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Carolina Band | |
---|---|
School | University of South Carolina |
Location | Columbia, South Carolina, United States |
Conference | Southeastern Conference |
Founded | 1920 |
Director | Dr. Jay Jacobs |
Associate Director | Dr. Quintus Wrighten |
Members | 397 (2017) |
Fight song | "The Fighting Gamecocks Lead the Way" |
Uniform | |
The uniform is a white jacket with garnet and black trimmed in silver embroidery. The back of the uniform is a large garnet panel embroidered in silver with the official university logo. The uniform has two pant options, white or black, trimmed with a garnet stripe down the side. The shako is Garnet with white trim, the university logo in silver, and a white plume. | |
Website | www |
The Carolina Band, or the Mighty Sound of the Southeast, is the official marching band of the University of South Carolina. This 400-member marching band performs at all South Carolina Gamecocks football home games played at Williams-Brice Stadium, as well as neutral site games, bowl games, all games against Clemson, where both the Carolina Band and Clemson's Tiger Band both perform at half time regardless of which school is hosting on a given year.
The band sends smaller pep bands to go to regular season away games where the full band isn't needed. The Carolina Band has also performed in exhibition at local high school marching band competitions and at SCBDA State Championships. In 2024, the Carolina Band will perform at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. [1] [2]
The Carolina Band is made up of various components, including brass and woodwinds, drumline, colorguard, coquettes, and feature twirlers. Though all members of the band audition, the drumline, guard, coquettes, and twirlers are the most competitive.
Brass and Woodwinds make up the majority of the Carolina Band. The Carolina Band fields piccolos, clarinets, alto and tenor saxes, trumpets, mellophones, baritones, and sousaphones.
The Carolina Band Drumline (CBDL) performs with the marching band as well as on their own in the spring. The drumline consists of snares, tenors, basses and cymbals. In 2023, the drumline added a multis section to prepare drummers to play snare and tenors. [3]
The Carolina Colorguard is a major visual component of the band. In addition to flags, guard is seen spinning rifles and sabres and performing choreography. [4]
The Carolina Coquettes is the main dance component of the band. They utilize pom poms and are often seen performing with the entire band and with the drumline. [5]
The Carolina Band Feature Twirlers twirl batons and are heavily featured by the band, and have a history of winning regional, state, national, and world titles. [6]
The Carolina Band began as a student-initiated organization in 1920, when the request to organize a band was granted by the Board of Trustees. The first band was formed with fewer than 20 students in September 1921 under the direction of a student (Mr. Martin). [7]
Still under the direction of Olson, the band began to increasingly take on the appearance and the sound of a marching band. Olson's band were of the first to wear uniforms in the school colors and he offered participating students instruments for use in the band. Band membership totaled around 50 members.
Additionally, as the United States was engaged in the second world war, many members were lost from the university and the band to active duty requirements for World War II. In 1941, the formerly all-male band changed its policies to allow females into its members. The first female members only served as majorettes. Later, female members assumed positions as marching members of the band. [7]
After World War II, the band began to develop more as a "show" band, with more elaborate pre-game and halftime shows. There were four different directors between 1946 and 1959. [7]
The style of the Carolina Band can be traced to the appointment of James D. Pritchard as band director in 1959. Though a regimental marching band, Pritchard brought back the majorettes and feature twirlers, who had been absent from the shows of the preceding few years. Pritchard also acquired a recording studio, more storage & practice areas and created the "Coquettes", the official dance team of the marching band. [7]
Pritchard obtained a band arrangement of the song Step to the Rear from the Broadway musical How Now, Dow Jones in 1968 and the marching band played the song at the first game of the 1968 season. It caught the ear of Coach Paul Dietzel who contacted Pritchard about making it the official fight song of the University to replace the original fight song, Carolina Let Your Voices Ring. Dietzel wrote the lyrics for the song, but asked that he remain anonymous because knowledge that the football coach wrote the lyrics might render it unacceptable to the basketball program. The song was officially introduced on November 16, 1968 prior to the football game against Virginia Tech. [8]
In 1976, James K. Copenhaver, the longest-serving Director of Bands, succeeded O'Neal. Copenhaver created the most well-known Carolina Band pregame show, which was performed through the end of the 2010 season. He also is responsible for the tradition of always having national or world champion twirlers as a part of the band.
The Gamecocks were accepted as a member institution of the Southeastern Conference on September 25, 1990. They began to play during the 1992 season. One change included the addition of a third band director. Under this organizational structure, the Director of Bands became responsible for administering the entire band program. The various athletic bands in the program were then overseen by an Associate and Assistant Director of Bands.
The new Assistant Director of Bands became the Director of Athletic Bands, which included direct oversight and instruction of the University of South Carolina Marching Band and pep bands. The first person to hold this position was Dr. David O' Shields. From 1995 until 2006, Dr. O'Shields's served as Assistant Director of Bands/Director of Athletic Bands at USC. O'Shields' tenure is highlighted by the demolition of the former Band Hall, the move to an Interim Band Hall, and the creation of plans for the new $9.8 million band facility complex which later opened in April 2009.
George Brozak became the new Assistant Director of Bands/Director of Athletic Bands in 2006. His tenure (2006–2009) leading the marching band is noted by the offering of scholarships for all Carolina Band members for the first time.
Steve McKeithen was hired as Assistant Director of Bands/Director of Athletic Bands from 2009 until 2011.
Following James Copenhaver's retirement in 2010, Dr. Scott Weiss was appointed Director of Bands at the University of South Carolina.
Rebecca Phillips was appointed Director of Athletic Bands in 2011 officially becoming the first Associate Director of Bands/Director of Athletic Bands with a new Assistant Director of Bands/Assistant Director of Athletic Bands Mr. Jayme Taylor. For the 2014 season, Mr. Taylor served as the Interim Associate Director of Bands and Director of the Carolina Band along with Interim Assistant Director Mr. Stephen Meyer.
Starting with the 2015 season, Dr. Cormac Cannon became the new Associate Director of Bands/Director of Athletic Bands and Director of the Carolina Band. In 2017, Dr. Tonya Mitchell-Spradlin was appointed Assistant Director of Bands/Associate Director of Athletic Bands.
Following Dr. Cormac Cannon's appointment as Director of Bands at USC in 2019, Dr. Jay Jacobs was appointed the new Associate Director of Bands/Director of Athletic Bands. In 2021, Dr. Quintus F. Wrighten, Jr. was appointed Assistant Director of Bands/Associate Director of Athletic Bands. [9]
On September 2nd, 2023, fthe Carolina Band announced at halftime that they had been invited to perform in the 2024 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. [1] [2]
The Carolina Band starts out their traditional pregame show marching from the sidelines to the end zone, and playing the Gridiron Fanfare. The band then performs Carolina Let Your Voices Ring (colloquially known as "Old Fight") ending in a set resembling the palmetto and gates symbol. Then, the band performs the national anthem and the school's alma mater, We Hail Thee Carolina. Then, they play their fight song The Fighting Gamecocks Lead the Way, an arrangement of Elmer Bernstein's Step to the Rear, making a "USC" set followed by a march arrangement of We Hail Thee Carolina called the Garnet and Black March or "Alma Marcher". After this, the band plays Go Carolina forming the word "Carolina", and then play a tag and begin a sequence to the tunnel set. After the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey is played over the loudspeakers, the football team rushes out and the band plays the fightsong, and marches off the field to get ready to play in the stands. [10]
The home of the Carolina Band is the Copenhaver Band Hall, located on the University of South Carolina campus at 324 Sumter St. On April 26, 2009, the University of South Carolina opened a facility dedicated to its 300-member marching band and a newly accredited dance program. The $9.8 million complex features practice areas, rehearsal rooms, storage for band instruments/uniforms and an adjacent 110-yard long practice field complete with field lighting and a three-story observation tower. The main level building plan is organized around a series of large practice areas and dance studios along the field-side to the north. Smaller offices and support spaces are located to the south. In 2021, the band started rehearsing in the Jerri and Steve Spurrier Indoor Practice Facility for Saturday rehearsals before home games.
The University of South Carolina has several other athletic bands tied to and under the same directors as the Carolina Band. Before home games, the band sends tailgate takeover bands to the stadium fairgrounds, Gamecock Park, and the Cockaboose.
The Carolina Basketball Band plays at Gamecocks Men's and Women's Basketball home games as well as post-season tournaments. The Basketball band is divided into three groups named "Assembly Street", "Greene Street", and "Sumter Street". The groups rotate responsibilities with two at a time at home games in Colonial Life Arena and one group at a time at both SEC and NCAA tournaments. [11] There is also a separate volleyball band plays at home women's volleyball games.
The Pennsylvania State University Marching Blue Band, known generally as the Blue Band, is the marching band of Pennsylvania State University. Founded in 1899, it is the largest recognized student organization at the University Park campus of Penn State, with over 300 active student members. The primary function of the Blue Band is to support the school's football team, performing for all home football games at Beaver Stadium.
The Purdue "All-American" Marching Band is the marching band of Purdue University and performs at Purdue Boilermakers football games. The AAMB is also the official band of the Indianapolis 500 race, having held the position since 1919.
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The University of Wisconsin Marching Band is the marching band for the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It was formed in the fall of 1885 to support the university military battalion. Today, it has grown to about 300 members and performs at all home Badger football games. They are known for their intense and athletic high knee “stop at the top” marching style.
Cocky is the costumed mascot of the University of South Carolina athletics teams. He represents a cartoon version of a gamecock.
The Clemson–South Carolina rivalry is an American collegiate athletic rivalry between the Clemson University Tigers and the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, the two largest universities in the state of South Carolina. Since 2015, the two compete in the Palmetto Series, which is an athletic, head-to-head competition between both schools, not just in football, but also in more than a dozen competitions throughout each school year. The all-sport series has been won by South Carolina each year. Both institutions are public universities supported by the state of South Carolina, and their campuses are separated by only 132 miles. South Carolina and Clemson have been bitter rivals since 1896, and a heated rivalry continues to this day for a variety of reasons, including the historic tensions regarding their respective charters and the passions surrounding their athletic programs. It has often been listed as one of the best rivalries in college sports.
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The Golden Buffalo Marching Band is the marching band of the University of Colorado Boulder. The band consists of ~260 members, composed of both non-music and music majors. The band performs at all home Colorado football games at Folsom Field, Pearl Street Stampedes the night before every home game, and bowl games. The GBMB will send smaller ensembles to select away games and will occasionally perform at local and university events.
The South Carolina Gamecocks football program represents the University of South Carolina. The Gamecocks compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference. The team's head coach is Shane Beamer. They play their home games at Williams–Brice Stadium.
"The Fighting Gamecocks Lead the Way" is the fight song of the University of South Carolina (USC). It was adapted from the musical number "Step to the Rear" in the Broadway show How Now, Dow Jones with new lyrics written by Gamecocks football coach Paul Dietzel.
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David Scott Wingo is an American college baseball coach and former professional baseball second baseman. He is currently an assistant coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks under head coach Mark Kingston. Wingo played college baseball at the University of South Carolina from 2008 to 2011 winning back to back NCAA College World Series titles in 2010 and 2011 under head coach Ray Tanner. He then pursued a professional career from 2011 to 2014.
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