Scramble Band - Stunts, Antics, and Tomfoolery

Stunts, Antics, and Tomfoolery

Scramble bands are notorious for their irreverent stunts, and some of these prove to be controversial. The most upsetting events usually have consequences (see also: censorship) regardless of whether the band intended such controversy. Listed below are some of the more notable events in scramble band lore:

• The Princeton University Band was attacked by a group of cadets at The Citadel prior to a football game on September 20, 2008, while marching around the campus. Several Citadel officials apologized for the altercation, including The Citadel's President Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa and the student body president; no action was taken by either school against the Band. (The incident ultimately did not prevent The Citadel from visiting Princeton for a football game in September 2009; that game went on without incident from either side.)

• Columbia's altar-boy joke (tuition going down faster than...) at halftime of a football game against Fordham, a nearby Catholic school.
• UVa's Inbred Family Feud gag against West Virginia. This was one of the events which ultimately led to the athletic department barring the band from attending all revenue sports in 2003.
• The Stanford Band accidentally rushed the field during the Big Game against rival Cal, mistakenly believing the game was over. This memorable accident, seen at right, became known as The Play, and is often seen on highlight reels. The field invasion prompted Cal announcer Joe Starkey to famously shout, "The band is on the field!"
• More recently, Stanford's band was disciplined for a show with jokes about polygamy during a game against Brigham Young University in September 2004.
• The Marching Owl Band launched a weather balloon-based "UFO", eventually tracked by bewildered air traffic controllers.
• Yale was banned from West Point because of the nature of the script to be performed that day. The YPMB responded the following year at Yale, with a halftime show where band members sarcastically announced, "We are all Americans and we are all the same."
• Another Yale halftime featured the marriage of two former band members. ("At Yale, Wedding Band Takes On a New Meaning", New York Times, October 10, 1992.)
• Dartmouth was banned from Holy Cross for a show that involved a Ted Kennedy Triathlon which included the "Ted Kennedy drive and swim," a parody of the Chappaquiddick affair. Members of the Kennedy family were in attendance, and needless to say, were not pleased. The Dartmouth Band was allowed back for the first time in 2004, but did not attend due to a limited travel budget.
• The Lady Godiva Memorial Bnad, made up of engineering students at the University of Toronto, attended the Bloor-Danforth subway opening on February 26, 1966, and "lept over turnstiles", with 400 students piling onto a train. One student then pulled the emergency power switch, interfering with regular service for more than 5 hours on the first day of the subway line's operation.

Occasionally, the tables are turned. The Texas Aggies misinterpreted a 1973 performance of Rice's Marching Owl Band and formed an angry mob outside Rice's own stadium, trapping the Owl band inside for hours until police dispersed some of the crowd and allowed the band to exit, transported by food service trucks. (The entire show can be found here .)