The Top 10 College Marching Bands Gone Wrong

Remember the infamous line from American Pie when Michelle declares, “One time, at band camp, I stuck a flute in my ****?” Well, looks like those kinds of shenanigans might not be unfamiliar to some delinquent college marching bands. Don’t let the tubas fool you; from the suspended University of Wisconsin band caught hazing to the raucous UC Davis Aggies, band geeks know how to get down and dirty. Read on to find out more about College OTR’s Top 10 College Marching Bands Gone Wrong.

1) The Cal Aggies at UC Davis inspired their director Tom Slabaugh to file a complaint after several incidences such as a trumpeter deliberately breaking a security gate near the Plant Science Building, band members taking photos of themselves pretending to urinate, and the band sending him a Christmas card in which Santa Claus is pictured saying, “I saw you masturbating.” The latter incidence almost kept Slabaugh from reporting the band, since he didn't want anyone to know that his extracurriculars extended to playing the piccolo.

2) In 1995, nineteen members of the marching band attacked the mascot Rex L. the Bat during a University of Texas game. Side note: What does the L. stand for?

3) Prairie View A&M came out the worse after a 1998 fight against members of the Southern University marching band, with Prairie View coming out with $20,000 in damages on their sousaphones. What’s a sousaphone? Couldn’t tell you.

4) At Alabama A&M, the band was put on probation after allegedly blindfolding and paddling eight female students as though in 2005. We now refer to the school as Alabama S&M.

5) The musicians at Jackson State University take their business so seriously that they forced band members to do push-ups when they make mistakes musically, kind of like the military. They were put on probation for their actions, but the military has gone without discipline.

6) What is it about dropping trough that’s so exhilarating? This is one of life’s mysteries. The smarty-pants band members at Yale University in 1985 should probably have been referred to as smarty-no-pants after showing off what God gave them during a halftime show.

7) In 2006, 74 cleptos in the Florida A&M marching band stole things (besides complimentary soaps) from a Detroit hotel and were put on probation.

8) Similarly, at Texas Southern University seventeen members of the marching band were put on probation and twelve were suspended after the band went shoplifting in Japan at the Coca-Cola Bowl. They were not just stealing soda.

9) Some might call it resourceful or creative, but in 1991, the Stanford marching band was banned from Notre Dame when they performed a routine using a crucifix as a baton. Their mascot was also banned in 2006 after performing drunk.

10) This past Friday, the University of Wisconsin band was suspended after caught in hazing rituals which included head-shaving, semi-nude dancing, excessive alcohol consumption, and inappropriate sexual behavior. Sounds like a night out of Britney Spears’ book.