Last modified: Monday, February 6, 2012
IU Marching Hundred R.O.C.K.s the Super Bowl
INDIANAPOLIS -- Standing in the bowels of Lucas Oil Stadium, waiting to step out onto the field for a pre-game performance at Super Bowl XLVI, Indiana University Marching Hundred director David Woodley looked around at the faces of his band members.
"They all have different majors, have different backgrounds, different playing abilities, but in that last two or three minutes right before we went on, they were all one. There's just a feeling of, 'We're one team, we're doing this together,'" he said. "That was probably the highlight of my day."
The Indiana University Marching Hundred performs at Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis on Feb. 5.
The Marching Hundred performed a six-minute pre-game show for fans in the stands just before Kelly Clarkson sang the national anthem at the nation's most watched sporting event, held this year at Indianapolis. The Hundred played John Mellencamp's "R.O.C.K. in the USA" and its signature version of "Sing, Sing, Sing," creating formations on the field representing the NFL logo and spelling out "Super Bowl XLVI" and "Indy 2012."
"There's that adrenaline rush when the producer says, 'Four minutes.' Everybody's hyped and ready to go," Woodley said. "Then, you literally run out onto the field, do your six minutes and run back off as fast as you can. They were bringing on Kelly Clarkson's props and staging as we left the field, so if you don't move, you get trampled."
Woodley said the band was well-received by the crowds at Lucas Oil Stadium.
"When they introduced us, there was a lot of cheering," he said. "We're a live band. We can get tuned into recorded music, and that has its place, but we were a live band, performing just for them, and I think they liked that. I think we made a lot of friends and gained some fans just from being out there."
The NFL even bought each of the approximately 300 members of the Marching Hundred T-shirts, Woodley said. With an image of the Lombardi trophy and the Super Bowl XLVI logo on the front, the back reads: "We R.O.C.K.'ed the Super Bowl."
About the Marching Hundred
The Indiana University Marching Hundred, an ensemble of the Jacobs School of Music, dates back to 1896.
The band's appearances include 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 award for college and university marching bands.
Watch a video of the band gearing up for their Super Bowl XLVI performance here: https://newsinfo.iu.edu/asset/page/normal/13244.html
