BCS Battle of the Bands II: Brass Boogaloo
7 January 08
by Austin Kelley
Huey Long leads the LSU band.
Last year ahead of the BCS national championship game we reviewed the marching bands of the two competitors, Florida and Ohio State, and listened to some college band classics like Purdue’s ‘You Can Call me Al’. At the time we noted that Ohio State had a classic musical corps with military garb, a storied history, and marching chops. Now they face a school with some band history of its own: LSU. Both universities have won the Sudler Trophy, the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s award for band of the year. Ohio State may have invented marching band formations as we know them, but only LSU plays songs written by assassinated populist demagogue Huey Long! It’s going to be some battle.
Here’s the tale of the tape:
| OSU band | LSU band | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1878 | 1893 | ||
| Nickname | The Best Damn Band in the Land | The Golden Band From Tigerland | ||
| Uniforms | Traditional navy blues with white shoes | Mardi Gras colors with white poofs on the hats | ||
| Fight song | ‘Across the Field’ | ‘Fight for LSU’ | ||
| Key Lyric | Hail, hail, the gang’s all here,/ So let’s win that old conference now. | Let’s carry through, Let’s die or do/ To win the game for dear old LSU. | ||
| Signature March | Script Ohio | Tank? | ||
| Forefather | Edwin ‘Tubby’ Essington, the first strutting drum major. | Huey Long. In the early thirties he built up the band, gave them their current colors, and co-wrote many of its songs including ‘Touchdown for LSU’ the usual pre-game song. | ||
| Hit Songs | ‘Hang on Sloopy’ | ‘Tiger Rag’, ‘Third Down Cheer (Eye of the Tiger)’, Living on a Prayer |
