Pride gets new uniforms
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Standing proud for our band
For those attending Saturday’s Oklahoma vs Baylor game in Norman be sure and be at your seats 20 minutes before kickoff.
What you will see and hear will be different. But familiar.
When the Pride of Oklahoma enters the field from the Memorial Stadium tunnels it will mark a return to tradition.
Gone will be the somewhat confusing and distorted pre-game show of 2013 (and earlier this year). Back will be the pre-game fanfare that introduced the Sooner football show of Barry Switzer’s wishbone. The same show that launched Bob Stoop’s head coaching career. The fanfare that began the 2000 National Championship game.
And with it will also return the swagger of a band that has had its reputation besmirched in recent months.
Rule 1: Don’t piss off the tubas
My take on the Pride of Oklahoma controversy
Imagine a dozen giant elephants wearing kilts and guzzling from beer steins, all the while singing a gaelic song consisting entirely of two notes pronounced repetitively.
“Oom pah, oom pah, oom pah”. And then repeat for 24 more measures of music.
Then imagine this same troop of normally affable musicians of the animal kingdom all pissed off and stampeding.
That’s the Pride of Oklahoma tuba section this week. They boycotted band practice on Monday in protest of Director Justin Stolarik’s unpopular changes to the band.
This is a big deal. The fact the tuba section brought this attention to themselves is a big deal. Usually this group goes about their business without regard to any recognition or notice from the rest of the world.