Well, you asked for, nay, invited gushing so here we go. I’m no Uncle Walt, but I’ll do the best I can to tell you about the evolution of the Golden Buffalo Marching Band during the Mike Bohn era and share some other fun stuff.
I came to CU as a freshman on Monday, August 22 of 2005 in the band’s 97[SUP]th[/SUP] year. In some ways I was very fortunate to become a member of the GBMB when I did. It seemed like it was going to be a pretty good year. I immediately gained 200 new friends, learned all the fight songs, and met my girlfriend all within a week (and we're still together to this day). We had a pretty good season, and even though we were there for the entire abortion that was Gary Barnett's last 3 games, it didn't seem toooo terrible. We got to go to a bowl game in Florida and we inflicted two shutouts (more on that later).
2006 was the true beginning of the "Band Renaissance." Although they had begun the year before on a volunteer basis, Stampedes became a mandatory, full band activity. To that end, the entire band was supplied with a set of Nike warm-up pants with a matching jacket. Mike Bohn became a much more visible presence to the band. He would visit us at least a few times that season and tell us how important we were. He likes to say that the band is the "heartbeat of the program." We would need all the encouragement we could get to make it through that season. The 2-10 year was ROUGH. Unlike all of the students and a good portion of the fans that season, we stayed up to the bitter end for EVERY game. The only bright side of that year was that we recorded a CD for the first time since 1999. Unfortunately though, it seems like every canned version of “Fight CU” I ever hear is the old one. Whoever the director was that year, he valued really short and staccato playing so all the fight songs sound way too stuffy and military. The new version reflects the fun and exciting spirit of today’s band.
I know you’ll hate me for this, but the ways in which Mike Bohn has supported the band over the years is really about all the little things. He comes to the band banquet every year with his wife and makes a speech. He sends athletic department money to the College of Music to provide scholarships for the band. Every band member gets a full set of Nike gear (now with shoes). And perhaps most importantly, he goes out of his way to let us know how much we matter. I got the sense that before 2006, much of the band felt undervalued and underappreciated. Mike Bohn has showed us that we truly matter and that we can make a difference. The icing on this cake was when Cabral and the ENTIRE team walked over and thanked the band last year. There were a few damp eyes in the band after that.
I’m going to gloss over most of the rest of the historical stuff, but here are some stories you might enjoy:
In December of 2005, we travelled to the Champs Sports bowl. Shortly before the game though, we were informed that we would have to be on our best behavior and that we probably wouldn’t be getting much TV time. We all wondered why and we later found out the reason. The pre-2006 marching band was a bit more, how shall I say, dirty. Our primary form of in the stands visual performance was hip thrusting. Sometimes we would do it fast and sometimes we would do it slow but we always thrusted like we meant it. Apparently, some of our “behavior” caught the attention of some of the ABC/Disney people and a decision was made to ban the GBMB from appearances on the ABC family of networks the next year. Although the band has mellowed out a lot since then (for further proof, see the vocals stricken from the cadence) much of that joyous and rowdy spirit still live on to this day.
In 2005, I travelled on my first full band away trip. We packed into buses and headed south and east toward a showdown with Oklahoma State. We actually did a home stay our first night with families from the band at Perkins Tryon High School. We played at their football game that Friday and I honestly don’t think they knew what to do with us. We were probably about equal in size to the population of their whole town. The next day we travelled to the game. It was a raucous crown, as it was their homecoming and family weekend. In traditional GBMB fashion, we played as loud as we could and cheered as loud as we could for the whole game. We had to, as we probably made up no less than 90% of the CU presence in Boone Pickens Stadium that day. But the team played strong on the backs of our sound and shut out the cowboys by a score of 34-0. I don’t really remember exactly what happened but the team came over and sang the fight song with us and at some point, we were presented the game ball. So, you might ask, how many other bands have ever been presented game balls? The answer: Zero. Zilch. Nada. Not Ohio State, not Notre Dame, not Stanford, not anybody else. That game ball sits in a special case in our director’s office and gets brought out for special occasions but every time I hear the fight songs, I think about how amazing it felt to hold that ball on that October day.
(I’m the doofy kid staring up at the ball and Rumblin’ Buff is the one holding it who happens to be completely obscured)
Another event I was proud to have been a part of happened in 2007, when the band was awarded a C-Club Letter. I’m not sure of numbers here, but I do know there aren’t many bands in the country who have gotten an honor like that. We also travelled to the Independence Bowl that year and that was when we (or at least I) truly discovered how badass we were. Here are a few things to know before we proceed. First, altitude makes a HUGE difference in how we do things. Our band is pretty loud at home but when we get to sea level, we absolutely scream. Also, I would wager A LOT of money that the band parties harder than any other group on campus. As many of you know, you can train at altitude for a lot of things. Drinking is no exception. Two of the freshmen in the tuba section that year polished off a 30 rack between them on our trip to Shreveport and didn’t even feel buzzed. As you can probably tell by now, we do everything BIG. We were still a little worried when the Alabama band showed up though. The “million dollar band” is about 400 strong and travels on 8 buses. Despite being half their size, we CRUSHED them at the battle of the bands that year. We finished out the night by playing the exact same song they did, except we played it higher, louder, faster, and with more dancing. The “million dollar band” skulked away with its tail between its legs, its net worth down closer to 100K. At the game the next day, the many LSU fans present (who were there to root AGAINST Alabama) showered us with compliments and praise and told us how much better we were than the ‘Bama band. We almost won that game with their help.
I’m approaching two single spaced 11 point pages now so I figure I should probably close with one more story that I heard for the first time this year. It was 1995 (I think) and it was sort of a rough game. We were playing aTm and the crowd was not in it at all so the band did what we do and took it upon oursleves to try to motivate the team. So they would play as LOOOONNNGGG as they possibly could during the breaks and would occasionally play into aTm offensive snaps. At one point, coach R.C. Slocum got cranky about it and decided to complain to the officials. Shortly thereafter, a flag was thrown. The penalty was on the band! You can actually hear it on the TV broadcast. “Will the band PLEASE stop playing?” The stadium went dead quiet for a moment, but then the crowd went ape$hit. Shortly after that, aTm lines up for a field goal to tie or win the game. The now fired up and rambunctious crowd and the band screamed their lungs out and the kick soared wide left.
In the end, that’s why we all do what we do. It’s not about the trips or the free stuff, or the food (even though that stuff sure makes things more fun). When you get right down to it, we do what we do because we love our alma mater. We support our university and its teams no matter what and we are proud to be buffaloes no matter what. I’ve seen a lot of gamedays and I’ve been a part of some very special moments in Buff history but if you asked me what my favorite memory was, I wouldn’t say holding the game ball and I wouldn’t even say beating Oklahoma in 2007. The best thing about being a Buff is getting to sing the alma mater in the band room after every game. It is in that moment that I know what it means to be a buff for life.
