Their brassy bellows and drum rolls are situated within the atmosphere of the game. College football’s token soundtrack; a pigskin pulse, if you will.
They are ETSU’s marching band. Yeah, look away from the gridiron and past the cheerleaders, and there they are.
They are the first ones to usher the crowd into the competition with a crisp trumpet, steady snare and the national anthem. And as the crowd lower their hands from their hearts, the band retreats, and the action ensues.
The marching band, the butt of so many culture jokes, takes its place beyond the end zone. They ride the bleachers. And as the football program at ETSU stares at what appears to be its final season, so do the auxiliary programs that thrive as a result.
Patty Marlow, events coordinator for the music department, wants the band to play on. Having watched the band for the last 13 years, she is saddened that this year will most likely bring an end to the marching band comprised of students she considers to be her children.
“It’s really heartbreaking for it to be the last year,” Marlow says.
With 65 members (approximately 60 percent are freshmen), the band looks a lot different than it has in the past. Even though the numbers have dwindled, the spirit has not. The band is in the game.
“I don’t want the audience to think we don’t care,” she says.
It’s hard to imagine the fans have lost faith in the band. With each touchdown or big play, the band responds with one of those ready-made football anthems fans expect at a sporting event.
“Duh-na, Hey! Duh-na-na-na-nuh!” a familiar clich rally cry, is appropriate. The game is not the same without it.
The university’s budget strain keeps the band at home during away games. There was a time when the band accompanied the team on the road, but those days are over.
Because it’s tentatively the last football season at ETSU, the music department had a hard time filling the band director’s role left vacant last year. It’s hard to find someone willing to uproot his or her life elsewhere to lead a motley crew for one year.
But off a sailboat and out of retirement came Dr. Paul Songer. He was golfing and sailing around Jamaica not too long ago, but now he sits beyond the end zone with the band.
“They needed me … they needed somebody,” Songer says.
The drill field is an old stomping ground for Songer. He was assistant band director in the past, and he’s thankful that his job is made infinitely easier because he has the help he needs to make the band fluid.
“I’ve got better help than George W. Bush,” he said.
Melody Taylor, a freshman who came to ETSU from Los Angeles this year, said Songer is better than any other teacher she’s had in the past. “He’s different. He’s funny,” she said.
The music department at ETSU is secure, but the band director’s job isn’t. Songer will most likely head back into retirement after this season.
Of the band Songer said, “I’ve told them many times that I think we’ve done a wonderful job.”
As of now, it looks as if the band members will tuck their uniforms away for posterity at the end of the year, as uniforms and musicians will no longer be needed to mark time onto the turf each September.
It’s the football team’s absence that will leave Memorial Center empty in the fall for years to come, and it’s the band that leaves fans wondering, “Hey?

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