On Saturday, Oct. 11, during ESPN Game Day, the LSU Tiger Marching Band was announced the winner of ESPN’s “Battle of the Bands” contest.
The other six college bands which accepted were the University of Southern California, Texas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia and Clemson. Voting occurred electronically on the ESPN website for two weeks.
In the middle of August, ESPN contacted LSU about a ESPN/Paramount Pictures promotional event which would not only feature a 2-minute segment of the LSU Tiger Band, but would help publicize the October DVD release of the “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” movie.
ESPN and Paramount were playing off of the similarities between the movie title and the quest for the 2008 BCS Coaches Trophy, a crystal football. Ten college bands whose football teams were in the top-10 preseason rankings were contacted about the promotion. Seven of the 10 schools accepted to take part for a guaranteed $5,000 participation fee. The winner would receive an additional $25,000.
“We normally decline events which try and force a competition between bands,” said Dr. Linda Moorhouse, LSU Associate Director of Bands and Tiger Band Co-Director. “However, in this case we considered it an ‘easy’ fundraising event…a guaranteed $5,000 for our new Band Hall…and $25,000 more if we were to win.”
Easy it was not…
The students and staff went into the promotion with a prescribed plan to accommodate everything they had to do, including the teaching and cleaning of their own pregame and halftime shows.
“We certainly didn’t expect to be interrupted by Hurricane Gustav, which forced us not only to lose many rehearsal days, but it delayed the video shoot as well. The students wanted to take part in the promotion so much, that after our week off from Gustav, they held a practice on their own time on a Sunday afternoon.”
ESPN worked with LSU to reschedule shooting the video for Wednesday evening of the Auburn game week.
“We were working hard to get everything accomplished before we left for Auburn on that Friday not only finalizing the Indiana Jones material, but finishing teaching a halftime show, as well,” Moorhouse said.
While each school was sent the same arrangement of the Indiana Jones theme song, each band went on to personalize the arrangement, in some cases adding school song fragments and/or horn and body movements.
“Our student leaders were involved in every aspect of what you see on the video,” Moorhouse said. “We began with a short drum introduction to our famous ‘LSU Pregame Salute,’ and you can also hear bits of ‘Hold That Tiger’ in the middle of the arrangement. In addition, we added horn moves and dressed the Golden Girls in special Indiana Jones costumes. Our secret weapon was, of course, the appearance of Coach Miles at the end. I can tell you my SEC colleagues were amazed (and a bit jealous) that our football coach took the time to appear in our video. He is such a great supporter of our program…and he was terrific in the video, I might add!”
On Oct. 25, during halftime of the LSU vs Georgia game, the Tiger Band will accept the grand prize check for $25,000 (LSUsports.net/promotions). The money will be deposited into a building fund for their new Band Hall.
“We could not be more proud of our students in the Tiger Band,” Moorhouse said. “Their work ethic, along with their spirit and dedication to LSU and LSU Athletics, is beyond compare. Of course, much of who they are and what they do is a reflection of the tremendous support we have on and off campus.”
She also adds, “On behalf of the students, staff and faculty in the LSU Band Department, we want to thank all the Tiger fans, LSU students, faculty, staff, friends, family, etc. who contributed to our win. Your support of our program is so very special, and at times, humbling.”
If you’d like to see more of the LSU Tiger Band ‘up close and personal,’ plan to attend their annual TIGERAMA concert on Monday, Nov. 17 in the PMAC. Tickets are now on sale through the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and on LSUsports.net.