I was a Freshman playing Tenor Saxophone that year. Marie Burleigh was my section leader that year. I remember playing Pinball Wizard and the Williams Williams Medley. What memories of being in The Pride of West Virginia! Dr. Don Wilcox was such an influence in a lot of our lives!
Nothing like it in college football. My favorite (and I'm dating myself I know) was the in the mid 70's in the old stadium. The band would form under the closed end of the stadium - which was solid cement - and literally rock the stands with a massive drum boogie cadence and then run (and I mean a sprint) onto the field out of the tunnel. This is briefly seen on a RU-vid video covering the '75 Pitt game. Talk about goose bumps! WVU may loose a few on the field but the band NEVER loses!
and how hard it is to blend sound and project from formations like this. their sound glistens across all sides of the stadium. There's no one best place to view a show like this. It's 360 degrees of sheer power.
Hey! My hubby is in there somewhere! Although I still love today's version and get goosebumps when I see it, I agree that this flower/circle version is more interesting and aesthetically pleasing.
I was in the WVU marching band from '75 to '77, and we studied film of the Tennessee band's circle drills to see how they were done. Sharp of you to notice the similarity.
I like how When they Go out from the circle at the end of Simple Gifts it’s on the upbeat and their more spread out, I wish they would go that this year or next
I remember the first time I saw this at Old Mountaineer field. I still get chills every time I watch it. It is difficult to see on the video, but at 1:03 immediately after the band turns outward and begins the fanfare, the majorettes throw their batons to each other. They are about 25 yards apart. You can hear the crowd cheer at 1:07 when they catch them.
Yeah, I was there in 1978. Not in the band, though. I remember all the Sunnyside bars and pinball machines. College Inn, Choosie Mothers, Finnerty's, Redbeard's.
Notice the old logo...............the flying WV wasn't adopted until the 80s............i have season tickets and we go into the stadium half an hour early just so we have no chance of missing the pregame show............AWESOME!!!!!!!!
It's also important to remember how hard it is to hold drill and music together with no percussion, especially when the winds are facing every different direction. This ain't easy, but they made it look like a breeze. That makes a damn good band.
You will NEVER hear a sound like again from any marching band (This is in the classic key of G) all instruments are now in the key of B :(. It got to hard to make the instruments in the G key unfortunately but this proformance is just a classic :)
The marching skills were so much better back then. Alignment hasn't been good for many years. I think members were more dedicated to their performance, and perhaps they were just a bit more talented. I still love the band, but seeing this is truly impressive.
The funniest thing is when Don Wilcox attempted to change some of the "tradmark" things in pre-game, he actually got death threats..... so he changed it back and it has been this way ever since. How about that OSU?
