The whistle blows and they take the field – running through songs and practicing drills – all to prepare for that first performance at Saturday’s game. Play the fight song. Stop. Make adjustments. Play it again. Practice the drill for the opening set of pregame. Stop. Reset. Do it again. For over an hour and a half a day, five days a week, the band practices.
“The biggest challenge is having that endurance on Saturdays to go from game day practice, straight to get ready, jump and do two pep rallies then go straight to the game, do pregame, do halftime and just having that mental stability and the physical stability to just endure,” said Abbey Minor, a senior and Crimsonette co-captain. “It’s just a really long process especially in the Alabama heat those first few games, but its so worth it. At the end of the day, every single practice, every single challenge is always worth it.”
Now in it’s 104th year and with 400 members, the Million Dollar Band is the largest student organization on campus. It’s composed of students from across colleges and majors. The band performs at every home game, every playoff game and major away games. They also send small groups of students to any games to which the full band doesn’t go.
“It’s great to have the opportunity to have a chance to interact with such a wide cross section of students,” said Ken Ozzello, the director of bands. “It’s real easy to get tunnel vision on what you do, but this particular ensemble gives you a chance to see what’s going on campus wide.”
When Ozzello first came to the University in 1989 as associate band director, Butler Field near Arby’s was a rough, uneven patch of land infested with fire ants. That practice field was replaced in the 1990s and again last year with turf and proper drainage. This year, with the expansion of Moody Music Building, the band now has a hall big enough to fit everyone and all their instruments. What the band does on the field too has changed, incorporating more electronics like guitars, bass and synthesizers that allow them to play more contemporary music.
“If somebody was in a time machine and they went back to the campus 100 years ago, the two things that would still be the same would be that there’s still a football team out there living on 11 and there’s still a marching band,” Ozzello said. “It’s one of the few things that’s still here and basically has the same function … everything else changes. You have the complete world at your access now in your back pocket, that’s changed everything. But they still play football and there’s still marching bands at football games.”
That long tradition is evidenced every year during the band’s alumni show, where former members join the band on the field to perform at the game.
“For a university that’s so heavy on tradition, to be a part of an organization like that is just incredible,” said Alec Van Wagnen, a junior trumpet player. “People that are 70, 80 years old that marched, forever ago, still come out and still do a halftime show. They marched back even under Colonel Butler in the 70s, 60s, even 50s so to meet those people is just incredible to realize you’re a part of that organization and that legacy.”
For senior trumpet player Tyler Martin, the fact that the band is over 100 years old isn’t something he thinks about.
“I just think about all the big moments in Alabama football history at least and there’s been someone in the band who’s always been there for them,” Martin said. “Sugar Bowls, beating on Penn State and Nebraska. We’ll always have alumni come back who were like, ‘Oh yeah I was at the ’78 National Championship. I saw that,’ and so I can add that to my legacy and come back and say, ‘Yeah, 2015 championship, that was me.’ ”
This year’s first halftime show is a celebration of the recent championship win, a tradition whenever the football team wins a new national title. The band has been working on the show for a few weeks now, through three a day band camp practices before classes started and every afternoon since.
That continuous grind is color guard sophomore Mary Allen’s favorite part of the season.
“We all grow together through the hardships, through the heat, through those really rough game days where we only have 10 minutes to do our hair and makeup on the bus,” Allen said. “We all kind of grow and bond together as a team throughout those experiences so we’re like this big family. We go through all this heat throughout the whole week and then on Saturday you’re able to just sit back and be in your sparkles and be in front of everyone and show that all that you’ve been working for throughout the week and show them how good you are.”
That appreciation for a sense of community was echoed by other band members, including drum major Savannah Smith, who said all the hard work and long hours were worth it once she gets to see the contribution the band makes to the game day atmosphere.
“A lot of times in college, you have semester friends that you’re in classes with all the time, but it’s cool to come back to this year after year with students from all different schools across campus, all different majors, all working towards the same goal,” Smith said. “We can feel it whenever we’re really hyping the crowd up and making a difference in the stadium.”
According to band members, their community is bound together by a sense of commitment: commitment to the time necessary to be in the band, commitment to supporting the team (win or lose), commitment to creating the best show possible and commitment to each other.
“When things change last minute, everyone works together and has a great attitude about it and works to get it done because thats what we do,” Smith said.
