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Bloomington Herald Times

IU Marching Hundred named top college band
H-T Report
Feb. 1, 2007

The Marching Hundred is the 2007 Sudler Intercollegiate Marching Band Trophy winner, the nation's highest award for college and university marching bands, Indiana University officials announced Wednesday.

The award is often called the "Heisman Trophy" for college marching bands.

"No marching band will ever earn this award without many, many people being aware of the quality and traditions of the group," said Stephen W. Pratt, director of bands at the IU Jacobs School of Music. "The fact that the Marching Hundred has earned this trophy is a tribute to all involved and indicates recognition of the quality of the group on a national level."

Since its inception in 1982, the Sudler Trophy has gone to a college or university marching band that has demonstrated excellence in marching routines and musical standards, and has made important contributions to the advancement of performance standards of marching bands over a number of years.

No school can be honored with the award twice. IU is the ninth Big Ten band to be honored; only Wisconsin and Minnesota in the conference have yet to win.

Administered by the John Philip Sousa Foundation, the award is named for the late Louis Sudler, a Chicago businessman, performing artist and arts patron, who had an active interest in both bands and band music.

The Sudler Trophy was designed by the artist Ed Blackwell and consists of a bronze drum major astride a football stadium mounted on a marble base. It stands 22.5 inches high, the length of a typical marching band step. The award comes with a personalized certificate for each member of the band, a plaque for the school and additional plaques for the incumbent director and each of the former marching band directors.

The traveling trophy will be presented during halftime of IU's Homecoming football game against Penn State in October. The trophy will remain with the Marching Hundred for one year.