UVa pep band plays on 5 years after ouster
The Daily Progress/Kaylin Bowers
Members of the University of Virginia Pep Band leave McIntire Amphitheater after a concert, marking the fifth anniversary of the band’s ousting from UVa varsity sports events, was stopped short because of noise concerns.
University of Virginia student Kevin Binswanger dropped his trumpet and picked up the microphone.
“You sir, in the front. Have you accepted Jefferson into your heart?” he preached. “You cannot be saved by blind obedience to authority; this leads you to the fiery pits of hell!
“Only by embracing the word of Jefferson and by practicing student self-governance and rebellion can you find salvation in the world to come,” he continued. “Accept Jefferson into your heart and you will be saved from eternal torment in the fires of hell!”
Binswanger then picked up his trumpet and joined his fellow members of the University of Virginia Pep Band in a rousing rendition of “Hot Hot Hot.”
The pep band — a ragtag club of irreverent musicians in orange and blue vests jam-packed with buttons — held a concert at the McIntire Amphitheater on Thursday afternoon to mark the fifth anniversary of its ouster from UVa athletics events.
From 1969 to 2002, the pep band attended UVa’s football games and other events, performing zany shows during halftime and leading the crowd in sing-a-longs.
The university’s often tumultuous relationship with the pep band came to a halt, however, in the aftermath of the band’s halftime performance at the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl, in which UVa faced off against West Virginia University. In the pep band’s halftime skit, band members essentially mocked West Virginians as barefoot, overall-wearing, square-dancing nincompoops. WVU fans complained. West Virginia’s governor complained. And, perhaps most significantly, some UVa donors and alumni complained.
UVa benefactor Carl W. Smith and his wife gave the university $23.5 million to establish an arts center and a more traditional marching band. The new marching band replaced the pep band, which found itself shut out from all of UVa’s varsity sports events.
“You can strike a blow to the people in the band, but you cannot kill an idea,” Binswanger proclaimed Thursday. “Days later, the Virginia Pep Band rose from the dead. The University of Virginia Pep Band died so that you may live.”
The band then played a funeral march of “Auld Lang Syne,” which sounded like a depressing version of UVa’s “Good Old Song.”
“We haven’t disappeared,” said Xander Houck, the pep band’s leader who plays mellophone and trumpet. “We have a strong and proud history. And we have a hopeful future. We’re not going away anytime soon.”
On Thursday, the pep band consisted of 16 musicians. At its height, the pep band boasted a membership of more than 100.
These days, the pep band plays at community events around Charlottesville and at UVa. On Saturday, it will perform at the Dogwood Festival. Last weekend, it played at a half-marathon in the city.
The band also plays at club sports, most notably at rugby matches and hockey games. At this year’s hockey game against Liberty University, UVa’s pep band mocked the other team so much that when Liberty took the lead, its fans yelled at the pep band, “What now, band nerds?”
Last year, the pep band performed at the 80th birthday party for Mitchell Van Yahres, Charlottesville’s beloved former state delegate. Van Yahres, an honorary member of the band, died in February.
If the pep band had its druthers, UVa would allow it to once again play at official sporting events such as lacrosse, soccer and basketball.
“We’re a student-run band,” Houck said. “We just want to play.”
It seems unlikely that UVa will permit that to occur, though a UVa official did not return a call for comment. On the fifth anniversary of the band’s boot from the university, a UVa official stopped by the pep band’s performance Thursday and told the band to stop playing and leave.
“You can’t be playing instruments and using amplifiers,” said the UVa official, who declined to identify himself. “It’s too loud. Sorry, but you’re interfering with the academic mission of the university.”
The pep band was disappointed yet again.
“It’s kind of ironic,” said David Leon, one of the pep band’s snare drum players. “We were once again shut down by the man. It’s a tragic comedy.”
Reader Reactions
The Pep Band will ALWAYS be the band of the University for me! None of this corny, cookie-cutter marching band garbage for me. Bring back the days of Chris Wist and the comic geniuses of the late 1970s and 80s! UHall (nows Jones Hall) sports bureaucrats need to realize that a Saturday football game is supposed to to be a FUN game for the students and alums, not simply content for the 1000 and one TV networks out there looking to fill their schedules.
If you want, you can read the script for yourself; we passed out copies of the script that day (including to the reporter). They carried a brief history blurb and a note to the effect of:
This is the exact script performed by the Band at the 2003 Continental Tire Bowl. The script was signed off by the Athletic Departments of both UVA and WVU before hand. Judge for yourself if their reaction was fair:
http://www.student.virginia.edu/~pepband/tirebowl.html
Anyway, I’m glad for the article. The more we can get the story out, and the true story, the better for everyone.
Like many articles of the time, this article misrepresents the Pep Band’s performance at the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl. In its halftime skit at the Bowl game, a female member of the Pep Band represented a fictional West Virginia student by wearing pigtails and coveralls and performing a brief square dance. She was *not* barefoot and was *not* presented as a “nincompoop”. The script was approved in advance by the University of Virginia and by the Continental Tire Bowl, and the script was strictly adhered to during the performance. Most people would hardly find this representation offensive, and those who did had to exaggerate the reality (e.g., by claiming the non-existent bare feet) to do so. Of course, the fact that the Pep Band did have a history of razzing opposing teams with sometimes offensive representations, and the fact that West Virginia lost the game 48-22, may well have helped color some fans’ perception of the Pep Band’s innocuous performance that day.
Near the end, this article also refers to “the band�s boot from the university”. The band has never been booted from the University, only from performing at varsity sports events, including the many “Olympic” sports teams that would likely welcome the boost in energy and enthusiasm that the Pep Band could bring to their competitions.
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