Purdue News
Purdue News
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December 10, 1999 Band approaches bowl as a partner in traditionWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Quarterbacks, nose guards and tight ends aren't the only players on the field at the Outback Bowl, and at the kickoff at 11 a.m. Jan. 1, Purdue's football team will be outnumbered almost 4 to 1 by Purdue's "All-American" Marching Band. The entire band will depart for Tampa, Fla., from the Purdue Airport at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 28. For 29 Indiana band seniors, this marks the third year in a row they've been bowl-bound over the holidays. "I've come to expect to spend Christmas in a warm place with no blizzards or snow," said Rochelle "Rocky" Eisert, a senior trombone player from Pittsboro, Ind. Purdue boasts the largest marching band in the Big 10, and one of the largest in the nation. Transporting 400 band members, all their instruments and gear – including a 10-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide bass drum known throughout the United States as the "World's Largest Drum" – is challenging. It takes two charter flights and one jam-packed semi truck to accomplish the feat. And even then it's not easy. Tuba player Kevin Price, a senior from Milford, Ind., recalled that the excitement of the first bowl trip in 1997 caused the bands' pilot some concern when students did too much wandering on the flight to San Antonio. "Somehow the band got towards one side of the plane, and the pilot asked us to dissipate because the plane was leaning. I'm pretty sure the tubas did it," Price laughed. In the festive bowl atmosphere, band members find themselves in the vortex of the excitement. "In San Antonio we'd run into football players and they'd have their video cameras out and they'd say 'Sing "Hail Purdue" for us,'" recalled senior Natalie Cripe from Anderson, Ind. Spontaneous competitions tend to spring up everywhere over who has the best fans. "We'd chant 'Go Purdue' and sing the fight song and they'd do it back. Whoever had the most fans at that particular time won," Cripe said. Game day nerves may not be quite the same for the band as the football team, but both want to win in their own way. "After doing countless performances at Ross-Ade Stadium, it's a different pressure. You feel a little more anxious. A bowl is a really big deal," said Ted Ashworth, senior tuba player from West Lafayette. "And we want to do well because many of these people have never seen us before." Price said there's nothing like the feeling you get entering the stadium for a bowl game. "When we marched into the Alamo Dome the crowd was cheering and all the Purdue fans were screaming their lungs out. In high school band we never got anything like that, and I haven't even heard Purdue fans (at Ross-Ade) cheering that loud," he said. "I got goose bumps on the field when the crowd went crazy." Purdue "All-American" Marching Band seniors from Indiana, listed by town, are:
The Purdue "All-American" Band will celebrate the entrance of the new millennium on the beach outside their host hotel, the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort. But partying won't go much past midnight because band members have to arise at 5:30 a.m. to prepare for various performances on bowl day. Ushering in the New Year on the beach "will be exciting, but I have a feeling we'll do most of our celebrating during the game and after the game," Ashworth said. Fans heading to Tampa for the Outback Bowl will have plenty of time to enjoy the music of the Purdue "All-American" Marching Band under the direction of David Leppla. A beach party at the Hilton Clearwater from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 29 will feature the marching bands and teams from Purdue and Georgia. The Purdue Band will have an open rehearsal for its fans at 9 a.m. Dec. 31 at Clearwater High School. It also takes part in two separate pep rallies on Dec. 31 as well as the TECO Energy New Year's Eve parade in Ybor City, Fla. CONTACTS: Eisert, (765) 743-7416; home (317) 892-3803; eisert@ecn.purdue.edu Price, (765) 497-4717; home (219) 658-9365; prike@purdue.edu Cripe, (765) 495-1839; nlc@purdue.edu Ashworth, (765) 476-4218; home 463-4955; Tashwor@purdue.edu NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: For more information or to set up interviews with specific band members, contact Bands publicist Kathy Matter at (765) 496-6785; kcmatter@bands.edu. During the bowl trip, she can be reached at the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort, (800) 774-1500 or (727) 461-3222.
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