Marching to the beat of their own drum: Brown Band celebrates 100 years

Unlike traditional, corps-style marching bands, the Brown Band is a scramble band. Rather than forming intricate, geometric formations, the band "scrambles" across the field, creating pictures that accompany a satirical, humorous script read aloud by an announcer.

That cheeky sense of humor sets the Brown Band apart, according to Briody, who served as one of the band's historians during his time at Brown. He first set out to record a comprehensive history of the band as part of his senior thesis. Five years after his graduation from Brown, Briody published his book in early 2024, just in time for the band's centennial.

Digging into halftime show scripts from decades past, he observed that humor underpinned the writing. By poking fun at current events, the band offered moments of levity and laughter, especially during contentious times, he said.

"Even when I was in the band in 2016, we'd have these funny scripts about Trump, Clinton, things like that," Briody said. "And when I went deeper, going into the '60s and '70s, I saw these very similar script references about LBJ and Goldwater. "

There's also the iconic Brown Band buttons.

For decades, the band has created custom buttons for each football game, emblazoned with quips, inside jokes and pithy catchphrases that lightly rib the rival teams - like "I've got a fever and the only prescription is less Cornell," for the Big Red, "Legally Bland" for the Harvard Crimson, and "Why you always lion?" for the Columbia Lions.

A collection of hundreds of those buttons and other historical Brown Band artifacts gathered by Assistant Director for the John Hay Library and University Archivist Jennifer Betts - like the first band sweater worn by founder Irving Harris - were on display at a band alumni gala held after Brown's Sept. 28 game against Harvard.

In his research, Briody also discovered a history of playful pranks, like messing with the opponent by building a 15-foot-tall bass drum for a 1969 game against Harvard, which boasted its own 8-foot-tall bass drum dubbed "Big Bertha" - or the infamous 1973 "Foxboro Four" incident, in which four band members dressed up like news reporters and convinced the Harvard band that they wanted to record news footage of Big Bertha. Instead, they loaded it into the back of a pickup truck and attempted to haul it back to Brown, before getting stopped by Massachusetts State Police halfway down Interstate 95.

These are the types of stories that solidify the band's fun, light-hearted canon, said Briody, who interviewed band alumni from the 1950s up through the 2000s for his book.

"Band alumni always tell great stories," Briody said. "These are the things that you just don't find when you're looking through old Brown Daily Herald issues or old letters from the band. I never would have known about these stories if somebody had not brought them up."

Marching through the present, into the future

Today, the Brown Band performs at every home football game and most away games during the fall, and at men's and women's basketball games throughout the season. In the winter, band members trade their signature brown blazers and sensible shoes for rugby sweaters and skates, taking to the rink to support the men's and women's ice hockey teams as the world's only collegiate band to perform on ice.

They're not afraid of a little mud, either, said Jillian Belluck, a senior who plays flute in the band, recalling a memorable band performance at a rugby game in Fall 2022. It was pouring rain, the pitch was a mess, and the band was slipping and sliding around the muck.

"It obviously wasn't the ideal halftime performance, but the rugby team was so excited that we were there cheering them on," Belluck said. "It reminded me of why we do this. It reminded me that we're a very visible organization around campus, and people really do appreciate the music that we play and the joy that we bring to every performance."

The Brown Band became a club within the University's Division of Athletics and Recreation in 2023, formalizing the long-standing relationship between the band and the teams it supports. It's also a part of the Brown University Sports Foundation's Athletics Annual Fund, which helps provide additional funding for expenses like members' travel to away games.

"The band has always been an integral part of so many meaningful moments on our campus, and they have truly enhanced the athletics experience at Brown for our student-athletes, coaches and fans," Vice President for Athletics and Recreation Grace Calhoun said.

The Brown Band's centennial commemorations will continue into 2025 with an alumni ice show slated for February. And ever true to its annual tradition, the band will lead a procession through College Hill as part of Brown's 257^th Commencement and Reunion Weekend in May.

For members present and past, their hope is that the Brown Band will endure and celebrate its bicentennial in 2124. To Belluck, it's easy to envision the band marching on for another hundred years, singing and playing its traditional songs, making buttons and spreading joy.

"Regardless of who's in the band, there will always be those core elements: the spirit, the goofiness, the love of music," she said.

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