TUMB HISTORY
The Tulane University Marching Band shares the heritage and lineage of America’s most cherished band traditions. More than a century ago, marching bands and brass bands incorporated blues and ragtime, the intermingling of which became jazz. The contemporary Tulane University Marching Band is a descendent of these progenitors and carries the art form forward to new horizons. Read on this page about persons and organizations that have played a role in the history of the TUMB and Tulane spirit.
John Morrissey
JOHN MORRISSEY was the Band Director at Tulane from 1938 to 1968. During his tenure the band program was highly regarded and all ensembles under his guidance flourished. He composed and published more than fifty original works for concert band and led performances in McAlister Auditorium to packed audiences each spring. He left a legacy that still resonates today, throughout the region. The contemporary Tulane Band Program presented an all-Morrissey concert on Sunday, March 26, 2006 in McAlister Auditorium, featuring guest performance by the New Orleans Concert Band. An audio CD is also available of the Tulane Band playing Morrissey's music, recorded in the late 1940's and mid-1950's. Don Mackenroth, percussionist with the band during that time, donated the original recordings. Anyone wishing to purchase the CD can send a check for $29.95 (each) made out to the "Tulane University Marching Band" to: Barry Spanier, Band Director, Tulane University, Dixon Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118. Be sure to include your return address so that your CD can be mailed to you.
Soundwave...
The SOUNDWAVE Pep Band, founded in 1992, was critical in the re-establishment of the marching band program at Tulane. Soundwave performed as a marching band ("The Spirit of New Orleans"), directed by students and comprised of sixty students, alumni, and community volunteers. It debuted in the Homecoming parade at Tad Gormley Stadium on October 11, 2003. The band performed at the final three home football games that season, including the Homecoming game and two games at the Louisiana Superdome. To punctuate that historic year, the band marched in its first Mardi Gras parade, Le Krewe D'Etat, on February 20, 2004.
...and today's TUMB.
With the momentum that Soundwave had created, the University supported the re-instatement of an official marching band program, for the first time in three decades. The Newcomb Department of Music at Tulane University administered the new band program, authorized it as a credit course, and hired Mr. Barry Spanier as Director. Soundwave donated instruments and equipment that had been purchased through generous donations from alumni and other Tulane fans. Funds raised specifically for marching band uniforms were also donated to the Department of Music for this purpose.
Soundwave remains focused on performing at home basketball games, tournaments, and other Tulane events. Their student leadership works side by side with the TUMB to elevate musical performance and spirit at Tulane.
From The Times-Picayune
NEW WAVE ROLL MODEL
A change of nickname had Tulane playing a different tune
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 By Marty Mulé
Staff writer
It was an intriguing line: "The 'Great Rolling Green Wave' lived true to its name when it washed over Mississippi A&M." It was from The Times-Picayune on Nov. 15, 1920, two days after Tulane claimed its fifth victory in seven games. Just a few days before, "Green Wave" was not Tulane's nickname. Nobody in the mainstream sporting public had even heard of it.
Almost 85 years later, the words "Tulane" and "Green Wave" are so linked they are almost interchangeable. Tulane fans owe a major debt of gratitude to former student E. Earl Sparling, at the time a student, part-time sportswriter -- and a pretty lame poet. But it was Sparling who started Tulane on its way to its enduring identification and away from its early, unofficial nicknames of "Olive and Blue" and "Tulanemen." Change had been in the wind. In 1919, the Hullabaloo, the Tulane student newspaper, started referring to the dark-shirted Tulane team as the "Greenbacks." Eventually the moniker came into general usage and became the school's first formal athletic identification.
In the Oct. 29, 1920, issue of the school paper, however, as Tulane prepared for its first intersectional football game at the University of Michigan, Sparling wrote a convoluted poem entitled "The Rolling Green Wave," which was displayed at the top and in the center of the front page. The fourth verse, in which the then-nicknames for Georgia Tech and Alabama are mentioned, seems to get to the heart of the matter: Now Tech's got a Gold Tornado; Alabama a thin red line; But we've got a Rolling Green Breaker That'll cover 'em every time. In the same issue of the Hullabaloo, it was written that the "great green wave rolled toward Michigan." But after a long train ride to Ann Arbor, Tulane lost 21-0.
Two weeks later, as 4-1-1 Tulane prepared for unbeaten Mississippi A&M, a story with no byline appeared, saying that the LSU football team, returning to Louisiana by train after a game at Alabama and an upcoming Tulane opponent, would attend the A&M contest. "When Tulane's 'Green Wave' goes into action against the Mississippi A&M machine," read the short article on Nov. 12, 1920, "it will be under the watchful eyes of the LSU team." That was the first use of "Green Wave" in the mainstream press. Two days later, in sports editor Bill Keefe's Times-Picayune account of Tulane's 6-0 victory, he said of Tulane holding A&M at the 10-yard line, "The Green Wave stopped (A&M) there." Fred Digby, the Item's sports editor and Sparling's boss, opened his Monday morning review of the game: "Tulane's Green Wave is still one of Dixie's undefeated elevens. . . ."
Besides the loss to Michigan, Tulane lost to Detroit, but it didn't lose a game to a team from the South. In less than a month the name was hatched and attached, although "Greenbacks" was still used extensively, and even the "Olive and Blue" nickname was continued to a lesser extent. What really welded "Green Wave" to Tulane, though, was a catchy fight song, written five years after Sparling came up with the name. Tulane used several undistinguished fight songs, but the most popular by far was "The Washington & Lee Swing," which eventually embarrassed Tulane officials. Gus Fritchie, a Washington & Lee alumnus from Slidell, was accepted to the Tulane law school and earned part of his tuition by working as a manager for the football team. Fritchie felt Tulane needed a real fight song and introduced "The Washington & Lee Swing" to the band, and it became extremely popular. The problem arose when the song began being referred to as "The Tulane Swing." Radio station WSMB was New Orleans' first with a long-range signal, and one spring night in 1925, an announcer named Randall played the song. "We will now have the pleasure of listening to Tulane University's great football song, 'The Tulane Swing,' " Randall, obviously a big fan, said on the air. ". . . We want the people all over the Northland and up the Mississippi Valley to hear this famous 'Tulane Swing.' " Several Washington & Lee alums heard the broadcast and a flap ensued, with Tulane accused of piracy. The episode was followed by a meeting of the Tulane Alumni Association, presided over by Randolf Foote, in which it was agreed to purchase a song that would be uniquely Tulane's.
It was a dean with the highest academic credentials who gave the Green Wave its rollicking personal tune. Marten ten Hoor, a philosophy professor born in the Netherlands, was dean of Tulane's College of Arts and Sciences. Ten Hoor and Walter Goldstein, an associate professor of music at Newcomb, Tulane's women's college, collaborated and came up with "The Olive and Blue March," for which the composers received $100. Not only is the song rhythmic, light, and fun to sing, but it's interesting that in the lyrics ten Hoor and Goldstein included all of Tulane's nicknames: "Here's a song to the Olive and the Blue;" "Here's to the Greenbacks who never will say die;" and "Roll, Green Wave, roll them down the field." It's also registered on sheet music by two different titles: "The Olive and Blue March," and "Roll On, Tulane." Even with that, the song is more commonly referred to by a third title: "Roll, Green Wave." In any case, the song's refrain of "Roll, Green Wave, roll them down the field," ingrained that identification in the minds of the fans. Tommy O'Boyle, an All-American lineman at Tulane in 1940 and the Wave head coach from 1962-65, loved the designation for his teams, eschewing even the popular secondary nickname "Greenies." "I've always referred to it as Green Wave," O'Boyle said during his tenure at Tulane. "I like to think of it as something big and awesome -- fearful."
