IU's Marching Hundred to perform at Super Bowl XLVI
Amid all the flash and glitter of Super Bowl XLVI, there'll be a familiar glimpse of cream and crimson -- Indiana University's famed Marching Hundred will perform at the championship football game Feb. 5 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Band director David Woodley said he learned the news from Super Bowl producers but didn't reveal it to band members until the Marching Hundred's year-end banquet on Dec. 5.
"There were lots of high-fives, lots of clapping and cheering," he said. "It's overwhelming. I don't think any of us have had a chance to process it quite yet. To have the chance to do something like the Super Bowl, just out of the blue like this, is so amazing."
Woodley said the band will perform as part of the pre-game entertainment and will march what he described as a "full field show" to entertain fans in the stands during a network television commercial break.
All of the approximately 300 members of the Marching Hundred will be given the chance to perform at the Super Bowl, even those who graduate in December.
"As long as they marched this year, we definitely want them to be there," Woodley said. "It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity none of us will ever forget."
He said the Marching Hundred will review its shows from this year in order to select the music it will perform at the Super Bowl, which could include traditional favorite "Sing, Sing, Sing."
Indiana University's Marching Hundred, an ensemble of the Jacobs School of Music, dates back to 1896. The band's appearances have included the Kentucky Derby (1939), the Presidential Inaugural Parade (1953), the Rose Bowl (1968), the Holiday Bowl (1979), the All-American Bowl (1986), the Peach Bowl (1988 and 1990), the Liberty Bowl (1988), the Copper Bowl (1991), the Independence Bowl (1993) and the Insight Bowl (2007).
In 2007, the Marching Hundred received the Sudler Intercollegiate Marching Band Trophy, the nation's highest and most coveted award for college and university marching bands.
Indiana University also recently announced a $1 million gift from university alumnus Col. Jack I. Hamlin (BS '43) and Dora Hamlin that will help construct a new practice facility for the Marching Hundred.
For more information about the Marching Hundred, visit music.indiana.edu/departments/academic/bands/.
