanks in advance for helping us make the 2007 Homecoming a success!
If you've never been there before, click here for a satellite view and an opportunity to get directions from Google Maps. (Note that directions are to ETC, not to available parking—see this post for basic gameday information.)
The Pride will rehearse from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM, immediately following the performance for ESPN College Gameday
Please note that no food, drinks, gum, or tobacco products are permitted inside the facility.
Portable restrooms are located immediately west of the facility for our use.
The Alumni Truck will be parked west of Everest and will be open by 10:00 AM for instrument pick-up.
After rehearsal, all alumni instruments will be loaded and locked inside the Alumni Truck.
The truck will then be parked inside the football practice facility at the stadium to facilitate Alumni Band access prior to pregame and during the second quarter.
Game Information
Stadium Entry
Since you will not be carrying an instrument, you will be able to enter any gate you like with your ticket.
Field Access
Your uniform and instrument will allow you access to the field at pregame and halftime.
Please stay out of the team areas at all times.
Keep an eye on the field during pregame warm-ups to avoid any collisions!
Playing during the game
The Alumni Band will be able to play extended tunes during the breaks between the 1st and 2nd quarters, and between the 3rd and 4th quarters.
There will be other, more brief opportunities during the game as well.
Pregame Logistics
Immediately following the teams exiting the field, we (OUBAA) will take our positions and prepare to start.
Brian Britt will be marching with the OUBAA this year and will communicate with the drum majors to ensure a smooth and timely start.
During the Marching Mizzou performance, we will prepare both The Pride and Alumni Bands to enter the field.
Following the Missouri band, the order of performance is:
Field entrance
Fight for OKU Combined Pride and Alumni
Scatter to Pride halftime set (Alumni exit to sidelines)
Pride performance—two selections from West Side Story
Maria
Mambo
Boomer Sooner and exit
Instrument Return
Anyone who is not sitting with the Alumni Band and would like to return their instrument following halftime should meet Russell Pettit at the truck upon exiting the field.
All others should meet Russell following the conclusion of the football game.
My name is Jess Ballard and I'm the secretary for the Delta Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma. We are planning several cool events for the alumni this weekend and I was hoping that you could help me pass that information along. Could you post this on your website?
Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma will be hosting a reception for all band alumni immediately following Friday, October 12's rehearsal. Afterwards there will be a special joint ritual for all Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma alumni. Following the joint ritual there will be a brief special ritual for Tau Beta Sigma alums only. We look forward to seeing you then!
I still don't have the complete schedule for this weekend's OUBAA activities (The Pride's schedule is now updated and complete), but assuming rehearsal ends at 9:00 PM, I've added these to the Events calendar.
Now that's more like it! The river they're crying in Austin may be named "Denial:" click on the thumbnail image to the right for a section of a screen capture from the Austin American-Statesman early Sunday morning and their headline about the game. Click here to download the entire article as a PDF file, for those of you with your own "Dewey Defeats Truman" collections.
(Hint: the final score was OU 28, Texas 21. The Statesman has since fixed the headline on the article, which may be found here, but the first version was priceless. Small problems with reality down there, folks?)
The Pride of Oklahoma entertained the crowd with a 50th anniversary tribute to West Side Story, which opened at Broadway's famed Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957. Bands are alloted less time at halftime than in 1985 when The Pride first wowed with Rod Harkins' version of the show, so this year's edition was closer to the 1997 version: Maria, Mambo (a newer arrangement that I think is rythmically even trickier than the 1985 version!), and Tonight.
And now it gets even harder. Coming up this week for our 4-1 (1-1) Sooners: The surprising, 5-0 (1-0) Missouri Tigers, who spanked Nebraska last night 41-6. This is also Homecoming 2007, as we hope you know, and we promise you that we will post the schedule items just as soon as people start retuning my constant cranky E-mails about it. Subscribe to the Events calendar in iCal or Windows Vista for automatic updates and you'll know when we do!
It's a full week for The Pride, too: in addition to homecoming and activities with alumni, the full band travels north on Sunday, October 14, to participate in the Oklahoma Centennial Parade, following a 1.5-mile route through downtown Oklahoma City. The parade also features the Cowboy Marching Band and several state high school bands, and will be telecast statewide on OETA.
Quite the schedule post-Texas, even as The Pride prepares for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in November in New York City, so we'll do our best to make sure everything goes smoothly. Keep checking the Web site or subscribe to the RSS feeds for updates as we have them!
When people visit our little site from a search engine like Yahoo or Google, their question is usually provided when they click the link from the search engine. Unsurprisingly, we get a lot of people searching for common terms like "Sooners" and "OU Homecoming" and "Oklahoma Band," but some of the questions are topical, and we thought we'd take a minute and try to answer a few of them.
How many people are in the OU Band?
I believe that the 2007 Pride of Oklahoma has 310 members, let's say ±2%. This has been a typical size for the band in the past several years. Every member auditions every year (even section leaders, who audition in the spring semester as part of the leadership determination process).
Where does the OU band sit at the Texas game?
I actually did not know this, because you probably saw all the news stories saying that, "starting in 2007," OU and Texas would alternate end zones each year. But we asked, and after all of the press and confusion, this year the answer is—no change whatsoever. The Pride will sit in bleachers on the stadium surface in the corner of the "South" end zone at the Cotton Bowl, just to your right as you come out of the tunnel. The Show Band of the Southwest occupies similar seats on the same sideline but behind the other ("north") end zone. In other words, it's just like it has been for the past several years. (The seats in the Cotton Bowl stadium were removed this year and replaced with benches, but the bands don't occupy any of them.)
What are the lyrics to O.K. Oklahoma?
The full lyrics to O.K. Oklahoma are found on this page, where you'll also find the story of the song, and a recording of its first-even performance on the NBC Red Radio Network from December 1, 1939.
Where can I find the trumpet part to Boomer Sooner?
Members of OUBAA can find parts to Boomer on this page. We have parts to some of the spirit tunes available here to assist Alumni Band members who want to practice before homecoming. However, these arrangements belong to the University of Oklahoma, and they're not licensed for other uses or performances. If your group is interested in recordings or sheet music of OU-specific spirit songs, contact the OU Band Department for details on what is available.
Where is The Pride performing in Dallas this year?
The full Texas trip schedule has not been announced, but we're told that The Pride will rehearse Friday morning in Pauls Valley, and perform Friday Night at a high school football game in Carrolton, among other pep and OU alumni events. The best way to keep track of public Pride performances (at least, the ones we track) is to check out our Events calendar. You can subscribe to it in iCal (Mac OS X) or Windows (Vista) Calendar and get all the latest updates automatically. Instructions are on the page. We'll update it with details of Texas performances as they're made available.
I don't like the ads.
That's not a question. Either way, the answer is to log in, or join the site by registering (it's free). Logged-in members do not see the ads, and can also comment, access the sheet music, and generally get more free things. Consider it a nudge.
Thanks for visiting the site, and keep your eye on the Homecoming 2007 News.
Last Saturday, in what we can only hope presages any contest between the Sooners and teams informally known as "Aggies," OU defeated Utah State 54-3 in a bright afternoon game, with weather much more amenable to football than the dilapidated hurricane that blew through the previous week. The Sooners, now 3-0 (0-0 in conference play) are ranked #4 in both the AP and USA Today polls. The BCS computer rankings don't treat OU as nicely, but many of them start at a "zero" point and level out only after six or seven games. That's why official BCS rankings don't start until October 14th, the day after Homecoming 2007.
Up next for the Sooners: the season's first road trip, and it's just up the Turner Turnpike! OU plays the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane tomorrow night (yes, Friday night) at "Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium," with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 PM CDT. The game will be broadcast nationally in HDTV on ESPN2. For Cox Cable customers in OKC, regular (standard definition) ESPN2 is on channel 28, and ESPN2 HD for digital customers is on channel 721. For DISH Network subscribers, standard ESPN2 is channel 144, and ESPN2 HD is channel 9425. DIRECTV customers can find ESPN2 standard on channel 209, and ESPN2 HD on channel 73.
The Pride of Oklahoma is travelling to the game—yup, the entire band—but it's a standard "away" game, so the Pride will perform only in the stands and during halftime (sorry, Tulsa-area fans and alums, no on-field pregame this year). Our Events calendar has details of a quick rehearsal in Norman on Friday morning and the times when The Pride will enter Chapman Stadium for those who want to turn out and support our members in red and white. The game is sold out, and Chapman Stadium has a capacity of just 35,542 seats (they actually reduced it in the 1990s by tearing down the North End Zone bleachers to build a new training complex), so ESPN2 may provide the best seats. The Pride will perform both drill and concert tunes at halftime.
Oh, and one week from tonight, the fall semester concert ensembles will perform at Catlett Music Center. We'll have more on that for you this weekend, after the game. Boomer Sooner!
If you were in The Pride in 1973 or 1975, you may have previously experienced the joy of seeing the Sooners beat the Miami Hurricanes. For those of us who marched in the mid-1980s and saw three consecutive losses to the Hurricanes (one that ended Troy Aikman's OU career, one that kept the Sooners from playing for the national championship, and one that was playing for the national championship), yesterday's 51-13 victory felt really good. Even Jerry Palm, a Purdue band alum and propietor of the impressive CollegeBCS.com site, named OU QB Sam Bradford as "player of the week."
As previously announced, The Pride followed the dedication of Jason White's statue in Heisman Park with an Oklahoma Centennial halftime show featuring a fanfare from the centennial anthem Oklahoma Rising and a medley of tunes from the musical Oklahoma!. "The Rocketman" flew over the band as it exited the field to Boomer Sooner, and HOLY COW WAS THAT DISTRESSINGLY LOUD. We'd have warned you if we'd known.
Rain in the first quarter gave way to temperatures in the high 80s with intense sunlight, 2000% humidity, and no breeze. It took a heavy toll on our Pride members, who had not been been able to practice in such conditions, so we wish them all a restful weekend. Photos will be available here within a few days.
Up next for the Sooners: hosting the 0-2 Utah State Aggies at Gaylord Family/Oklahoma Memorial Stadium this Saturday, September 15, with kickoff at 2:30 PM. It's Pride Parents' Day 2007, and if you're a parent who bought tickets, you'll see it live. For everyone else, the game is available only via Fox Sports Net pay-per-view at a price of $29.95, although Fox Sports Southwest intends to rebroadcast the game on Monday, September 17, at 11AM CDT. Other Fox Sports regional networks may show it as well at varying times; check your local listings for details.
We've updated our Events calendar with times for Saturday's festivities, and so far the weather is looking pretty good, with moderate temperatures and a 10% chance of showers. The Pride's show includes an alumni band favorite and other tunes to the East (student) side, too.
Saturday's home debut was great for both the Sooners and the 2007 Pride of Oklahoma. In addition to a record-setting Sooner victory, halftime featured a tribute to Billy Sims and two fine marching bands.
Then came The Pride's show, "Random Acts of Rock," featured Dr. Roland Barrett's arrangements of the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction with new drill, and Chuck Berry's Roll Over, Beethoven in concert with feature twirler Meredith Sigler. The Pride looked and sounded great!
Now onto the national stage as the Miami Hurricanes blow into town for the national game, in HDTV, on ABC Sports ESPN on ABC, Saturday morning at 11:00 AM CDT. It is the national game—no regional coverage, so it should be on every ABC affiliate in the continental United States.
Most of you know what an 11:00 AM CDT kickoff means for the Pride:
Marching in the dark!
With rehearsal at 6:00 AM on campus and the dedication of the fourth and final statue in Heisman Park (for Jason White) at 9:00 AM, it's a busy busy morning. As of last week's polls, the 'Canes were ranked 31st in the writers' poll and 28th in the coaches' poll, but they'll move up this week after their easy victory over Marshall, just as the 8th-ranked Sooners will move up after defeating North Texas (and especially after 4th-ranked Michigan had its unfortunate incident).
The Pride's show is part of the Oklahoma Centennial Celebration, with tunes that should bring smiles to the faces of spectators and band alumni alike. We've already updated the Events calendar with Saturday morning's schedule, and feel free to use the discussion link to ask questions or talk about the season (but you have to log in first!). Boomer Sooner!
We've updated the Events calendar with your opportunities to see and support The Pride of Oklahoma during the first home game, September 1, as the Sooners take on North Texas State University in Norman. See there for details on rehearsal, parade time, pregame time, and the dedication of the Billy Sims statue just east of the stadium.
If you haven't been to a game in a while, click the above link to read all about parking, new concession areas for 2007, new women's restrooms, new scoreboard (video boards over both pregame tunnels!), tailgating policies, and lots more.
And just to make sure you don't miss pre-game:
SOONER FAN FEST
Sooner Fan Fest, presented by The Oklahoman and Cox Communications, is an interactive area located on the grounds directly north of the stadium. The event is free to the public and includes food vendors, games for children, autograph opportunities, radio pre-game shows and Go Vision, a 20 foot video board that will display games from around the country. Sooner Fan Fest opens three hours prior to kickoff and closes when the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band enters the stadium [f]or [the] start of the game.
And what precedes entering the stadium? The parade!
Band Route: This season, the Pride of Oklahoma's pre-game activities will include a concert on the lawn area just north of Jacobsen Hall, directly across from Campus Corner. The concert will begin one hour and thirty minutes prior to kick off. Additionally, on all home game dates, the Pride will parade to the stadium and will pass through Campus Corner, with the exception of the Homecoming game vs. Missouri on October 13.
Of course, you won't miss it during Homecoming, because you'll be entering the stadium in preparation for playing, right? Of course! See you there!
Yes, I would have told you sooner, but I just found out myself. I'm looking for a loop to get inserted into. Be that as it may: tonight at 6:00 PM in Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, the annual pre-season pep rally kicks off yet again, featuring:
The gates to Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium open at 5:00 p.m. The Sooners will hold a brief scrimmage on Owen Field prior to the event which starts at 6:00 p.m.
Festivities include the 2007 Pride of Oklahoma, spirit squad performances and remarks from OU head coach Bob Stoops and team captains as well as the OU soccer and volleyball teams.
I'm not sure when The Pride became a "festivity," but it's fun, it's free, there's fun for the kids immediately afterwards north of the stadium, and it's a public performance by your 2007 Pride of Oklahoma after just one week. If you're in town, come by the stadium and support the Sooners!
Pride Parents' Day will take place on September 15 when the Sooners take on Utah State. Parents' Day is an opportunity for all Pride members' parents to take part in a gameday experience with their son or daughter. A schedule and order forms were mailed to the home address we have on file on Thursday, August 16. You may also download the information in PDF format if you did not receive the mailing. Please note that these items are very time sensitive so complete them today! We would like everyone to be able to participate! We look forward to seeing you on the 15th. Boomer Sooner!
The loaded up-front schedule makes time a problem in planning these things, especially with our 2007 Pride of Oklahoma just announced five days ago and busily preparing for the first game in under two weeks, so if you're a Pride Parent this year, get this material in ASAP!
Another victim of Monday's shooting was Matthew La Porte, 20, of Dumont, New Jersey. He was a member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets Regimental Band, the Highty-Tighties, who provided the music for today's convocation ceremony, including the Frank Ticheli arrangement of Amazing Grace.
OU vs. Miami is now slated for an 11 AM kickoff, and will be televised by ABC. As the linked SoonerSports.com article indicates, it's the second game of the season for both teams, on Saturday, September 8, at beautiful Owen Field. Any potential Pride members or parents reading know what that means: calisthenics in the dark!
Other than the Big 12 Championship game, it's still the only game for which we have a definite kickoff time. (Although it was previously announced that the Sept. 21 game at Tulsa will kickoff at 7:00 PM, the SoonerSports.com Web site still lists it as "TBD." You can see that here, and the Pride-related schedule (complete with unofficial 7:00 PM kickoff in Tulsa) has been updated on our Events calendar.
Update: The OU Athletic Dept. has now announced that the season and home opener, OU vs. North Texas on September 1, has been picked up by FSN and will kickoff at 6:00 PM. The Sooners host Utah State on September 15, and kickoff for that has been set at 2:30 PM, although no television plans are finalized. The calendars have been updated.
November just got a lot more exciting for the 2007 Pride of Oklahoma!
On November 22, just six days after Oklahoma's Centennial, The Pride will be in New York City as the state's representative in the 81st annual Macy's® Thanksgiving Day Parade! That's right - the one with the balloons, Miracle on 34th Street, Al Roker, and everything else. Great thanks to the Oklahoma Centennial Commission and university administration for helping with the cost of such a tremendous opportunity.
We'll try to keep you updated with any ways you can help or support the Pride in New York. A quick look at the November 2007 events calendar shows that it's going to be an intense month: OU plays at Texas Tech on Saturday, November 17. Very shortly thereafter, The Pride travels to New York City to prepare for the Macy's Parade on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 22. Then just two days later, it's bedlam as OU hosts OSU at Owen Field - and that could easily be an 11:00 AM CST kickoff for ABC Sports, too! (The Big 12 Championship game is just one week later in San Antonio, to boot.)
And we still haven't seen a definitive announcement about the date for Homecoming 2007! This page from the OU Alumni Association strongly implies that it's been chosen for October 13, but our event calendar had OU at Missouri on that day - but now, SoonerSports.com says the Sooners host the Tigers on that day, so it might be Homecoming 2007. At least it appears that it won't be in November! Stay tuned here for news and information as we get it, and BOOMER SOONER!
…to Chauvin Aaron, drum major for the 2007 "Pride of Oklahoma!"
Perseverance really pays off, especially for University of Oklahoma music education senior Chauvin Aaron, four-year Pride of Oklahoma marching band member.
After spending three years among the finalists for drum major, Aaron finally heard his name announced last weekend at the Pride’s annual year-end banquet.
…But the third time was a charm for Aaron, even though he admits the thought of being the next drum major strutting down Owen Field hasn’t sunk in yet.
(The author may know a bit about the subject, too! )
Update: Hometown newspaper article with picture here.
Many of you know Jeremy Gossett, the young man who's been the announcer for the Pride of Oklahoma for the past five years. (Due to scheduling conflicts, he wasn't at homecoming this year - that was our old friend John McCormick stepping back in, but Jeremy did the others, including the Centennial halftime in 2004.) He also produced and directed the 58-minute film Legacies and Friends: the 2005 Pride of Oklahoma that was announced here last August and available on video. It was also shown this past weekend at the Trail Dance Film Festival in Duncan.
If you follow the Fox television series American Idol, you may also have seen reports about the "Oklahoma Five" - five OU students who traveled to the San Antonio auditions for the show last August (about the same time Legacies and Friends was being shown!) and who all made it to final auditions in front of judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson. Due to agreements with Fox and 19 (the producers of Idol), they're not allowed to say how those auditions went until the show with that day's auditions.
[Update: Fox has now, for reasons known only to Fox, moved the San Antonio audition show to Tuesday, February 6, at 7PM CST ("Auditions No. 7: San Antonio"). The show on as I update this (Wed 31 Jan, 8 PM CST) has auditions from Los Angeles. Dang!]
And you're probably already ahead of me - the link in this article takes you to a Duncan Banner newspaper article pointing out that our Jeremy Gossett is the brother of recent OU vocal music education alumnus Laura Gossett, who is one of Idol's "Oklahoma Five!"
So if you're watching Idol on Wednesday night, there are five OU music students to root for: Heather Appel, Grant Fisher, Tony Foster, Michael Preston, and Laura Gossett. My news spies are good, but I can't tell you if any of the other four are or were in The Pride (cross-overs at OU between vocal and instrumental performance are reasonably common), but I still thought this was a fun family connection worth sharing! Yay Gossetts!
Our Pride of Oklahoma leaves this week for the Fiesta Bowl trip. Those of you who were in the band in 1983 (the last time OU went to the Fiesta Bowl!) may recall that this particular bowl trip is full of performances, so if you're headed to Arizona, there are plenty of chances to see and support the 2006 Pride - and there's another chance in Midland, TX, too!
Here's the full schedule of 2006 Pride of Oklahoma rehearsals and performances on the trip. Read more in the full article.
Paul Thompson threw two touchdown passes to Malcolm Kelly and led the longest scoring drive in Big 12 championship history, leading Oklahoma to a 21-7 victory over No. 19 Nebraska on Saturday night.
Oklahoma also set the Big 12 championship record for fastest score. The game set an Arrowhead Stadium all-time attendance record at just over 80,000 fans, too.
Fun trivia: At Nebraska, Bill Callahan is now 0-12 when trailing at halftime.
The Sooners are now headed to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, at the brand new Cardinals Stadium in Glendale, AZ. Kickoff time is 7:45 PM on Fox (not FSN, but regular "home of The Simpsons" Fox) in high-definition. Ticket information is available online. We'll have links to Pride photos and schedules as they become available.
For the 40th time, the Sooners are conference champions!
Click the link to read about a final home game that was extraordinary in more ways than one. Don't ever let people tell you that something can't happen.
Mr. Brian Britt and The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band are making dreams come true for one lucky Texas boy. Eight year old Parker Hayes suffers from Primary Immune Defiency Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Parker is a big fan of the OU Drumline. Mr. Britt, on finding out about Parker and his love of the OU drumline, set about making Parker's dream of sitting with the line at a game a reality.
Parker and his parents will be attending the Nov 11th game as a guest of The Pride, sitting with the drumline. The band members are taking up a collection to pay for a hotel room for the family so Parker could rest after the long drive from Dallas. Parker will becoming to Norman after leaving Dallas from Medical City Dallas Childrens Hospital, where he is recieving treatment for his illness.
The spirit of community service that the band promotes really shows through in this undertaking, as many of the students are from Texas. Norman can be proud of Mr Britt,the members of The Pride and the University of Oklahoma for their commitment to improving the quality of life for all.
(Not sure what's up with the punctuation in the original, we've fixed it some)
OUBAA does not currently have a way online for you to donate to such worthy causes, so if you can help, please contact Brian Britt directly by clicking on his name - and a big thank you from everyone involved for anything you can do!
Click on the link for an update on the Sooners and our Pride of Oklahoma, including bowl possibilities, next week's long trip, and what's left in this 2006 season!
6:30 pm: Meet at Catlett for early registration and to check out borrowed instruments and music.
7:00 pm: Down Beat for Rehearsal
8:30 pm: Rehearsal ends/Reception for ALL Alumni Band members hosted by TBS & KKY
After rehearsal please help clear Catlett of all Alumni Band needs and items. We will need to load large instruments, boxes of music, flags, etc on to our Equipment Truck to have it ready for use on Saturday at the Stadium.
Saturday Schedule:
11:15 am: Meet on practice field south of the stadium for Rehearsal with the Pride and Pre-game
1:15 pm: Registration for those who didn't attend Friday's Rehearsal (Beaird Lounge - North East corner of 2nd Floor in Student Union) Refreshments served
1:45 pm: Business Meeting (Beaird Lounge)
3:00 pm: Parade Starts for those wanting to watch
3:30 pm (ish): Lunch served on the South Oval for those who purchased lunch tickets
5:15 pm: Meet in North End Zone for Pre-game (be sure to give yourself enough time to get through security!)
I won't judge how official anything is, but if you've never read the story behind O.K. Oklahoma, or heard the original 1939 debut on the NBC radio network, read the story O.K. Oklahoma at 65. (I updated the audio file tonight with a version that's easier to hear, and that's hosted on a faster server, so listen and enjoy!)
Ah, someone asked about that, too! No wonder - pay no attention to the Big Red Rally Web Page on OU's site, as it has not been updated in two years. Shame, shame. And we're volunteer labor here! (It is described on the schedule for Howdy Week 2006, though - it starts at 5:30 PM in Our Favorite Stadium.)
Can't say anything about "TBDBITL" (always up for debate in these parts, tho no offense intended), but The Pride performed Dr. Roland Barrett's arrangement of Scott Boerma's El Toro Caliente in both 2002 and 2005. Pride alums who can tell good stories about their first OU game in uniform can still win the 2005 CD with that recording on it, if they don't dawdle.
Come rain or shine, the Pride of Oklahoma roster will be finalized today and the band will be marching the rest of the week.
Brian Britt, sixth year director of the Pride, which is the University of Oklahoma’s marching band, said nearly 350 hopefuls are auditioning this week for membership in the band. Depending on auditions and prospective members’ skills and work ethics, Britt said the band will be between 310 and 320 members.
That first show is drawing ever closer, so don't delay - tell us about your first OU football game with the Pride and win a free 2005 Pride of Oklahoma audio CD! The contest officially ends Whenever We Feel Like It, so don't put it off!
The Pride of Oklahoma band is getting excited and anxious about this year’s auditions, as there are already over 350 students registered to audition with 320 positions available.
In years past, the band has consistently had 310 to 320 members, said Brian Britt, director of the Pride. He said he hopes for that number to stay high as the Pride has had a strong recruiting class this year.
“It will enable us to continue providing the Sooner fans with a consistently high level of performance and a powerful musical presence in the stands as we support the Sooners to their 8th National Championship,” he said.
Every year each member of the Pride must re-audition for a position.
Britt said “there are no guaranteed positions in the Pride, the best prepared students earn a position, and it doesn’t matter what classification you are.”
The Pride’s first pep rally will be the Big Red Rally on Friday, Aug. 25.
The OU Bands home page now has a countdown to the beginning of the first rehearsal for the 2006 Pride of Oklahoma, too.
Yesterday, the Big XII Commissioner announced new regulations regarding band seating relative to visiting teams (see URL to story). This mandate is optional for this year, but must be implemented next year. This issue was mentioned in passing last year, so it is not a complete surprise. However, no indication was given about the timeline for the implementation of this policy. Now that we know what the new conference rule is, and the timeline for its implementation, we can get to work on finding a positive solution. During the past five years I have had the privilege of serving as the Director of The Pride, our Athletic Department has consistently demonstrated that they value the contribution of our organization to the Sooner game day atmosphere. We are confident that working together we will find an amenable solution to any changes necessitated by this conference mandate.
We appreciate the support of our band alumni very much. In this situation the best support of all will be for people to keep their composure until all the facts are on the table. Let's see what we can work out before becoming angry or jumping to conclusions. We will keep you posted as discussions progress and decisions are reached. Thanks for helping us get this done in a positive manner. We appreciate your trust and support.
The leadership team, which is made up of all the section leaders for the band, the staff and the drum major, left Friday afternoon for Lake Texhoma where they spent the next two days doing various leadership building activities and rehearsing to prepare for the upcoming season.
And while we're on the subject, be sure to check out the newly redone OU Bands Web site - not only spiffy-looking, but fully XHTML 1.0 Strict validating. This is good geekiness, as it's pretty much future-proof. Now all we need is to get Chris Evans to redesign this site. :-)
Update: The Pride's Web site now has an RSS feed, too, so you can read all their latest happenings in your newsreader, just like you can with our own site. It's also what makes possible our new, spiffy "Pride News" box on the left side of the home page! Technology is grand, ain't it?
The Pride of Oklahoma marching band will have a new assistant director for the 2006-07 football season.
Jeff Jahnke, an OU alumnus who currently teaches at Jenks High School, will join the Pride teaching staff this summer as the new assistant director of bands. He replaces Michael Boone, who served as assistant director since 2001.
"We're really excited to have have him," said Brian Britt, director of the Pride. "He will be a tremendous asset to the program."
Jahnke was one of three finalists, all of whom were OU graduates. These three finalists were selected among 16 applicants from last fall and went through an interview process during the spring semester. Britt said the process was to present candidates with a variety of situations similar to those candidates would face as assistant director.
"All finalists led a Symphony Band rehearsal and a rehearsal with Pride students," Britt said. "All three were highly qualified. As we went through the process, it appeared that Mr. Jahnke would be the best fit to our program."
Jeff's appointment begins this summer. Congratulations, Jeff!
2005 Pride Invites All Alumni to Reception to Honor Cindy Hartless
After serving as Band Secretary for 21 years, Cindy Hartless is retiring in January following the Band Banquet. The 2005 Pride of Oklahoma students and staff invite all Pride Alumni to a come and go reception for Cindy following the OU vs. OSU game on November 26th in Catlett Music Center. Refreshments will be served, and everyone will have the chance to visit with Cindy and wish her well as she prepares for life as a retiree.
For additional information about this special event, please contact Betty Wiseman at bettywiseman05@yahoo.com.
We hope that you will be able to join us as we honor Cindy's contributions to the Pride of Oklahoma.
OUBAA Officers and a few others spent two evenings decorating and putting together 'goodie bags' for all the Pride Members for their trip to Texas this last weekend.
A few notes of gratitude were received. For example:
----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Britt
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 10:50 AM
Subject: Thanks!
Hi Everyone!
I just want to pass along how much the students appreciated the snack bags you prepared for them for the Texas trip. We presented the bags to them at the party at the hotel Friday night after a LONG day of practices and performances. They disappeared very quickly, and many of them took the time to let me know how much they appreciated this unexpected treat. Thanks to everyone who took the time to prepare these bags for the current Pride members. We know how busy everyone is and greatly appreciate the time you took to express your support.
See you at homecoming!
Boomer Sooner!
BB
Brian Britt
Director of The Pride of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma Marching Band
Catlett Music Center
500 W. Boyd St.
Norman, OK 73019
----- Original Message -----
From: Pride trumpet player
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 3:10 PM
Subject: thank you
Thank you for the gift bags. I went straight upstairs to my hotel room and gobbled it all up. It is wonderful to have your support.
-Becky*
Pride Trumpet
---------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: R. G.
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 2:35 PM
Subject: Thanks!!
Good afternoon Alumni Band!
I am a current sophomore in the Pride and I just wanted to send yall a quick thank you for the awesome snack bags last weekend. It was nice to have some food to come home to after a realllllly long day!
Thanks for all you guys do for us! You guys probably don't hear it alot but we really appreciate how much you all support us and help us out!
Boomer Sooner!
Robert Gonzales,
Tuba
* * * * * *
Let us know if you'd be interested in helping us do the same thing for the Bowl Trip or maybe finals week... E-mail Rita Heath if you'd like us to contact you.
BOOMER SOONER!!!
Well, theoretically, they already have alumni, but they want to know who you are. Katrina Matthews, secretary for the Delta chapter of Tau Beta Sigma, writes:
We have been trying to start a list of alumni and I was wondering if there was any way that you would be able to put a link up to our chapter website so that some people who are in the band alumni association and who are former members can see what we are up to and contact us if they want. Our website address is http://ou.edu/student/deltatbs and we are always looking to meet former members.
Alumni of Kappa Kappa Psi's Delta chapter are similarly invited to visit http://www.ou.edu/student/kkydelta for information on their organization.
Brian Britt is not just the Pride's director, he's also a Pride alumnus. :-)
NORMAN -- Brian A. Britt, director of The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band, will speak at this year's University of Oklahoma High School commencement.
Sixteen of this year's 22 graduates of the independent learning school plan to attend the ceremony at the Thurman J. White Forum building, 1704 Asp Ave., school officials said. Commencement will be at 10 a.m. June 17 in conference room B.
The high school, which offers distance classes online and by mail, has graduated more than 50 independent study students since becoming accredited in 2001. For more information, call 325-1921.
The tradition continues. From Sunday's Norman Transcript:
Former editor Jane Bryant forwarded a message from Lisa Hall, an OU fan from Tallahassee, who attended the game and then went home to help serve the OU band a meal as they made their way back to Oklahoma.
I wanted to share a special 'hug' our Tallahassee Sooners got yesterday as we licked our wounds after a long drive back from Miami. We had been asked to help make arrangements to feed the Pride of Oklahoma dinner as they passed through on their way back to Norman.
A local high school football booster group was more than happy to take on the project, arranging the catering and providing the facility to handle 340 hungry college students. Talk about a group of kids who needed a hug. They'd suffered through the game - and then a bus breakdown in Orlando that delayed their dinner stop until 10 last night. Yet they represented their school and their state with grace and dignity that is truly rare.
I've never seen such sincere expression of appreciation and gratitude for a warm welcome and show of support. The high school boosters were absolutely stunned by their courtesy and conduct. We had hoped to cheer them up - but we were the ones who came away cheered and so extremely proud to be associated with a University that is defined not just by a football team, but by the outstanding young people it serves.
Brian Britt read this letter at the 2005 Pride of Oklahoma Band Banquet.
TO THE OU BAND ALUMNI FROM PRIDE MEMBERS OF KAPPA KAPPA PSI AND TAU BETA SIGMA-- On behalf of the Delta Chapters of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma, we wish to extend our sincere gratitude for the continued support of the alumni of the Pride of Oklahoma. It is due to your enduring contributions that the Pride has been able to achieve such a high level of success over the last hundred years. We hope to maintain this tradition of excellence through the next hundred years.
This Thursday at 8 PM, the OU Symphony Band, directed by Pride of Oklahoma director Brian Britt, takes the stage in Paul F. Sharp Hall for its first concert of the school year. The concert is free and the ensemble contains many Pride members, so if you're in Norman, come out and support the band!
(Our apologies for not posting early notice of October 5th's excellent Wind Symphony concert under Dr. William K. Wakefield; we hope you got to see this fine performance! You can subscribe to the School of Music's MusicNotes newsletter for a free monthly listing of all SoM events and concerts and never miss one again!)
The Oklahoma Daily profiles the Poteat twins - Jemar is a member of the Pride's drumline, and his older (by 16 minutes) brother Jowahn is a cornerback for the Sooners. Cool story!
...then be sure to ask your member offspring for Pride Parents' Day information. This year, due to the always-unpredictable schedule, Pride Parents Day is the first home game - September 4, OU vs. Bowling Green, with an 11AM kickoff for ABC Sports.
Orders for tickets and other festivities are to be filled first-come, first-serve, and the deadline for getting them to the Band Office is Monday, August 25, so don't put it off. (This is unrelated to Homecoming, but be sure to get those forms in as soon as possible, too.)
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch (you may even be reading this on such a device), Click on this 
Fortunately, it didn't matter: the Sooners defeated the Cowboys 49-17, returning to the form that had previously kept them in BCS National Championship consideration. 
), but if any present themselves, we'll update the calendar. The Bedlam game kicks off at 2:30 PM CST and will be televised regionally by FSN on cable and satellite—that's channel 37 for 
Regina Bell sent this pic made by a friend of hers.
Thanks Regina!
Rita
