History
The first evidence of a marching band at Iowa State can be found in a newspaper article mentioning the reorganization of the band in 1881. In 1886 a drum major first performed alongside the band for a halftime show. The band competed in a band contest held in connection with the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa in 1928 and made its first appearance at an away football game in 1936. The band appeared in Pigskin Pageants, a college-produced documentary movie, in 1947.
Women were first allowed to march in the band in a limited capacity, as majorettes and percussionists, during World War II. Alvin Edgar first instituted "floating" marching formations in the 1940s, which have become a standard of the band's halftime and pregame performances. Basketball pep bands first made their appearance at Iowa State in 1951, and in 1953 the school hosted its first "Band Day". That same year, Mason City, Iowa native Meredith Willson, composer of The Music Man, composed "For I, For S", first played at the annual football game against the Kansas State Wildcats. The Cyclones and the marching band made their first appearance at a bowl game at the 1971 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, and appeared the next year at the 1972 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee. As a part of a national movement by college bands to open their ranks to female members, women joined the band in 1972.
In 1973 composer Jerry Bilik arranged a new version of the pregame "ISU Fanfare". The band performed along with Maynard Ferguson in front of President Gerald Ford during a halftime show in 1976. The band added a "V" to its acronym in 1979 when members were using the football team's showers after a game in preparation for a trip to perform for the Kansas City Chiefs. When confronted by head football coach Earl Bruce, a bass drum player responded that they were the "Varsity Band". The Alumni Band, a collection of former band members, made its first annual appearance at the 1980 Homecoming, the same year the marching band began to perform at the annual Band Extravaganza with other Iowa State band ensembles. The ISUCF"V"MB was the first college band to play the new Pepsi jingle composed by Ray Charles. In 1995 the band recorded the theme song to the ABC sitcom Coach and appeared in the introductory sequence. They performed in London for the millennium New Year's Eve.
Read more about this topic: Iowa State University Cyclone Marching Band
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