FOOTBALL GAMEDAY MAGAZINE - of College Football Games

The SPARTAN
MARCHING
bAND
The 300-member Spartan Marching Band, which enters its
139th season in 2009, is one of the oldest and most recognized
university marching bands in the country. The Director of the
Spartan Marching Band is John T. Madden, who is in his 21st
season leading the group.
The Spartan Marching Band was founded in 1870 as a
10-member student group. All of the original members were Civil
War veterans.
The Spartan Marching Band was a military unit connected with
the college ROTC for most of its existence. Until 1952, the band
members wore military khaki uniforms. When Michigan State
began playing Big Ten football in 1952, the band received its
first green and white uniforms. Most of the strict military uniform
codes are still adhered to today with squad leaders holding
routing inspections before every performance.
No flutes or clarinets are used in the Spartan Marching Band,
as these instruments are difficult to hear in the large Big Ten
stadiums. Instead, tiny E-flat cornets play the high “woodwindlike”
parts.
The Spartan Marching Band has entertained five U.S. Presidents:
Theodore Roosevelt (1907), Herbert Hoover (1930), Franklin D.
Roosevelt (1936), Lyndon Johnson (1965) and Bill Clinton (1996
and 2001).
The Spartan Marching Band has performed at 15 bowl games,
including four Rose Bowls (1954, ’56, ’66 and ’88). In addition,
the band has made appearances at the 1964 New York World’s
Fair, ’84 New Orleans World’s Fair, ’84 World Series in Detroit
and ’93 Coca-Cola Bowl in Tokyo, Japan.
The Spartan Marching Band was the 1988 recipient of the Louis
Sudler Trophy for collegiate marching bands, administered by the
John Philip Sousa Foundation.
In 1995, ABC Sports selected the Spartan Marching Band to
record its theme music for college football.
104 w w w .ms u s p a r t a n s .co m
Alma Mater:
MSU Shadows
MSU, we love thy shadows
When twilight silence falls,
Flushing deep and softly paling
O’er ivy covered halls;
Beneath the pines we’ll gather
To give our faith so true,
Sing our love for Alma Mater
And thy praises MSU.
When from these scenes we wander
And twilight shadows fade,
Our memory still will linger
Where light and shadows played;
In the evening oft we’ll gather
And pledge our faith anew,
Sing our love for Alma Mater
And thy praises MSU.