Rose-Colored Glasses
50 years ago today (1/1/2022) I performed with the OSU marching band in the 1971 Rose Bowl and Rose Parade. We boarded a chartered United DC-8 at Port Columbus for our ride to the golden west. Someone pasted a Buckeye bumper sticker on the fuselage as we walked on the plane.
We took up residence in a UCLA dorm and set about practicing, with a little sight-seeing. We paraded through Disneyland and played a short concert in front of the train station on OSU Day at the park, then got books of tickets and free time.
We were so regimented, forming up and marching to our practice field and back. One day we were marching down to the practice field after the Stanford band had rehearsed, and as they were drifting back to the dorm they lined up along our route and played Up Tight, Out Of Sight. While our precision was always a point of pride, I remember feeling just a tinge of jealousy at the fun the Stanford band was having.
We celebrated New Year’s on Ohio time (9pm Pacific), as we had to depart for the parade at like 5 am.
We lost the game to Jim Plunkett and Stanford, and forfeited the national championship, as well as the title of Team Of The Century. I took this photo on the floor of the Rose Bowl just before our pregame show. It seems like an iconic frieze of what OSU football was at the time: youthful pageantry dominated by the frown of an outsize leader.
The day after the game we flew up to San Francisco and toured the city before our redeye back to frigid Ohio.
Wow, 50 years just like that.
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| I took this picture just before we did our pregame show at the ‘71 Rose Bowl |
