The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band
| The Pride of Oklahoma | |
|---|---|
 |
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| School | The University of Oklahoma |
| Location | Norman, Oklahoma |
| Conference | Big 12 |
| Founded | 1904 |
| Director | Brian Britt |
| Assistant director | Brian Wolfe |
| Members | 320 |
| Fight song | "Boomer Sooner," |
| Uniform | White jackets with red trim around the shoulders and neck (or optional red jacket with white trim), interlocking OU on the front, red hats with white peak and white plumes, red pants. |
| Website | http://bands.ou.edu/ |
The Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band, known as "The Pride", is the student marching band for the University of Oklahoma Sooners.
The Pride was founded in 1904 as a pep band to play at Sooner football games. In the early years of the university, the band was composed mostly of Norman residents and was disbanded every year after football season.
The first continuous student band was founded in 1904 by Lloyd Curtis, himself a Sooner freshman. The band branched out and began playing at other athletic events. Eventually, they started playing non-athletic events also, including concerts and parades. The band marched in the parade celebrating the inauguration of the first Oklahoma governor, Charles N. Haskell. A military band was created during World War I but was kept separate from the University band.
In 1929, the University hired its first full-time faculty member, William R. Wehrend, whose primary responsibility was to direct the band program. He devised numerous ways of promoting the band. He was one of the first band directors to have an annual high school Band Day event. In 1934, he organized a publicity stunt to set the record for the world's longest drum roll. Ten hours later, it was successful. Wehrend was one of the first directors to admit women into a band program, in 1934.
With the success of the football program in the 1950s, so increased the visibility of the Pride. Their halftime programs, centered on themes that would incorporate well-known songs of the day, were soon being broadcast on television during games. They received the grand prize as the best overall unit in the 200-unit 1961 National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade held in Washington, D.C.
Since the 1950s, the Pride has been under the leadership of several different band directors and with those directors came different styles. The 1960s saw band director Gene Braught bring a style of precision marching filled with intricate routines creating geometric shapes and lines.
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