Yale Precision Marching Band - Notable Stunts

Notable Stunts

In the early 1970s the YPMB could not afford to go to one game at Brown. The band's announcer and the drum major went alone. The drum major marched out by himself as the announcer gravely stated, "For the first time anywhere, the Yale University Invisible Marching band forms ... THE FACE OF GOD!!"

On October 27, 1973 in a rare political statement, the YPMB reacted to Richard Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre" (wherein he ordered the firing of the special prosecutor assigned to investigate Watergate) by forming a major "H" on the field and playing "10,000 Men of Harvard". The band paid tribute Harvard Graduate Elliot Richardson who resigned rather than carry out the order to fire Harvard Law professor Archibald Cox. The order was carried out by Yale Law professor Robert Bork.

In September 1977, at the conclusion of the halftime show at the Yale-Brown game, the YPMB formed a giant diaper on the field. The members of the YPMB dropped their pants en masse to reveal that all members were wearing diapers. (The band marched "Down the Field" with their pants around their ankles.) The announcer stated that the YPMB was the "Most Pampered Band in the Country" as they marched off. This became known as one of its more infamous stunts; the band parodied that stunt at the Princeton game in 1983, where the band dropped its pants en masse again, this time to reveal that all members were wearing sweat pants underneath their white uniform pants.

In October 1985, six YPMB members were suspended after dropping their pants at halftime during the Yale-Holy Cross game (New York Times, October 20, 1985, 11CN p. 17). Only one week earlier, the band was forbidden by West Point officials from performing its halftime show during the Army-Yale game for the script's insinuation that certain government officials were communists. The following season, in the Yale-Army game at New Haven, the YPMB took the unusual step of marching in straight lines for several minutes before breaking into its usual scatter formations. (NYT 10/7/86, B4) Before the band left the field, members removed their blue blazers on the field, spelling out "USA."

In 1992, before the combined playing of the "Star-Spangled Banner", the Harvard marching band attempted to "X-out" the Yale Precision Marching Band while the Yale band stood in its traditional Y formation; however, the Yale band caught wind of this plan and, as the Harvard band marched onto the field, shifted its formation into a large H, thus making Harvard X itself out.

In 1992, the Yale-Fordham halftime featured the marriage of two former band members, Drum Major James Lockman '89 and Props Goddess Rori Myers '92. ("At Yale, Wedding Band Takes On a New Meaning", New York Times, October 10, 1992.) During the ceremony, the band formed a three-tiered wedding cake; at each corner of the cake, serving as a candle, was a sousaphone that was on fire.

In 1993, the Yale-Harvard halftime show included the "assassination" of the Energizer Bunny(a bass drum player) -- the band formed a forty-yard bow and arrow, and "shot" the arrow at the Bunny. After they missed, the drum major took out a shotgun and blew the Bunny away. He was carried off by band members dressed as dining hall workers.

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, the YPMB became a source of minor controversy for performing a halftime show parodying the history of jingoism in American media and culture, including patriotic bowdlerization, and addressing the possibility of conscription. A strong negative reaction from a several audience members, including boos (especially when "War" was spelled on the field) and angry letters to administrators and newspapers, led the band to limit the often aggressive political content of its shows through at least the 2002 season. Negative reactions were heightened by the fact the show took place on Yale Parents' Weekend.