With the University recently hiring a Director of Pep Bands, does that mean we are finally going to get a UNIVERSITY PEP BAND at the home m 
en's basketball games? It's about time!
Ted Burns said a while back that the plan was to have one sometime this month. It is a club activity i believe
@valpo64 Yes, the games will have a pep band. I am unsure if it will start at the next home game, but they have hired a director and have 30-40 students signed up at the moment. I was told this directly from Ted so can confirm.
Glad to hear that as it should definitely help in improving and exciting the home crowd. The high school stuff was getting old, even though some of the bands were quite good in their appearance at the ARC We are looking forward to the UNI game atmosphere and a VU win!
Love it.
Best part was seeing the officer finally able to get back on his drum set. (Cannot remember his name)
It seems the few posts I make reveal my somewhat advanced age, but here goes. VU had a pep band in the 1960s and early 1970s, and when most members showed up, it was pretty good and, I think, added quite a bit to the game atmosphere and home court advantage. I seem to recall that a guy named "Tex" was the leader for a couple years. I still think "Sweet Georgia Brown" should be a "must-play" by any pep band at a basketball game. "Peter Gunn" too. And our fight song, which is actually pretty decent.
Paul
I remember Tex (I'm guessing around 1967?), and I was at the game where he led the band in a cheer after which he was no longer the leader. Great memories.
The band had a tradition that was good for a long time. My niece met her husband-to-be in mid-2010s
I am fairly certain that the last professional / outside director of what was then known as the Crusader Band was Dr. Luther Estridge (sp?), who also was a full time teacher/band director at one of the area school districts. This was in 1990-91, when you had to register for a 0.5 credit class to be in the band. (The VU Music Department did not like the Crusader Band, and went out of their way to make it difficult to be a member. The Music Department and their faculty also requisitioned Crusader Band equipment after 1991, even though that had been purchased with Athletic Department funds.)
Subsequent to that, the Crusader Band was moved to a club or student activity. The University at times had paid student directors who were in charge of the band, yet I think that varied year by year. To my knowledge, all of those funds came from the Athletics department.
The band waxed and waned based on the leadership, band member interest, and how good the basketball team was.
I have told this story before, yet one of the highlights of my time in the Basketball Band was when the Band "scored" a point in the game:
I think it was in the 1990-91 season, back when VU was not very good, and likely against Youngstown State in the ARC.
The ARC was fairly quiet because attendance was low. The game was back and forth, a hard-fought battle. The opposing coach was complaining about some foul calls, and the band started to yell back at him - nothing vulgar, eventually the band got organized. Closer to the end of the game, as the coach was demonstrating to the official about a foul, the band yelled in unison, "Hey Coach, Sit Down!" which echoed throughout the ARC. An opposing player at the end of their bench turned to the band and said, "Why don't you shut up?". The referee blew his whistle - it was a bench technical foul.
Rob Cavanaugh was sent to the free throw line - Cavanaugh was probably a freshman, yet he held the Indiana state high school record for made free throws in a row. Of course, he made the free throw, and the band went crazy.
Coach Drew came over to thank the band at the end of the game, and it was one of the rarer wins in that era.
