Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published Sept. 21, 2005

Are mascots really a big problem?

Fall is the wake-up call to nature to drop leaves, dig holes and prepare to take a long nap. For millions of humans, fall's call is to head for the football field. Many college football fields will be missing crowd favorites this year. The NCAA has ruled mascots using American Indian nicknames are no longer acceptable. Sports writer David Climer penned a thoughtful sentence on that subject recently. He wrote, "We are a nation just waiting to get our feelings hurt."

I wonder if animal mascots can be far behind. It isn't far fetched to wonder if PETA, the animal rights activist group, isn't busy working on an appeal to the NCAA to ban animal images because they too are "hostile or abusive." Hang in there Smokey!

For me the best part of football is the halftime spectacular presented by the bands. It is sad that those fans following the game on radio or TV miss that show. Instead they are given more football scores and talk about all the mistakes and bad judgment that took place in the first half.

My long ago high school days were filled with the joy of music and being in the band was the most exhilarating. Compared to the performances of today's high school bands, we were rank amateurs. Yes, we practiced inside and out on the field, but we didn't have band camps to teach us drills and the fundamentals of marching. The kids today spend long hours at practice and are required to do conditioning exercises. I marvel at their stick-to-itiveness. All that work results in near professional shows. One band director explains it is "grass theater."

Halftime shows are staged around a central theme and a variety of musical selections are used, but bands still pay tribute to the one who made bands popular in our country - the one and only band master, John Philip Sousa. Even the U.S. Senate recognized his contribution to our country's musical heritage when they passed a resolution last fall marking the sesquicentennial of Sousa's birth on November 6, 1854.

Sousa became the bandmaster of the U.S., Marine Band in 1880. Then, in 1892 he organized his own band, and in 1900-'01 and '03, they visited England. It was after those appearances that an English journal gave him the title "March King." In following years he took his band on tours worldwide.

Today we are most familiar with the marches he composed such as the "Washington Post March," "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Semper Fidelis," but he was responsible for 137 march tunes total. When he died at age 78, he left a legacy of music other than marches, five overtures, 15 operettas, 11 suites, 24 dances, 28 fantasies and he also composed 322 arrangements of 19th-century symphonic works for his band.

Sousa expert and music specialist at the Library of Congress, John Schissel, says of Sousa, "People forget that he was the most popular and well-known musician in the world." And so the bands play on but may they never forget to include a Sousa march.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday. She may be reached at ebrush@frontiernet.net