LONGHORN BAND LHB "this group really needs new uniforms"

[streettopeschel]

Java won this thread in a knockout.

 

[BudreauReye]

The comment followed, "I hate the off-season." And it was a clumsy attempt to say, 'let's not talk about changing our uniforms, please".

You are probably right that I have catching up to do. With my trusty laptop crashed, a close member of my family hospitalized and quite ill, and peak time at work all happening simultaneously, I am significantly behind. This board, and the people here are a welcome respite.

btw, when the LHB came through the tunnel the burst of sight and sound was absolutely overwhelming. I am so glad your mother enjoyed it. The march from Clark Field to the stadium was glorious. I have often wondered how the players feel when the entire stadium really gets in to 'Texas. Fight.' I hope they experience the same sensory overload. If not, I suspect they do coming through the tunnel at the Cotton Bowl.

I will excuse myself from this conversation from here on out because I'm afraid that I am too emotionally invested in the outcome. I understand what monarch is saying, but others vision is much different and would turn our band into a group that no longer resembles what we worked so hard to create and maintain.

I cannot be objective about it.

Hook em!

You know, java, sometimes when it rains, it pours. I genuinely hope your family member gets better quickly.  I have my own unique perspective on such things. I have had my share of such things happening in my life, and sometimes it just feels like life is not fair.  Hang in there.  I hope you can get your comfort where you can, and it can sustain you.  I think that you can rest assured that those of us here will be thinking only good things for you and your family member.

I have not been to a UT football game since they got rid of the track around the field, even though I live in Austin. I have rheumatoid arthritis and plenty of plain old osteoarthritis from old athletic injuries as well, in my knees and ankles, so I don't do the long walking thing anymore.  I must say that I have had basketball season tickets for years.  We find it easier to negotiate the drum than the stadium.  My point in bringing up the old stadium configuration, is that I find it hard to believe that the pagentry now could be any better than when the band wrapped around the field from north to south when they entered the stadium in the old days.  Your description of the "burst" of sight and sound as you came out of the tunnel is very evocative.  From our perspective in the stands, as I previously described, the music would rumble up through our feet as the band passed thought the innards of the stadium and seemed to explode as the band emerged from the tunnel.  It was spectacular.

I do not know how the UT players react to the pagentry of the games.  I can only relate my experience in high school.  My home town had a bowl stadium that could seat about 10,000 at capacity.  Of course, it was nothing compared to DKR, but it was loud for a high school stadium, and just a little overwhelming in my first game as a sophomore.  After that, I gotta say that I tended to focus in on the tasks at hand everywhere we played to the extent of tuning out most all distractions.  I would think that most UT players probably do the same thing, though I can only imagine that the first game in DKR and especially in the OU game are probably pretty distracting.  I gotta tell you though, that in my high school games, the one thing in the external environment that really stood out was that in the fourth quarter during time outs, the band would play a piece of music, I wish I could remember the name of it, that was heavy on horns and drums and built to a crescendo.  It sounded like maybe it came from a gladiator movie.  when they started playing, everybody got quiet and listened, even the players on the field.  I have to tell you that the effect, as tired as we were, was one of chills running up your spine and prickling the hair down your forearms.  Looking back, It was quite an impressive bit of stage craft and it did an impressive job of steeling our resolve.

And, streettopeschel, I did not know that anybody on this thread was in anything like a mano a mano slugfest.    As far as I am concerned, It just seems to me that some of us were having a little speculative give and take.  I appreciate java's and other's take on tradition.  I have been a part of a creative profession most of my life and I have been told that I am a fairly creative person by nature.  Part of that mindset is playing "what if?",  where you can let your imagination run free without recrimination.  In most design field's that is how you come up with unique solutions to design problems.  Besides, just because I may go off on a flight of fancy about creating a "Tumbleweed" tradition at Texas with a "MOB" Band alter ego, that does not translate to my thinking in any form or fashion that I think that ANYBODY is going to assign me any decision making power with regards to such things.  Hell, I sometimes have visions of the football team coming out in surprise uniforms for a bowl game of not black but dark charcoal grey jerseys and pants with the Texas logo and the players numbers one shade darker than the normal burnt orange with the helmets in the same one shade darker than normal burnt orange in a metallic finish with the longhorn logo in the same dark charcoal grey, with leggings the same shade of burnt orange but not metallic.  In my minds eye, I see this as simple as the traditional uniforms only with the change in colors and the metallic finish on the helmets, not with the kind of mishmash and cacophony of design elements that we see in the Ducks' uniforms.  Now, I am well aware that something like this is very unlikely to ever transpire, and I am fine with that.  It is merely a flight of fancy.  And, I like to conjure up such outlandish images with regards to lots of things just for the fun of it. And I like to discuss them with anybody else that is willing.  Whether we like it or not, things do change over time, and if, Heaven Forbid, someday, some of these traditions do change, I would hope that somebody would have given them some consideration aforethought.

And since all this discourse and palaverin' is only worth as much as the hot air involved in these various expostulations; in retrospect, I guess it is only fair that someone can come along and declare that there is such a thing as a "winner" in these friendly discussions.  Though, I must say, that such an ignominious ending does not do justice to the nuance of these proceedings. 

 

[java]

Bud, thank you for the reply.

I think the stadium lost, as well as gained, something when they took out the track. Not only did the band get to enter and wrap around the stadium, but kids don't get to run there for the Texas Relays. Change is a part of life, but when it involves tradition, I want it to be well-considered.

My dad was quite a football player. The school district changed his school song years after he graduated, and he hated it. He said that song had been played so often when they were dog tired, scored, and won, and a band director made the suggestion to change it. The band director was there for 3 years.

I am sorry that you cannot go to the games anymore. That is a very difficult illness. Hopefully our basketball team will be even more fun next year and go deeper in the tournament.

My relative is going through the toughest part of the treatment right now, and I have confidence that everything will be fine. Thank you.