For some, a chance to relive their glory days. For others, a way to rekindle friendships.
For past members of the Vandal Marching Band, they have a band of their own.
Barbara Kirchmeier, the associate director of Composition in the University of Idaho”s English Department, came up with the idea for the Vandal Alumni Marching Band in 2004 after she graduated.
“I”ve been a part of the Homecoming Parade since I was in junior high, because I”m from Lewiston and we would always come up for homecoming,” Kirchmeier said. “To think that I would never get to do this again was kind of jarring.”
The alumni band plans to continue the tradition this year by marching down Main Street at 10 a.m. Saturday as part of the Homecoming Parade.
Kirchmeier said they will rehearse the songs with the alumni band members Friday and Saturday before the parade.
For some alumni, the band is much more than picking up an instrument and playing for a couple of hours.
“It makes me feel young and like I”m part of the marching band legacy,” said Kris Rollins, who graduated from the university in 1997.
Rollins, 40, played trombone in college and said she has participated in the alumni band nearly every year since it started.
Alumni band member Sally Powers, 76, plans to take part in the parade Saturday, and said she has been to every alumni band homecoming gathering since it began.
While at UI, Powers said she played the flute in band for three years and the orchestra for four.
“One thing that has been fun is during the parade we always go in and out of a lot of restaurants and businesses in downtown to play the Fight Song,” Powers said.
But the university means much more to Powers.
Powers, now a retired wheat farmer, said she and her husband still are still “die-hard” Vandals and have season football tickets. football tickets.
She said UI is where she met her husband and where three of her children and her mother attended college – making them a three-generation Vandal family.
Powers said she is probably the oldest member of the alumni band.
For other band members, the best event during homecoming is playing for the tailgaters before the game.
“They are very happy to see us out there because it brings the spirit of the game into the parking lot,” said 68-year-old alumnus Mike Jessup.
While Jessup can”t make it this year, he said he has come back to play with the alumni band every year since it started.
“The change as I have gotten older is that Main Street now feels like it”s uphill in both directions,” Jessup said of the Homecoming Parade.
Kirchmeier said the tailgaters are always excited when alumni band members arrive and usually ask them to play the Fight Song for their friends and family.
“That intimate ability to perform has been really cool,” Kirchmeier said of tailgating.
She said alumni band members are often compensated with alcohol and food.
“There is one RV that always has Jello shots set aside for the alumni band,” Kirchmeier said.
In the tailgating atmosphere, where there are already plenty of fun activities going on, Kirchmeier said there”s no shortage of shenanigans.
“Sometimes the alumni sousaphone players wait until someone goes into the porta-potty and they will all gather around and play really loudly to freak out the poor person inside,” Kirchmeier said.
Although alumni band member Ed Littlefield can”t make it to play in the drum line this year, he said he has had some wild and even heart-warming experiences with his fellow marching band members.
“One of the best parts is sharing experiences with everyone because we all went to school at different times,” Littlefield said. “It was such a big part of our lives being in that marching band.”
When he was a student, Littlefield said he recalls fellow band member Jim Windisch proposing to his wife, Sarah Windisch, during the marching band”s halftime show. The Windisch couple is still happily married and enjoys coming back to Moscow to perform with the alumni band, Littlefield said.
Kirchmeier said being able to have a relationship with other alumni and hear their humorous or endearing stories has been a wonderful experience.
“If you come to the alumni band alone, you will not be alone by the end of the experience,” Kirchmeier said. “We”re all part of this really big ever-changing tradition.”
Jessica Gee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jaycgeek