Things were crazy today, in a good way. I had several nice surprises, some unexpected scrapbooks and a fascinating document from 1920. I’ll need some time to sort that out, though, and I find myself this evening unable to produce my usual elegant prose. I offer instead a series of photographs taken on a 1968 Rice band trip to New Orleans to play in the Mardi Gras parade. These pictures made me laugh for real. There are a lot more of them, and I’ll look at them closely if I survive the centennial.
Everything starts out fine and dandy, as we load up the Continental Trailways bus and get going. You can almost feel the energy and excitement as everyone gathers by the RMC.
Then, New Orleans! Mardi Gras! Woo hoo!
By the time the big parade is over, things are looking a bit . . . rough.
Bonus: Celebrity researcher in the Woodson today, Rabbi Kenny Weiss, Executive Director of Houston Hillel. Note that he brought his own scanner, always a good idea.
Extra Bonus: Here’s the second-to-last weekly centennial video–it’s about the MOB. (Don’t say I’m unresponsive to the public.)
I enjoyed each of the five consecutive annual trips the band took to march in the big Rex Parade on the final day of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebration. Lessez Les Bon Temps Roullez!!
I can identify only one person, for sure. In the top photo, middle background …the fellow facing to the right (and talking with the fellow carrying a briefcase and facing away from the camera) looks like fellow flautist Ed Stephenson (who is now a physicist at the University of Indiana: http://www.indiana.edu/~iubphys/faculty/stephene.shtml).
(I have some ideas about a few others, but am either not certain about their identity or can’t recall their full name.)
This is the first time I’ve seen film footage from the Halftime of Infamy … great stuff!
That footage was fantastic. I still remember being at that game, but also remember the number of people I talked to the next day who were incredibly incensed at the “anti-American” attack of the MOB on the sacred traditions of the Aggies. The Tank McNamara comic strip ran a series of episodes based on the event, including an interview with the band director talking about saving the RFB (run for the busses) formation for last.
Here’s the script:
http://mob.rice.edu/history/scripts/197311170
December 8, 1979: http://newspaperarchive.com/annapolis-capital/1979-12-08/page-12/
That’s Bert with the jacket on in the top photo.
I believe that’s Fritz Attermeier resting on the trunk of the car.
I still want to know what the white dot is in the middle of “O” in the image of the first MOB T-shirt.
It’s apparently a button.
Can’t tell if it’s one of the “it can’t happen here” buttons.
BTW, the correct sequence of events in the ’73 A&M show is this:
1) March in from north end zone (still trying to nail down the song)
2) Chicken Leg/Zindler/”Hello Dolly”
3) Boot to “Get It On” (Chase)
4) Fire Hydrant “Oh Where Dog”
5) Block T – fanfare from Aggie War Hymn into “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers”
6) Trumpets blew the bugle call “Retreat”, although pretty much nobody got to hear that over the booing.
I was there for the game and the show. As I remember, the fire hydrant number really set things off. Part of it was one of the majorettes, (can’t remember her name but I think she was in Hanszen), was walking around with one of those dogless dog collars. (Reville the whatever had passed on the summer before which was the point of the piece). I also recall that the band got a little stiff legged during the block T, not quite a full goose step but pretty darn close.
I remember walking back listening to a bunch of extremely p’d off Aggies and do recall seeing a very large number of HPD units heading for the stadium
I also think the MOB had travelled to Memorial Stadium in Austin that year and presented an equally pointed show to UT and got an enthusiatic reponse from the UT student body.
Finally, was this the year or was it the following year when the MOB performed in the dome and they turned off the PA when they felt the script was not acceptible?
As I folllow up to myself. Go to Gungy’s link. It has the script and has some links to Steve Jackson’s Thresher article on it. Reviewing it shows my memory after 30 years is colored by urban legend (Reville had not died the summer before) but Steve is right that none of the student knew what was going on.
If I recall correctly MOB legend held that the Dome brouhaha was a year or two later. I think the Kingdome had just opened and the Astrodome was referred to as the “world’s smallest domed stadium.” Later in the show the band opened umbrellas in reference to the Dome’s notorious roof leaks. MOB griot Grungy can no doubt elaborate.
The “World’s Smallest Enclosed Football Stadium” remark was made in the Sept. 13, 1975, game held in the Astrodome, which had recently been eclipsed (and then some) by the opening of the Lousiana Superdome in New Orleans. Here’s a link to that script, the last half of which was not heard by the Astrodome audience (myself included): http://mob.rice.edu/history/scripts/197509130