Memories of being in the USC Band

 

It is officially known as "The Spirit of Troy," and unofficially referred to as TGMBITHOTU, or "The Greatest Marching Band In The History Of The Universe" (possibly an overstatement, I realize). We pretty much define Trojan swagger!

However, when I joined the band as a freshman, in the fall of 1979, the tuba section was characterized by what could rightly be called debauchery (seriously - they would have reveled in that label!). Here is the majority of our section, probably on our annual trip to the bay area to play either Cal or Stanford (it was Cal that year, and I'm the blond guy on the far right, refusing to show my tall finger):

While there was much I had to endure that fall, esp. the hazing at band camp that I resisted, but it almost broke me, I did eventually find a safe crowd with which to hang - and a different bus to ride in for all future trips. But the things we got to do that year - my goodness! Here are a few of them.

First off, we had just recorded the song "Tusk" with Fleetwood Mac, for their album by that name, and they invited us to perform with them in their five Los Angeles concerts at the Fabulous Forum that kicked off their "Tusk" tour. We were, quite literally, rock stars, which fueled our swagger even more!

The following February (1980), because of our participation in this hit song, we were featured on the 2-hour music special, "Solid Gold '79" (see the last paragraph in the listing below):

Then, that fall (1980), Fleetwood Mac joined us on our turf where we celebrated our success together - including receiving our copy of the platinum record!

Back to the fall of 1979, we took a trip to Pismo Beach for a couple of days, to shoot a scene for the happily forgotten flick, The Gong Show Movie. The storyline that involved us was that Chuck Barris had retreated to the desert, leaving his famous TV show, and we marched out to him, over the dunes, to persuade him to return to civilization. Our scene can be viewed here - a scene which lasted less than a minute, but took two days to film! Here we are being directed for our big moment:

And here I am (or perhaps it's a fellow-section member - I don't remember), making good use of our lengthy downtime between takes (a helicopter was used, after each take, to blow the sand smooth again!):

Naturally, we were invited to be part of the "ridiculous event" that was the movie's world premiere, which occurred the following May:

One of my most vivid memories from the fall of 1979 was the way we were treated by the Cal fans when we travelled to their stadium to perform at the game. Here's what I'm talking about, as reported in a local Berkeley paper later that week:

When we returned to Cal two years later, we were prepared. Dave Hayami, a former tuba player in the band and Teaching Assistant at that time, arranged for all of the Sousaphone players to have special mirrored facemasks attached to our Trojan helmets. That was because we knew we would be targeted, given our huge brass bells, and the fact that we were in the front row, spread across the field for our Tribute to Troy pregame formation, marching straight at the Cal student section. The fruit did indeed start to fly almost immediately - it was like a war zone!

Back to 1979, that fall was also my first trip to Notre Dame, where we stayed in downtown Chicago at the Executive House hotel, ate at some great restaurants, such as The Berghoff, practiced at Soldier Field (not sure how we pulled that off!), and gave a pep rally in the middle of Daley Plaza. I apparently didn't take any photos on that trip, but I still have the button we made:

Our football team started the 1979 season ranked number 1, and we proceeded to win all but one of our games - we tied Stanford, dropping us to number 3. We then faced current number 1 Ohio State in the 1980 Rose Bowl, with our Heisman trophy winning running back, Charles White.

Here we are marching in the Rose Parade prior to the game, which we won, by the way, 17-16, but ended up number 2 in the country for some reason:

One of our band photographers caught a glimpse of me as we marched along the parade route, which is quite long, and requires lining up at the crack of dawn, and then playing and marching in the bowl game well into the evening - a wonderfully tiring day!:

I finished the year winning a couple of freshman band awards, and the most disruptive members of the tuba section were booted out of the band. This opened the way for me to be a squad leader for the 1980 season, so things were really looking great for year two!

That fall, the band travelled to games against Arizona, as well as Stanford, and the team ended up 8-2-1 and ranked 11th in the country - but no bowl game, due to five of the Pac-10 teams being on probation that year, including us, as well as our cross-town rival, UCLA. So, we viewed that game as "The Probation Bowl" (which, dang it, we lost):

That year was also the 100th birthday of the University, and the band, of course, was very involved in the celebrations (click here for a separate post on that). 

Year three (1981-82) had me serving the first of two years as the tuba section leader, and here are a couple of shots from that season, showing my view from our Coliseum seats, as well as a look back at the band in the stands from the sidelines:

That year I made my second trip to Notre Dame, which we won again - three years in a row now! After the win, I briefly got to hang out in the dorm room of a friend of mine who was a student there.

Our expectation, as the button I was wearing on that trip suggested, was that we would end up in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl, but a loss to Arizona, and then Washington, left us 9-2 on the season, and slotted us for the 1982 Fiesta Bowl against Joe Paterno and his Penn State Nittany Lions (where my son now attends).

We entered that game with the 1981 Heisman Trophy winner, and my all-time favorite Trojan football player, Marcus Allen, but it was a miserable day, and we lost, and I don't want to talk about it.

That spring (1982) saw me playing in a small pep band that supported our outstanding women's basketball team, which included a trip to Knoxville, TN, for the NCAA playoffs (we lost a heartbreaker to the Univ. of Tennessee in OT).

And that summer, for a special July 4th celebration, the entire band got to play at the Hollywood Bowl!

But my fourth year (1982-83) got off to a bad start, as I suffered a partially collapsed lung at the morning rehearsal for our first home game. My parents were at that game, and noticed that my spot in the "USC" pregame formation was empty (the top end of the "S"), and knew that something was wrong.

They immediately left the game and found me lying in bed, struggling to breathe, at the house I was living in off campus that year (incidentally, the same house my mother had lived in when she was a student back in the 1950s), and promptly took me to the doctor.

I missed our trip to Oklahoma, who we beat 12-0, and wasn't cleared to play tuba for another couple of games after that. But that left me free to support our halftime show about the hit movie, E.T. They had me ride out of the tunnel, on cue, with E.T. in my bicycle basket! Here's a photo from when he were practicing the surprise that morning:

By mid October, I was cleared to both play and fly, and I needed to do both to participate in the EPCOT All American College Marching Band in Orlando (click here for a separate post on that experience).

In the spring of 1983, I travelled once again with the women's basketball team, and this time we won it all! The Final Four was in Norfolk, VA, and the women invited our little pep band to a special dance party at a local disco to celebrate with them. If you've never seen me trying to look cool while dancing with women who are over 6-feet tall, like Cheryl Miller, well, you've missed a good laugh!

My fifth year (1983-84) had me serving as a Teaching Assistant with the band, and making my final trip to Notre Dame. Then, after graduating, I joined many of our band members and participated in the Olympic All American Band for the 1984 Olympics (click here for lots more on that), so I added a pin from that great experience to my band jacket:

One fun fact about the USC tuba section is where we stored our Sousaphones during these years. The band didn't have a single dedicated space or building to use, so the drums and tubas were kept in a basement room of the old P.E. building across from our practice field. It was known as B-19, and it was like a museum, featuring all of the items the band had stolen from other schools and cities we stayed in over the years. I'm not sure why I never thought to take a photo of that secret hideout!

Oh, and one last thing for this already too-long post. Sometime during or shortly after 1980, we created a slick brochure to boast about the band. Here's my clean copy that I found in an old box the other day. Enjoy!