California Aggie Marching Band: A History

After the war, the band re-forms with 36 men, most of them ex-Gls, led by drum majorette Evelyne Rowe. Rowe travels by separate car with chaperones to away games and is not allowed to date band members. Love prevails, however, and she later marries trombone player (and nowadays U.S. deputy secretary of agriculture) Richard Rominger.

Lawrence McArdell is appointed faculty director and introduces popular songs into the band's repertoire, including "Goodnight, Irene" and "Hoop-Dee-Doo."

The Cal Aggie Band Award Society is formed to promote participation in the band and fellowship of members. To become a member of the society and receive an award, a band member has to participate in all band functions for two semesters. The award persists to this day, now known as the Red Hot Award.

The band, which since 1946 had been all male, begins actively to recruit female members. Inclusion of women, an unusual practice for university bands at the time, doubles the band's size to more than 60 members during the 1950s.

Director McArdell expands student management of the band with the addition of the student director.

Provost Stanley Freeborn orders that a constitution for the band be drawn up after the Executive Committee of the Associated Students tries to eliminate the faculty director's role (notifying Professor Rosen in the middle of a football game). The action was prompted over what the committee viewed as encroachment upon its authority over student-funded activities. The constitution stipulates that the band is to be controlled largely by the student members with the advice of the faculty adviser; it launches a period of stability that lasts about 15 years.

The band receives new uniforms, replacing ones bought secondhand from the UC Berkeley band after they considered them too old to wear.

Larry Austin, former assistant director and arranger for the UC Berkley band, becomes faculty director and begins to vigorously recruit new members.

A small group of bandsmen - wearing Bermuda shorts, Hawaiian shirts, Suspenders, ties and Bowler hats - begins playing for basketball games. This group, which was known as the Bowler Band, evolved into the Mav'rik band with its uniforms of jeans, white shirts, string ties and cowboy hats.

The campus becomes a general campus of the University of California, with authority to add new majors and expand graduate programs.

The band, including a majority of the female members, votes to become all male, in conformance with common practice with the belief that an all-male band would be "more spirited, harder playing and harder marching." Because separate accommodations are no longer needed during away games, it is also cheaper.

The band plays at the World's fair in Seattle, partially funded by a benefit concert. One appreciative audience member was Soviet Cosmonaut Gherman Titov. The long bus trip up and back marks the debut of an unofficial songbook, a compilation of the band's more bawdy songs and limericks, which would get members in trouble in the '90s.

The first band retreat is held. It was here that the freshmen "learned what it was meant to be Aggie Bandsmen." In later years, activities at the retreat, some of which the administration felt crossed the line into hazing, were modified.

Chancellor James Meyer establishes a task force to study opportunities for women on the Davis campus.

As school spirit gives way to student activism and Homecoming and Pajamarino are discarded as outmoded traditions, the Aggie band also becomes a target for criticism for its lack of sophistication and for its promotion of the university.

The band travels to Atlantic City for the Boardwalk Bowl, the Aggies' first bowl game since 1951. The members perform on the Boardwalk in the rain for no one.

• The California Aggie prints a letter from a parent wondering why his daughter cannot join the band, and student Anne Glicken begins a campaign to end the band's all­ male status. "Marching bands are a lot of fun and the female population of UCD shouldn't be deprived of that kind of enjoyment merely on the basis of their sex," she writes in a California Aggie editorial. Band members counter that the presence of women would make them feel inhibited and stifle their creativity.

The Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed, and many college campuses begin to evaluate organizations that exclude women.

On the advice of the university counsel, the ASUCD Senate votes to freeze the band funds until women are admitted. That fall Anne Gliken and several other women join the band.

After an inappropriate Portland State show, the university administration requires the group to adopt a set of guidelines concerning initiation practices, membership and script content.

Complaints about the band's behavior continue and escalate over the band's practice of "gaffing" (taking memorabilia from other universities). The band is put on probation for a year beginning the following January.

Lawrence Anderson replaces Duane Cunningham as faculty director.

Probation continues until December as the band drafts a new constitution, dictation conduct, membership requirements, selection and duties of officers and creation of an Executive Board consisting of an ASUCD-selected manager and elected officers. Many band members feel the new arrangement weakens their control of the organization.

Alumnus Warren Mooney offers the band $15,000 if the members raise an equal amount and increase membership to 100 before Jan. 1,1983. In his honor, the band creates the Warren D. Mooney Award for band members who have participated for three of more years.

In the midst of a severe ASUCD budget crisis, the band agrees to take over funding of the band, severing its ties to ASUCD after 51 years.

Coach Pam Gill requests that the band attend women's basketball games. At first only freshmen are required to go, but as each new class becomes accustomed to the practice, participation grows and the whole band begins showing up within a few years.

The band accompanies the football team to McAllen, Texas, for the Division II playoffs.

The band travels to Romania and Austria at the invitation of the Friendship Ambassador's Foundation, an East Coast organization that promotes goodwill with Eastern European countries. The trip is financed by fund-raising activities and the members themselves

A sophomore sousaphone member files sexual harassment charges against the band after the student director refers to her using gender-oriented obscenities. The controversy grows over the coming weeks as three other students add charges of hazing, racism and homophobia, and the band is placed on probation. An administrative fact­ finding report clears the band of the latter charges, but finds that certain band practices and traditions - including cheers, buttons, and locker decorations - are characterized by sexual innuendo and constitute sexual harassment as defined by university policy. Band
supporters claim the incident was blown out of proportion, and members of the Cal Aggie Marching Band Alumni Association file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights in response to the administration's plans to tighten control over the band. (The complaint is later withdrawn when alumni are satisfied with the revised band policy.)

A I 0-month probation ends after the band's constitution and operation guidelines are revised to retain the group's student-run status while placing more responsibility on the band and its officers. Band officers begin reviewing all buttons and cheers for appropriateness.

The band travels 36 hours nonstop by bus to Grand Forks, N.D., to play for the women's basketball team in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight tournament. The band's halftime performance steals the show, drawing a standing ovation and a front-page story in the Grand Forks Herald.

Students pass a facilities initiative that will finance construction of an Activities and Retention(Recreation) Center, which will include new office, changing, storage and practice space for the band.

Faculty director, Jonathan Elkus, retires, leaving the band without a new director as a three-year search suspends any new hiring.

The student body votes to turn UC Davis into a Division I school, in recognition in its increasing size and athletic talent. This move spells out immense changes for the band in regards to attendance of football and basketball games, especially away games.

The band, now 200 strong, celebrates its 75th Anniversary with an Aggie Band-uh Extravaganz-uh!

Picnic Day's annual Battle of the Bands lasts a record twelve hours with the
Aggies battling against Humboldt State until two in the morning. The Aggie Band comes . out victorious.