The University of Nebraska Cornhusker Marching Band: A History
The University of Nebraska Cornhusker Marching Band, often called the Marching Red or The Pride of All Nebraska, stands as a symbol of tradition and musical excellence. As the marching band of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, it is an integral part of the Glenn Korff School of Music within the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. From its humble beginnings as an Army Cadet band in 1879 to its current composition of approximately 300 students, the band's journey reflects the university's evolution and the changing landscape of American marching band culture.
Origins and Early Years (1879-1900)
The story begins in October 1879, when Lt. Isaac T. Webster took over the cadets. The cadets were accompanied only by, as colorfully depicted by the 1884 yearbook, "the unreliable 'yip, yip' of some awkward scrub in the ranks, accompanied by deafening wails from a broken-voiced flute." Lt. Webster was unimpressed, and in April 1880, Lt. Webster retained Samuel B. January 1884 saw the appointment of D. to the role of the first full-time director of the Band. The earliest known photograph of the Nebraska band shows cadets in uniform outside University Hall in 1884.
According to an account from the time, the organization faced challenges in its early days. It was proposed that a brass band be organized. The idea intoxicated the authorities to such an extent that they determined to possess the luxury if it cost a farm. They heeded not the prayers and tears of the professors; they paid no attention to the threats and curses of the neighboring property owners. Scraping together a number of second hand instruments, they examined the lung power of the students, selected a dozen with the strongest breaths, turned over to them the brass and a Teutonic tooter, and told them to paint the town a lurid crimson if they so desired. The agony of the first three months of practice was frightful. The boys rehearsed regularly three times a week with so much success that before the term closed, two professors resigned, one died, and a student who roomed near the building was sent to the insane asylum. Then vacation, like a gentle spirit, descended upon the institution, and the uproar ceased. Panic stricken citizens who had been living in tents in the hoopskirts of the city returned to their homes, and Lincoln gradually resumed her wonted bustle and activity. But it was of short duration. Early in the fall the entire musical aggregation was on hand again, refreshed by the long rest and so anxious to show off that the boys would “discourse sweet music” free of charge, and when that was not allowed, would actually pay for the privilege. A committee of indignant citizens at once waited upon the Chancellor, and asked that the band be muzzled or required to practice out at the fair grounds. They were considerably mollified, however, on learning that Barnard, the bass drummer, had resigned, and finally agreed to let the matter rest if the boys would not give a concert as had been threatened. Later in the term, some prominent Lincolnites collected two hundred dollars, purchased a set of handsome gray uniforms and presented them to the band on condition that the donors would never be required to listen to any of its music.
The later history of the organization is much the same as the foregoing; the only variation being in the quality of the alleged harmony, and the corresponding variation in the complaints of a patient and long-suffering public.
In these early years, the band played a vital role in university life. Albert Troyer, a native of Illinois, came to the University of Nebraska in 1886 to study agriculture and was a Cadet Band drummer from 1889-90. He helped organize the university’s first football team, scored its first touchdown, and went on to an influential career as an agronomist. On November 27, 1890, 19 cadets played at the first official football game. November 1892, Gen. Pershing required the Band to no longer be stationary, but instead march with the drills. The first known African-American in the band is Private Charles Alexander from Red Oak, Iowa. He played 1st Cornet in the Cadet Band and the University Orchestra.
Read also: History of the Cornhusker Band
In 1898, inspired by the Chicago World's Fair, the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was held in Omaha, Nebraska. The multi-month event drew attendees from near and far, including President McKinley.
Early 20th Century and the Influence of Military Tradition (1900-1940)
In 1903, Hagenow switched the block drills into square and circular formations for the halftime performances. A reorganization in the military on campus in 1910 created the 1st Regimental Band on campus and the 2nd Regimental Band on East Campus. NU Band on the field in 1911. 1912 Cadet Band.
"The University Cadet band will accompany the train and wake up old Missouri," proclaimed the May 27, 1904 Daily Nebraskan, describing an upcoming excursion to visit the St. Louis World's Fair. The Cadets had arranged early in 1904 to make their annual encampment at the fairgrounds, similar to their experience at the much closer 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha.
In 1918, sweeping changes to the military department were taking place due to the Great War. The Student Army Training Corps (SATC) was formed, temporarily replacing the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), which had only just replaced the Cadets a few years before. In the midst of this, William T. Quick, affectionately known as "Billy", took over direction of the band. Quick would remain the band's director until 1937, the longest stretch of time in the band's history up until that point. A century later, Quick's reputation for kindness remains a pillar of his legacy. His successor, Donald Lentz, said of Quick "He was just the finest person you had ever met." An entire page of Pride of the Cornhuskers is filled with band members fondly reminiscing about Quick. Loved by his music students and band members, Quick returned the sentiment upon his retirement, remarking to The Daily Nebraskan about the band: "…I love the work no matter how they play.
1919, the Cadet Band is now known as the ROTC Band. 1922, another request was made to separate from the military since many of the upperclassmen are not in the ROTC. Commandant Col. 1926, new letter formations were added to the halftime. November 1st, 1927, "The March King" John Philip Sousa and his band paid a visit to Lincoln, Nebraska for two much anticipated concerts on the newly updated Coliseum stage. His visit became a large event for the city of Lincoln. Over a dozen high school bands came to town for "band day" and paraded through the streets. The lucky bands took part in both concerts, "formed into one huge organization and directed by Sousa himself." The Daily Nebraskan reported that even the University of Kansas band planned to take part in the proceedings, playing Sousa marches during the concert intermissions. The legacy of Sousa's visit still endures today. During his visit, Sousa presented the R.O.T.C. band with a silver "loving cup" trophy for the regiment's rating the previous year, a trophy which rests today in the School of Music's halls.
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Harry Pecha wrote "Dear Old Nebraska U" in 1923, and it became unofficially adopted as the school's first fight song.
March 2, 1932, “Big Bertha,” a five foot drum mounted on a carriage, two lyres and four special trumpets made their first appearance with the ROTC band at the Nebraska-Creighton basketball game. “Big Bertha” was used regularly until it was retired following the 1941 Rose Bowl appearance. In March of 1932, the band got a little bigger through the addition of "Big Bertha," a five foot drum. Bertha was joined by two lyres and decorated trumpets, part of a move that John K. Selleck noted in The Daily Nebraskan made the university "the only school in the Big Six that can boast of having such extensive equipment." Steffens writes in Pride of the Cornhuskers that Quick, the band director, did not appreciate the drum. During Don Lentz's time as marching band director, Big Bertha and the other instruments fell out of use. It was not until 1961 that Big Bertha returned to aid the introduction of band twirler Joyce Burns. "In one moment, I burst out of Big Bertha's innermost depths, into a world of band sounds and cheering crowds" she recalled in a letter to Snider in 1992.
By the end of the 1920s the military garb of the marching band was beginning to detract from the band's performances. In 1935, The Daily Nebraskan published a scathing article comparing the "dull and colorless gray" Nebraska band with the "glittering" dress of the visiting University of Kansas band. "Brighter uniforms would help a lot," the article remarked. By early 1936, spurred by the Kansas visit, it was announced that the military department would be purchasing new scarlet and cream uniforms. "A properly dressed band is a better marching band," the military department's Colonel Oury was quoted as saying. "'Nebraskans Looked Like Carnival Hoodlums,' Says New York Writer" The Daily Nebraskan, November 28, 1928.
1937, band members not in the military longer have to wear military ranks; however, ROTC members still wore them. The band was no longer under military control. Leadership is made up of band officers.
When beloved director Billy Quick fell ill in the fall of 1937, new hire Donald Lentz took over marching band duties. He could not have foreseen that he would continue as the marching band director for more than twenty years, and Director of Bands until 1973. During his time with the band, the group grew in size, became a civilian organization rather than a military one, undertook creative drill formations, marched in the Rose Bowl and parade, weathered World War II, and added songs to the band's repertoire. Lentz made the musicality of the group his highest priority. For Lentz, this emphasis meant rejecting trends of other programs at the time, such as the addition of twirlers and dance teams. Lentz was known nationally for formalizing "Band Day" as a monumentally large event for high school band members. He was also recognized for his study of Asian cultures and history. He traveled frequently to the continent, collecting art and instruments and researching musicology. Today, a room in UNL's Love Library is dedicated to this collection. Lentz is also remembered through the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association's Donald A. Lentz Outstanding Bandmaster Award and the Donald A.
Read also: History of Nebraska Bands
World War II and Post-War Transformations (1940-1960)
1940, women were admitted into the Symphonic band. December 1940, on a train to California to play for the 27th Rose Bowl Game on January 1, 1941, Band Song was written. The #7 ranked Cornhuskers lost to the #2 ranked Stanford Indians (21-13). "A red flag hung outside the office of Band Director Don Lentz early Saturday morning…it mean[t] that the athletic board had decided…to send the band to Pasadena on New Year's day," described The Daily Nebraskan on December 15, 1940. After weeks of uncertainty, the band was going to The Rose Bowl! Along the way, the lucky members on the trip stopped to perform in cities on the route and visited Juárez, Mexico. On top of the expected challenges of traveling with a large group and performing in a series of events, the day the band left Lincoln Don Lentz received word that ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Arrangers, and Performers, was declaring a strike which would "go info effect on January 1st," Don Lentz recalled in Pride of the Cornhuskers. In spite of the ASCAP strike, Pride of the Cornhuskers contains accounts of the band striking up "Nebraska U" during the parade. Lentz recalls "It scared me to death and the first thing after we got back, Regent Thompson called and asked 'Didn't the band play No Place?' I said, 'Yes, but not intentionally.'" Fortunately, ASCAP did not follow up on this performance despite the ban.
World War II brought with it many changes for the University of Nebraska as well as the band program. The 1944 yearbook explained that "…the armed forces drew heavily upon the personnel of the…band. This year for the first time in its history, coeds were permitted to march with the band…" Band director Prof. 1942, Women were admitted into the Varsity Band during the war. 1944 NU Band. 1945, A second concert band was created as the “Collegiate Band.” The marching band returned to all-male status with 120 members.
On a blustery, snowy day in 1938, the first official Band Day for high school bands took place in Lincoln, Nebraska. The concept of "Band Day" at UNL appears in print as early as 1926, when composer and conductor John Philip Sousa visited Lincoln and conducted high school bands. Within a decade, Band Day was an annual event with participants ranging from Nebraska and Iowa high school bands to municipal and company bands. An advertisement in 1933 claimed about the "music spectacle," that there would be a parade "through the downtown district, followed by a mass concert of hundreds of musicians in the stadium." When Donald Lentz became the director, he refined this existing event into a high school specific occasion. Early in its history, the massive scale of Band Day was one of its most appreciated qualities. Begun by John Selleck in the midst of the Great Depression, Band Day filled seats in a relatively new stadium desperately in need of an audience. A few years later during World War II, Band Day's size and popularity drew another needed audience despite higher expenses and rations. The sheer size of Band Day was ultimately its downfall. By 1971, as rising demand for seats and enhancements to the stadium made it difficult to host so many students even once a year. In the decades following the war, the Athletic Department's support for Band Day began to decline and its activities restricted. In a fiery letter to Nebraska State Bandmaster's Association members in 1966, George Meredith predicted the end of the event: "We are witnessing, here in Nebraska, the death throes of the oldest and finest institution of its type in the nation - that being the University of Nebraska Band Day.
1950’s Listen to the band’s recording from the early 1950s.
Modernization and Inclusion (1960-1980)
In 1960-61, the Huskerettes were added to the band with 16 pom-pon girls. In 1961, Don Lentz became Director of Bands and his former student, Jack Snider, stepped into the role of Marching Band Director. Snider would remain in that position until he, too, became Director of Bands in 1973. As difficult as it may have seemed to fill the shoes of the renowned Lentz, Snider became a legend of his own. Unafraid to forge his own path, in his very first season, Snider made changes to the style of music and the formations that the band was performing. Snider's time as Marching Band Director included some transformations which he did not instigate.
Besides during WWII women had not been welcome in the marching band, with the exception of a handful of twirlers, despite the involvement of "co-eds" in concert bands. By the 1970s, women were pressuring the band program to allow them to join, threatening to lodge a discrimination complaint with the Faculty Senate Women's Rights Committee. Director Snider resisted, claiming a variety of reasons why the ensemble should remain all-male, including uniform sizing, physical demands, and increased expenses. 1972, Women were permanently added to the marching band. The first women were: Nancy Ringer, Nancy Wood, Ann Wood, Pat Stubbendick and Lilly Coniglio. Photo from This is from the Lincoln Evening Journal, September 2, 1972. The first years were likely not easy for the handful of women in the majority male band. Pages of Jack Snider's scrapbooks from that time are filled with articles written about the women from their hometown newspapers. In a clipping, one of the first five women, Lilly Coniglio, remarked to a reporter from that such attention "…put us in the spotlight and resulted in a lot of extra pressure." Gary Steffens, author of Pride of the Cornhuskers, admits that within the band's environment the women faced challenges from their peers as well. "I think we picked on the girls worst of all," Steffens wrote of a "semi-underground" publication produced by band members.
Snider resisted the inclusion of women in the marching band, whose integration in 1972 was one of the largest changes in the marching band's history. Another shock to the marching band community in Nebraska during his tenure was the decline of Band Day under pressure from the Athletic Department, despite the best efforts of Snider and Lentz to preserve the tradition. "These two men have worked long and hard serving the best interests of Nebraskans. Snider's mark upon the band program, however, was perhaps not so much what decisions he made or trials he weathered, but the impact he made upon his students. Snider is remembered as a director who cared deeply about his students, and who spent considerable time and effort to support them. "Jack R.
May 1, 1973, 217 members of the UNL Band program came together to form the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Band Alumni Association (BAA) to establish resources for both long and short term projects for the benefit of the UNL Bands and to assist the Cornhusker Marching Band in raising funds for a three-week European tour. May 15-June 6, 1974, 168 band members went on a European tour visiting Switzerland, Germany, England, Belgium and the Netherlands. They gave a total of nine concerts. This is the slide show of the band’s experience, including the traveling and lodgings, the performances, and audience reactions. The narration is by KFOR sportscaster, Dick Perry. 1974 brought with it the most impressive trip the band had ever yet attempted: 9 concerts across half a dozen European countries. After massive fundraising efforts by the band and alumni, the band set out to perform in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and visited Austria and England as well. They had planned on performing in London but a fire at the concert venue canceled the event. Along the way, the band faced challenges such as parades in narrow streets, lack of venues for marching exhibitions, and even one run-in with the Swiss military. However, the multi-week trip provided many memories for both band members and their audiences.
In the fall of 1975, the band was under the charge of Dr. Robert Fought, who had big plans for the ensemble. He added 39 personnel to the band's membership, half of whom were members of a brand new flag corps. Dubbed "the ladies in red," the new group carried red and white banners which band staff member Rose Johnson recalls were attached to 8 foot poles. This expansion of the band was not altogether a smooth one; there was not room for them in the stadium. A Daily Nebraskan article in September explained that the Athletic Department provided 12 rows of seats for the band. 1975, Diane Miller Frost became the first female drum major. 1975-Sep-20, was the first performance of the Alumni Band at the UNL vs. TCU football game. 115 alumni marched, playing “There is No Place Like Nebraska” during the pregame show. Some came from as far away as California, New Jersey, and Washington D.C. There were alumni from 1931 to as recent at 1974.
Recent History and Traditions (1980-Present)
1999 the front ensemble (the pit) was added to the marching band. In 1993, the Cornhusker Marching Band played at the John F. The Cornhusker Marching Band performs at Memorial Stadium on Sep. Following a 1927 concert in Lincoln, composer John Philip Sousa presented the Cornhusker Marching Band with a silver cup in recognition of its performance the year prior.
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