diehardwolve

September 2nd, 2016 at 2:53 PM ^

All that matters is that she can touch her head to the ground without a hat on. And don't drop the baton when you flip it over the goalpost. Go blue!

Joined: 08/25/2011

MGoPoints: 136

LSAClassOf2000

September 2nd, 2016 at 3:00 PM ^

I saw some photos of the jerseys and the handoffs and so forth at work because last year's drum major is actually the son of someone I work with, so we had a very detailed insight into the ins and out of being the drum major at our office. 

Here's to a great season for McKenna as well as the band, the players, and...well, everyone. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130610

Bando Calrissian

September 2nd, 2016 at 6:51 PM ^

The difference was Ball State's director probably didn't decide that the best way for women to be indoctrinated into the band would be to try to make it so difficult they'd just quit. The MMB culture was decidedly masculine--and remained that way for a long, long, long time. "Marching Men of Michigan" and all that...

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 68117

JEndahl

September 2nd, 2016 at 8:16 PM ^

Bando,

1972 was my first year in the marching band. The first women did have a tough time (you are correct that it was a coarse, crude, all-male environment), but I don't think there was any attempt to make it MORE difficult for the women. The women in that first year earned the right (and the respect) to be in that band, but I don't recall any of them being "called out", at least not in public. Two of them were in my section. I think it's unfair to imply the George Cavender tried to make them quit. If he did, it's a tribute to the women that they perservered, and by doing that, made the rest of the band better as well.

Joined: 08/02/2015

MGoPoints: 7

Bando Calrissian

September 2nd, 2016 at 9:56 PM ^

So Cavender just coincidentally picked the first halftime show with a woman on the field to feature the song "The Stripper," with a call from the PA to "raise the skirt higher" on the formation of a dancing woman?

Every story I've heard from that first group of women, including my private instructor from middle school through early college, was universally negative in terms of how they were treated--including being singled out, discouraged, harrassed, etc. Your mileage may have varied, but it was a process that took a while to normalize. It was one of Cavender's failings, unfortunately.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 68117

RainbowSprings

September 2nd, 2016 at 3:45 PM ^

on becoming only the second female MMB Drum Major. Looks like she'll have an absolutely gorgeous day tomorrow weather-wise to strut her stuff in front of the hge Big House crowd. GO BLUE!!!

Joined: 11/09/2010

MGoPoints: 13438

Ty Butterfield

September 2nd, 2016 at 4:26 PM ^

Don't remember the name of the Drum Major in 1997 but I do remember he was from Pasadena, California. Anyone know if she is from Tampa, Florida?

Joined: 09/07/2009

MGoPoints: -81685