Michigan State University Spartan Marching Band
The Spartan Marching Band (or SMB) is Michigan State University's Marching Band. Founded in 1870 as a 10-member student group, the 300-member SMB has since grown into one of the premier bands in the United States. The SMB is renowned among the nation and prides itself on its musical excellence, physical toughness, and military-grade precision, and they have maintained a reputation as one of the nation's best marching bands since their first appearance in the Rose Bowl in 1954. The band has played for five U.S. Presidents, performed at four Rose Bowls, two World's Fairs, and one World Series. The Spartan Marching Band is the oldest band in the Big Ten Conference.
The SMB has toured the United States extensively, appearing in concert and on football fields in San Francisco, New York City, Dallas, Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Orlando, St. Louis, Denver, New Orleans, Pasadena, Salt Lake City, El Paso, San Antonio, Tokyo, Tucson, San Diego, Tampa and Washington, D.C.
Read more about Michigan State University Spartan Marching Band: Instrumentation, Auditions, Trivia
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—For the State of Kansas, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“I was now at a university in New York, a professor of existential psychology with the not inconsiderable thesis that magic, dread, and the perception of death were the roots of motivation.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
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So flewed, so sanded; and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
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Each under each.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The chief problem is, of course, whether the marching of the general spirit of things is heading consciously or sub- consciously toward an idea of extension of boundaries.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
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—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)