When destiny is calling you, open up your eager eyes. 

                               Band 124 in the first-ever Cake under the lights. [Patrick Barron]

 

So, uniform return happened yesterday.

 

Though I’ve been watching the Michigan Marching Band from Stepshow to Postgame on football Saturdays for as long as I can remember, becoming a member myself always seemed like one of the most distant of dreams. While the prerequisite of getting accepted into the University that encases it all was a lifelong goal in itself, it seemed like the exhaling fist-pump of ten thousand hours. Coming straight from a high school band that was of the “marching” variety in name only and finding myself performing in a group I’ve always admired for doing the exact opposite? Now that’ll get a quite louder reaction out of me, regardless of how busted my bottom lip was from audition video recording attempts.

Before even an ounce of excitement was devoted to the 2021 season by the Wolverine community, everyone involved with Band 124 knew it would have to be monumental. The first day of Band Week hits after two-year’s absence due to COVID, and practically half of the ensemble has absolutely zero MMB experience. This two-week span was about to set a new chapter’s foundation for this beloved tradition for generations to come. I was in for quite the learning curve, and the directors/staff/student leaders moved mountains to get all of us prepped for what would be a milestone season.

As all MGoBlog readers know, the process of preparing for football season is incomplete without telling tales of old blue, and such a practice of contextualizing/reflecting carried a unique importance this year for all of us. It was no different for those of us out on Elbel Field in August, as Carl Grapentine (voice of the MMB, Michigan Stadium, and our texts) gave us a one-of-a-kind set of band history lectures. Obviously for a lifelong football fan like me it was just a huge treat (his imitation of some of his first stadium announcements i.e. “Chad Henne to Jason Avant” was the closest thing in this life I think I’ll ever experience to time traveling), but for us new members at large it was a necessary practice of understanding the legacy we now take responsibility in preserving, but also growing.

Flash forward to Football Eve, and I exit the field of my 115,000+-holding-other-home to watch our first pregame block do their final full run-through. I found myself close to my family’s seats. “Why not?” I thought, and I sat down to watch that timeless show from where I always have. When I did it last time it was surrounded by red jackets before The Game 2019. I had no idea the next time would be with a Tenor Saxophone in my lap. 

Before I know it, I’m doing entries out of Revelli Hall fitted with an early gameday morning of rehearsals and a uniform I’ve loved since the first Saturday I laid eyes on one. I hit my dot. I prepare to bring my sax up for the greatest fight song ever written. As inexperienced in the parade as I am, my eyes drift. They lock with another pair of eyes – my mom’s eyes. I successfully hold back tears, but can barely play through my smile.

We were off! The 142nd season of Michigan Football. And for a milestone season, there were plenty of milestone shows…

 

The emotional (and innovative) climax of Michigan Stadium’s most well-executed game-long colorful spectacle:

A historic anniversary (source of this awesome MGoShirt! You can support the band and Spectrum Center/commemorate this show by purchasing these as well):

And, for Michigan fans everywhere:

But what was equally memorable were the 3rd-down-stop-induced “Iron Man”s and big-play-induced “Cheer 1”s from the stands along the way. This season was characterized by an upheld folding chair, a beacon of fun shining us out of the BPONE. Music was a central element to that, and as a result the band followed that same emotional progression.

Like everyone else, even despite the success of the season to that point, I still never thought a win over Ohio State to be a possibility. It was leaning on the significance of this 124th edition of the MMB that pushed me towards saying the dreaded words: “Michigan is going to win this football game.”

There are a lot of clichés that get called out for their overuse, and in my eyes “can’t believe it” is one of them. The reason I say this is that it’s use is inflated far beyond an accurate reflection of those rare moments when you viscerally cannot process that something is happening. 

Hours later, snow hitting my eyes, I watch Hassan Haskins walk into the end zone. We brace for the field storming of a lifetime, and I bring my frozen, season-battered instrument up to my mouth.

                                                     [@umichband]

 

I experienced that feeling. It hasn’t gone away yet.

A victim of the Orange Bowl’s relative band-unfriendliness (artist halftime show), being an underclassman and all, I did not travel with the band to Miami. I was lucky enough to get down there with my family though.

As far as my memory goes, there was no football game that would get in the way of such a celebration. During pregame, it was the loudest rendition of “The Victors” I’ve ever heard from a crowd. The tears that I held back at the beginning of the season came out right then.

So, uniform return happened yesterday. But what was given in return? An MMB B1G Championship shirt, a distant dream come true, and, as uttered by our redeemed head coach, “a beginning.”

 

Here’s to so much more in the future for all of us. 

Forever Go Blue.