Let the marching band tuba section trash talking begin!

[Dave Detwiler]

Hi all - I paid a visit to the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta yesterday, and in the little display case highlighting marching bands, there was a delightfully disrespectful Sousaphone fail featured.

I've blogged about it here: https://tubapastor.blogspot.com/2022/10 ... tings.html, but perhaps you can see it below. It's a double-fail:

College Football Hall of Fame.jpg (111.4 KiB) Viewed 1528 times

[bloke]

Yeah… One of my teachers was a Leblanc student, and they talked about shinning up their 20K every week before games.

[Three Valves]

Spats are too small.

[the elephant]

That mouthpiece/bits/neck setup is out to lunch!

How did they get that thing to sit on the mannequin with the bell behind the hat and plume? Did they pound a railroad spike through the shoulder bow into the shoulder?

Why is the sousaphone not silver-plated? I have *never* seen that band use anything other than their matched set of silver brass instruments.

And, as stated: the spats look pretty stupid. Size 12 shoes with size 2 spats?

I don't know what two fails you are hinting at, Dave, but these are the oddities I am seeing upon first inspection. Am I close, or is there something I'm missing?

Oh, I forgot: That is the worst Michigan band uniform I have ever seen. It almost looks like… gasp… TBDBITL…! And we all know that can't be the band they were trying to represent. Right?

EDIT: Okay, upon SECOND inspection —————— Is that an Indian-made Eb sousaphone, like Tri-Star or some such?

[Dave Detwiler]

Oh, I forgot: That is the worst Michigan band uniform I have ever seen. It almost looks like… gasp… TBDBITL…! And we all know that can't be the band they were trying to represent. Right?

Those are the kind of comments I'm looking for! But yes, you eventually caught my two declared fails, which are detailed in the blog post above. Fight On! We'll see you guys in the Big Ten in a couple of years!

[the elephant]

Oh, I forgot: That is the worst Michigan band uniform I have ever seen. It almost looks like… gasp… TBDBITL…! And we all know that can't be the band they were trying to represent. Right?

Those are the kind of comments I'm looking for! But yes, you eventually caught my two declared fails, which are detailed in the blog post above. Fight On! We'll see you guys in the Big Ten in a couple of years!

I attended North Texas, but have been a fan of the Buckeye/Wolverine rivalry for many years. The big rivalry in my childhood, though, was the one between A&M and Texas. SAW BEVO'S HORNS OFF!

[bloke]

Spats are too small.

The mannequin represents a player who is – on average – 150 pounds underweight.
(at least – post 1970s, when tobacco was completely vilified and cannabis was completely promoted)

[jtm]

I attended North Texas, but have been a fan of the Buckeye/Wolverine rivalry for many years. The big rivalry in my childhood, though, was the one between A&M and Texas. SAW BEVO'S HORNS OFF!

They're about to be in the same conference again, so it'll be a rivalry again. The A&M war hymn still names Texas explicitly, so I assume they've been wandering in the SEC wilderness for several years with no way to play their nemesis.

[humBell]

I just wanna point out that i'm okay with the display having the cheapest of sousas, as the sacrifice of having the right sousa taken out of commission just for the exhibit seems too great for me.

[Dave Detwiler]

I just wanna point out that i'm okay with the display having the cheapest of sousas, as the sacrifice of having the right sousa taken out of commission just for the exhibit seems too great for me.

Fair enough, and yet everything else in the museum appears to be authentic. Why did that not matter for the marching band exhibit? I still think it's a big miss - but, as I said, I love imagining how annoyed an OSU band member would be!

[gnimoyw]

As an alum of tOSU (but sadly, not an alum of the marching band), I share in the offense taken at the exhibit. Luckily we can take out our collective aggression on TTUN in a few short weeks.

[tofu]

.

[Dave Detwiler]

I just wanna point out that i'm okay with the display having the cheapest of sousas, as the sacrifice of having the right sousa taken out of commission just for the exhibit seems too great for me.

Fair enough, and yet everything else in the museum appears to be authentic. Why did that not matter for the marching band exhibit? I still think it's a big miss - but, as I said, I love imagining how annoyed an OSU band member would be!

Hey,

I'm amazed they even acknowledged the existence of marching bands and that they make a real contribution to the college game day experience. I'd be surprised if the powers to be of the museum didn't have a real internal debate about including it in the museum and thus gave this display a small budget to work with thus the cheap eBay Sousaphone. It's a shame they show virtually nothing of the halftime show anymore on tv. Instead it's idiot talking heads.

I have a question for you Dave since you're a USC alum. When I was at Wisconsin we never got paid for external stuff like playing at Green Bay Packer games. When USC does the external Hollywood stuff like appearing in the Fleetwood Mac Tusk music video do the students get any remuneration? I assume the school got paid by the producers for the band's participation.

No, the students don't get paid (at least not when I was there, from 1979-1984), but the band gets paid, and that money is used for our trips, and we travelled a lot. We send a portion of our band to every away game - I wonder if that will continue when we flip to the B1G?!

[humBell]

...

I wonder if that will continue when we flip to the B1G?!

Wait... USC will be in the big ten?! What else has changed?

I feel like Rip Van Winkle...

[Dave Detwiler]

...

I wonder if that will continue when we flip to the B1G?!

Wait... USC will be in the big ten?! What else has changed?

I feel like Rip Van Winkle...

Yep, it's a strange new world in college football, between the transfer portal and the conference realignments! But as long as no one messes with the marching bands, I'm fine with all of that! Fight On!

[RenoDoc]

Let's not forget, it was the Michigan Marching Band who had to teach the marching band from "that school to the south" how to spell Ohio....https://mvictors.com/showing-ohio-the-script-ohio/

;)

One thing I do love about college football is that while the football rivalries are intense, I tip my hat to any marching band out there- they are all incredible. Watching USC play with Radiohead during the 2009 grammies was one of the coolest things.

[Dave Detwiler]

Watching USC play with Radiohead during the 2009 grammies was one of the coolest things.

Indeed - our band has done a LOT of cool things over the years. When I was there, playing Sousaphone, we performed with Fleetwood Mac for the Los Angeles concerts on their "Tusk" tour. We had recorded that song with them in 1979, and in 1980 we became the only band with a platinum record! We were literally rock stars!

1980 with Fleetwood Mac.jpg (80.08 KiB) Viewed 1121 times