If Saturday’s Homecoming football game against Central Michigan were to take place 50 years ago, the Ohio University Marching 110 would not be recognizable.
In 1963, the band would have been wearing green blazers, gray slacks and black ties instead of today’s black pants, white top emblazoned with “Ohio” and cape. It would have just been called the Ohio University Marching Band, not the Marching 110. And although women were allowed in the band in ’63, that would soon change in 1967.
These differences — and more — were noted in Diamond Ohio: A History of Ohio University Bands, written by George Brozak, a former 110 member and graduate assistant and current associate director of bands at Southern Illinois University.
It wasn’t until director Gene Thrailkill arrived in 1967 that the band started to resemble its current look, Brozak said. Gone were the jackets and in were the uniforms now associated with the band.
The band became the Marching Men of Ohio in 1967 — women were no longer allowed in the band, and they wouldn’t be until 1975 when OU had to comply with Title IX.
“(Thrailkill) wanted a band uniform and he wanted to play contemporary music and he wanted to get rid of girls,” said Brozak, who attended OU in the ’80s early ’90s. “And he wanted no majorettes, and frankly the people at OU, the students, wanted to kill him.”
But after the Marching Men of Ohio played the first note, he said, the criticism almost instantly subsided; Thrailkill had brought a flashy new high step that he did as a student at the University of Michigan, as well as more modern music.
“I think being able to play contemporary music and being able to do it in a short amount of time, while it was still fresh, really grabbed the attention of the audience,” Brozak said.
Thrailkill is the director that brought in several traditions for which the Marching 110 are now well known, said Richard Suk, the band’s director since 1996.
“I think there are several landmark times in the band,” Suk said. “One would certainly be the introduction of dancing, which was in 1968.”
It’s that dancing, introduced under Thrailkill, which has helped propel OU’s band to the “Most Exciting Band in the Land.”
The dance and drum break that now closes out every Marching 110 halftime show became a part of the band’s tradition after a drum major, Dave Fowler, asked to teach the band to dance during songs, Suk said.
“He asked, ‘Can I teach the band to dance?’ Thrailkill said, ‘Yeah, if it is something I can do, then you can do it.’ From there it just caught on.”
Another innovation, brought in by Thrailkill — but then continued by following directors Thomas Lee, Ronald Socciarelli, Sylvester Young and now Suk — is the use of musical arrangers who come from the band, said Brozak, who has arranged music for the band since being a student.
“Just like last year, when ‘Gangnam Style’ hit … Suk was able to say ‘I want this song,’” Brozak said. “We arrange it, and he could be playing it within a matter of days. Other bands who don’t have arrangers could never do something like that.”
Suk said band members learn about the band from each other, through a vocal tradition and through a big and little system.
Marching and skills are taught during training camp the week before school starts in the fall.
“It’s really cool to watch in the beginning,” said Kyle Likens, field commander of the band. “I think every single member gets sort of this love and this drive to learn history of the band.”
Likens, a senior studying communication, said for him, his drive and love of the band emerged as a freshman as the band played “Stand Up and Cheer” for the first time.
“The band plays ‘Stand Up and Cheer’ for the freshmen,” Likens explained.
“Hearing that first fanfare, that was really the moment where I got chills across my body and I was just like ‘this is for me.’ ”
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