Four Hundred Seventy-Something

After four years of the Alma Mater, Davy, heckling, fouls, penalties, goals, 80s ska punk (“Take on Me”), and 80s rock (the rest of the music), I finished my time with the Cornell Big Red Pep Band with somewhere around 470 points, short of the 500 point mark, but a lot of pep band nonetheless. If my record keeping is accurate, I attended more than 250 events, almost 200 of which were rehearsals and hockey games. The remaining sixty events include field hockey, tennis, basketball, baseball, softball, wrestling, lacrosse, sprint football, volleyball, and a wedding reception.

As I mentioned in a previous post, besides ChemE, pep band was really the only other thing I did week in and week out all four years. There were some great moments, and stories to tell from the times that weren’t so great. Some that come to mind –

– The time we were at sprint football and it had been drizzling on and off but the manager finally decided to move us to a covered part of the stands. As we were moving, it started to pour, and continued to pour for the rest of the game. Good decision.

– The time we went to volleyball and the team lost the first two sets, then won the next two, so we had to stay for a full five-set match, then they lost the last set.

– The time the men’s basketball team clawed their way back from a pretty bad points deficit to tie the game in the final seconds, making us stay for overtime, then lost in overtime.

– The year the women’s hockey team kept scoring last-minute goals to advance through the playoffs.

– The men’s hockey game where two of the refs’ last names were Kitchen and Drain and it made the band’s night. Also telling Colgate (the school) that Crest (the toothpaste) is better, reminding Princeton they’re in New Jersey, and bringing up grade inflation and cheating scandals against Harvard whenever possible (actually winning against them is an additional bonus).

– Trying to figure out wrestling.

– My only overnight away trip with the band to Dartmouth and Harvard the year Boston got buried in snow and watching “Love Story” on the bus.

So I saw a lot of sports, and played a lot of music and had a lot of fun. If anyone’s interested, here’s a table with events listed per sport and year.

Pep band events charted by year and sport.  Not shown - 3 red/white hockey games,
which kick off the hockey season and involve both the men's and women's hockey teams.

Last pep band rehearsal.  Picture taken from somewhere on Facebook.