Cougar Band is 100 years old!

A BYU News release reports that with the 100th anniversary of Cougar Marching Band they will have a new home in the Lavell Edwards Stadium.
Since Neal and I met at band practice when Dick Ballou was director, I enjoyed reading the history. What they don't mention is that every show had all new music and every bit of it was memorized by showtime - no music was allowed on the field. We had 13 hours of rehearsal a week in preparation for those halftime shows. I remember buying a new pair of Keds one weekend, and wearing a hole in the sole by the following week - that parking lot practice was brutal! At each practice there would be 5 or 6 "alternates" waiting to fill in if someone didn't show up - hoping they would be selected for the vacancy. I was selected my first week as a freshman, which explains why this clarinet player was in a low brass section for the entire season.
Dick Ballou used to tell us stories of his early days as director and would relate tricks they played to focus attention on the Cougar band instead of the U of U band - love that in-state rivalry. Once before a Utah halftime show the Y's lead trumpeter had broken his ankle, so they chose a circus theme and he hobbled out from the sidelines wearing a clown suit to play his music; then just as the show ended, they released lots of balloons - so when the Utah band marched onto the field, everyone was looking up at the balloons and not at their band. He and Grant would poke fun at USU and their "March of the week" halftime shows while we were doing things like forming the shape of a submarine and sinking it into the waves.
In our day, the uniforms were blue and the hats were tall blue furry things with a white feather on the side. Back then the flag girls wore short dresses - and since it was before the day of tanning salons, they mixed brown Rit dye with Jergen's lotion to add color to their legs!
Major band trips and half-time shows for us - Kalamazoo Michigan (Provo to Chicago by train), San Francisco, and to El Paso, with a side trip to attend church Sunday morning in Mexico. We also played for the nationally-televised NCAA basketball playoffs in the old Smith Fieldhouse.

Here are a few excerpts from the press release: "The Cougar Marching Band got its start as an ROTC marching band in 1908... During Sauer's years, the band met at the lower campus College Hall in the Education Building (Academy Building). In its early years... the band functioned largely as an ROTC marching unit and performed in parades - which were quite popular at the time. By ...1943, the band had moved from the College Hall to the East Room of the Social Hall. It wasn't until Norman Hunt took over as director of bands between 1950 and 1953 that the band began to function in the way that it is best known today - performing at football games. Dick Ballou was a student assistant under Norman Hunt and became the first full-time marching band director in 1953. Under his direction the band became known as the "Incomparable Cougar Marching Band." In 1965, the band found a new home when the Harris Fine Arts Center was completed. A year later, in 1966, Ballou became director of bands and Grant Elkington took his post as marching band director."