does gtwn have a marching band

[njhoya]

that performs at home games?

[CAHoya07]

No, but we do have a pep band that plays at all home football and basketball games. They stay in the stands and do not march, however.

[DFW HOYA]

The last marching band was seen on campus in 1950.

For a school of Georgetown's size, it should have a marching band, but there's no administrative traction on the idea.

There's also a bit of a subtle East Coast bias against marching bands--I think a lot of kids that went to smaller, private high schools never appreciated the marching bands that a lot of larger high schools put together.

Among Eastern universities, Cornell still holds its own, but not many else.

mb.bigredbands.org

[njhoya]

I don't know about an "east coast" bias. UD and JMU have very good marching bands while W&M has a fairly large "pep" band that stays in the stands. UD's band is pretty cool in that they march but they also run up into the stands (quite a few rows up-I was wheezing to get there myself) and play in different sections around the standium.

[hoyatables]

There are a number of reasons why Georgetown has not re-created its marching band:

The band was originally formed in 1922 as a ROTC marching band, and performed at all the home football games throughout the 20s and 30s, during an era when Georgetown football was nationally competitive. It continued to exist as a marching band until 1951, when the football program ended.

The band continued to exist as a concert band throughout the 50s and 60s, and with the rise of Georgetown basketball, took on a new role as a pep band. We're not sure exactly when the organization started playing football games again, but when it did, it did so as a pep band, not a concert band.

The group simply is not large enough to function as a marching band. Moreover, it lacks the financial, equipment, and administrative resources to exist as such. Various attempts and inquiries have been made throughout the late 90s and first half of this decade into the feasibility of a marching band but they've met with substantial inertia from within the organization and larger GU administration. The band has certainly evolved during that time, splitting into separate concert and pep bands, and re-imagining its pep appearance, but the focus has been on those aspects of its music and performance. Attempts to perform as a "scramble band" were defeated at the 11th hour in the fall of 2000 (perhaps for the best).

A marching band is not out of the question. The group now has a larger space capable of holding a 100+ person band and its equipment. It would need the financial resources and administrative support to do so. Marching bands require uniforms, substantial amounts of expensive musical equipment, and qualified staff. Instruments alone can be quite expensive; while most horn players come to school with their own sax or trumpet, the larger instruments such as sousaphones and percussion are usually provided by the group.

Marching bands also require a dedicated and talented corpus. Georgetown has its fair share of talented musicians--I've been blessed enough to play with many of them over the years. Their talents and interests, however, tend towards the jazz and classical genres; those that are enthusiastic about the pep band are primarily interested in the support of the basketball program, and the pep band has always been built around that spirit. Certainly football has its place near to our hearts, but it was just not the same--yet. The group itself tends to sell itself by noting that it doesn't march; it's entirely possible that for every student that joins for that reason, another who wanted to march does not. Additionally, DFW's observation is correct--there is an East Coast bias against the marching band. I'd say less than half of the kids I played with were in a marching band; even many of us that went to public schools did so at places without marching. To assemble 100+ students at a university of Georgetown's size that have both the time and inclination to march--well, it will require some serious motivation. Ideally, that motivation would come in a scholarship form.

Perhaps as the football program continues to grow and succeed, the band, too, will grow with the program to once again march on its new field.