Celebrating the legacy of the Spartan Marching Band

As the Spartan Marching Band gets ready for the 2024-25 season, we can’t help but marvel at the decades and decades of hard work, practice and passion for music that it took to get here. When the Spartan Marching band takes the field for their first halftime show on Aug. 30, with drum majors Tom McGovern and Lacy Jewell leading the way, we’ll be cheering them on louder than ever before.

Since music classes weren’t offered in the early years of MSU (then known as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan,) the origins of Spartan Marching Band came from students who brought instruments to campus and played together. Though the actual origin of Spartan Marching Band is unrecorded due to the informal nature of these groups, the most commonly told story is that of Ransom McDonough Brooks and a band of 10 civil war veterans who assembled in 1870. In 1872, college faculty acknowledged the band officially, sanctioning a band trip to Pine Lake (now Lake Lansing) alongside the sophomore class.

When the Morrill Act of 1862 required all land-grant colleges to have cadet corps activity on campus, the college established a military department, which began instructing the band in 1885. The band was assigned its first full uniform and a drum major was chosen each year as a student leader.

The band was briefly discontinued in 1890 and replaced with a drum corps, though it would be quickly reinstated in 1892 when the Military Department appointed a new department head.

For Michigan Agricultural College’s Semi-Centennial Celebration, the band played for a U.S. president for the first time, with Theodore Roosevelt commemorating 50 years since the school’s founding, giving a commencement address and handing out diplomas to graduates.

Shortly after the celebration, MSU President Jonathan L. Snyder assigned chemistry faculty member A.J. Clark to serve as the band’s director, providing much-needed discipline and greater musical direction to the ensemble.

In 1912, Everett C. Yates became the first African American member of the band, performing as a percussionist.

Through the decade, the musical presence at MAC developed, with a proper Music Department being established in 1919. Though the band remained a unit of the Military Department, the director of bands became a music faculty position, directing the marching band as well as other bands on campus.

In 1927, Leonard Falcone was hired as director of bands, launching the then-titled MSC Band into a new era. Falcone introduced new precision drill and a new formation, the famous “block S.”

In this era, the band’s current home, Demonstration Hall, was constructed as a replacement for the campus armory.

On June 22, 1929, the marching band performed at the dedication of Beaumont Tower. From 1927 to 1940, the band grew substantially in both size and renown, performing in Washington for President Herbert Hoover and serving as the band for Detroit Lions football games.

Throughout World War II, the MSC Band faced many challenges, with Falcone and many of the band members volunteering, drafted or otherwise affected by wartime. Though a “varsity band” was created for students that were still on campus, including women, it was dissolved in 1943, and no marching band existed on campus in 1944 or 1945. Nevertheless, a small concert band was present for the dedication of The Spartan on June 9, 1945.

In the 1950s and 60s, the Spartan Marching Band underwent major changes. The marching band and ROTC cut formal ties in 1952, and without military requirements, took on a new look. The band donned flashy green and white uniforms, and more popular music and dance routines were performed. Members of the band also received green and white wool warm-up jackets, which are still worn by the SMB today.

In 1964, the SMB was invite to New York City for the New York World’s Fair, traveling by air for the first time to play at several venues, including the skating rink at Rockefeller Center.

As the Spartan football team travelled to the Rose Bowl in 1954, 1955 and 1966, the band joined along, performing at stops along the way when able and marching in the Tournament of Roses Parades.

1966 would also see the final season of the band directed by Leonard Falcone, with his final game as director being the “Game of the Century,” the infamous 10-10 tie versus Notre Dame.

In 1971, directors Kenneth G. Bloomquist and David Catron added some new traditions to the SMB. With home football games beginning before classes started in the fall, the newly formed MSU Alumni Band, started in 1970, would perform at the first game of the season — an idea as functional as it was celebratory, coinciding with the 100-year anniversary of the band’s presence on campus.

While women had participated in campus bands since World War II, they were not allowed to be part of the marching band. In 1972, the U.S. Government enacted Title IX, which opened the ensemble up to women. Bloomquist and Catron were enthusiastic about the addition of women to the SMB, and feature twirler Beth Mlynarek and alto saxophonist Lynne Charbonneau were the first of many female performers to join.

Through the decades, the Spartan Marching Band has evolved in a number of ways, growing to 300 members and performing at major events like the 1984 World Series, the 1984 World’s Fair, numerous bowl games and thousands of events.

During the 2019-20 academic year, the Spartan Marching Band and the College of Music celebrated the sesquicentennial of MSU Bands. In the fall of 2019, the MSU Alumni Band and SMB held the largest alumni band reunion in school history, with 899 alumni joining the SMB for a total of 1144 band members performing on the field.

In 2022, the Spartan Marching Band traveled to Austria, marching through Salzburg and Vienna and performing in the Mid Europe Festival.