Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2007 - (Page 18)

gh sports. al soundtrack for Lehi s provided the music their signature y, the Marching 97 ha For the past centur high-stepping style to om their precision steeped in tradition, fr a way of life. This quirky crew is ents will tell you. It’s just a band, the stud rited hijinks. It’s not high-spi RD MARCH FORWA By Becky Straw • Photography by The o Anderson One day last autumn, a drenching downpour forced the marching band and football team to practice inside Philip Rauch Field House. After a few minutes of practicing in close quarters, the football coaches approached Al Neumeyer, the current band director and adjunct music professor, complaining that their players could not hear the whistles. Rather than quit, the band went back outside in the pouring rain and practiced in the parking lot. While marching, students gleefully jumped in puddles and splashed neighboring marchers. Those with wind instruments could not play in the rain, but sang their parts loudly. “Nobody complained,” Neumeyer says. “That’s the band.” The Marching 97 derives its name from the traditional number of marchers: 12 ranks of eight players (96), plus a drum major. As a precision military marching band, they march with a distinctive high-stepping “Big 10 style,” where the members lift their feet completely off the ground with toes pointed and thighs parallel to the ground. The marching style, like most things in the band, has changed little over the years. “The students are focused— psyched—in part because of the band’s history,” Neumeyer says. “They are so steeped in history that these students refuse to roll over and do anything differently.” That word “psyche” pops up almost any time you talk with someone involved with the band. It’s a term that’s been handed down through generations of students to describe the passion and dedication of those who join the Marching 97. Most of the band’s history and music, in fact, is passed down from one generation to the next through The 1910 Lehigh University marching band poses with their instruments. 18 lehigh alumni bulletin

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Table of Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Arts & Culture Sports Research Cover Story - Forward March Little Man Overcomes Huge Odds Lights, Camera...Antiques Linderman Renewed From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News

Alumni Bulletin - Fall 2007

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