R.I.P. Sooner Showmen

[SbOrOiNaEnR]

Now I rarely post over here, because like any good fair weather, cheatin' gooner F'n Hillbilly fan of Zero/BlowU athletics, I care WAY more about Oklahoma football than I do Oklahoma basketball. But in light of the latest thread over on the Football Forum about the PRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIDE, I noticed something in attending the Arkansas game tonight.

The Sooner Showmen is dead.

There's still a pep band, and they still play the classic jazz-band-on-steroids arrangements of the rah-rahs that hardcore OU basketball (and band) fans can differentiate from Pride songs a mile away. But the one true Sooner Showmen basketball fans know and love is no more. There's no drum set. No bass guitar. Instead they've been replaced by a marching snare and our biggest bass drum. And now members are decked out in Nike polos and black slacks instead of the CLASSIC (and classy) khakis, white dress shirt, tie, and Oklahoma pullover. In talking with a fellow after said Arkie game who looks like the type of person who would be in the know about such things, allegedly (he has no actual proof...just hearsay and conjecture) this is because higher-ups wanted "Pride Inside," rather than the one true University of Oklahoma Basketball Band. And they've added F*CKING FLUTES AND CLARINETS!!! What kind of respectable basketball band has flutes and clarinets? This isn't the Benny Goodman orchestra. And to drive the final nail into the coffin, a coffin which will be cavalierly flung into a shallow, open grave along with Top Daug, "______ sucks!" and Blake Griffin's knees, not everyone is allowed to go on trips.

Rest in peace, Sooner Showmen. You will be missed.

[badger]

I too, noticed the clarinet up front.

This may just be for home games. The NCAA restricts tourney pep band sizes, but there's probably no restrictions for home games.

[GottaHavePride]

OK, I'm not going to address everything you mention out on the forums here, but a couple of things:

About the outfits:
Actually, we all HATED the khaki / tie / pullover outfit. When ESPN makes fun of the band for looking like a bunch of Jim Tressels, it's a bad outfit. The band USED to get warm-ups that sort of matched what the team wore each year. (And got to keep them at the end of the year, to boot.) THAT was the Sooner Showmen.

After the Athletic Department stopped doing that there were a couple of years they gave us these hideous Ruf/Nek style shirts. After that they asked US what we thought we should be wearing - I was pushing for hockey jerseys, on the argument that the band should be some of the craziest fans in the arena, and we should look like we're there to make noise. (Plus it gets hot down where the band sits.)

We got the khakis and pullovers instead.

About going on the trips:
From what I understand, the directors are perfectly aware that by Big XII tournament and NCAA tournament regulations, schools can only bring a 30-person pep band. And that's including the director. They said that in recent years, they've had trouble finding enough people to go on the trips anyway, so having extra people means the band members can take turns so they don't have to go on all the trips.

Now, when I joined the band, we all would have murdered our grannies before we considered missing a trip. And if a single person ever DID have to miss a trip, there were 15 other guys who would gladly murder his granny FOR him begging to take his place. (That's a bad choice of words, actually. My freshman year my granddad passed away right before the first round of NCAA. I went to the funeral and then flew to Milwaukee a day late.)

EDIT: In fact, the year we went to the Final Four, I missed so much school that I failed two classes. It was ok, I didn't really want a math degree anyway. No regrets. ;)

About the drumset, etc:
Yeah, Roland's arrangements for the Showmen don't work without drumset and electric bass at the minimum. A guitar is even better.

Other thoughts:
The biggest thing missing from that band is Roland's attitude. He flat out told the band "guys, you're getting a stipend to be here. Treat it professionally. If you miss a note once it's ok, you're sight-reading. If you miss it again, go home and practice. If you miss it a third time, get out of my band, I'll replace you with someone who WILL go home and practice." It was essentially a studio band that liked drinking and basketball. Not always in that order. ;)

[King Crimson]

more Castiglione engineered reality.

King Crimson: LNC since 1979.

[Sooner04]

One of the things my wife noticed right away at the VCU game was how rowdy their pep band was. They played incredibly loud, they danced and they had a crap load of fun. Then they played Otis Redding's Can't Turn You Loose at warp speed and I realized that they were what every pep band should be. They were marvelous.

The rod up our band's butt has got its own rod up its butt.

[badger]

more Castiglione engineered reality.

It isn't just Joe C's YSG cutting down on fun, Big 12 tourney facilities have been cutting into the amount of fun you can have since I've been going to those tourneys since 02.

They took away our FUNCTIONAL "Suk-o-Meter" in 2002. Seriously, someone made it so that the level of suck (or "suk," haha) could move up or down. Some angry KC Municipal Auditorium lady came by in the second period and was all like "Give me ALL of your signs now."

A few years later, a sign that traveled with me pretty much the entire season that had "We love you Coach Coale" on one side and "We do NOT like the refs" on the other side was grounded by... once again, a Big 12 tourney attendant, who during our miraculous No. 6 seeding run to the tourney title, said "Do not hold up the other side of 'We love you Coach Coale' anymore."

During the season when we couldn't stop hitting threes, I thought it would be fun to start stacking up 3's on the side of the court (similar to the K's you see lining MLB stadiums to count strikeouts). We had hit about 5 three pointers in that game (still in the first half) when an attendant at LNC told me to take them down, because Joe C was worried that tape would damage the upholstry... the 3's were tacked up, not taped up. They all came down immediately :(

So overall, yes, the fun level is going down at LNC, but it's also a Big 12 thing.

[SbOrOiNaEnR]

The rod up our band's butt has got its own rod up its butt.

Hi Super Nintendo Chalmers!

[badger]

here are a few more fun Showmen memories:

We had a member from Sweeden one year and our first game was against... a Sweedish team. She apparently hadn't realized how brutal students can be at basketball games, because she taught a few people how to say "You are a fat cow" in Sweedish and there were people shouting this at the Sweedish girls the rest of the game.

Probably the worst example of Showmen... um... showmanship was against Colorado one year. There was a very large and tall player for CU's team and throughout the entire game, there were guys making beeping noises (picture a heavy machinery thing backing up) and saying "Hey, Chewbacca! What a Wookie!" followed by wookie noises.

(for the record, I felt so bad for the girl and every other girl they made cry over the years that I did not participate in these type of taunts)

The next rehearsal, we were informed by our director that the CU athletic department called. The girl was apparently "very upset" that we were making wookie noises and beeping noises whenever she had the ball... it was more of an informative announcement, not a scolding one.