Band aides – Fun Facts to better know your marching band

11 Band members in 1893 (the inaugural year)

325 Band members in 2014

20 Average rehearsal hours per week

$1000 Value of stipend paid each season to each band member.

• Each section of the band has its own traditions and rituals, many with histories known only to the section. The trumpet section has brought a large wooden fish to every rehearsal for as long as anyone in the band can remember, and the mellophone section hosts its own Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.

• Ruffin G. Pleasant, one of the student cadets who first founded LSU’s musical organization, went on to become governor of Louisiana in 1916. The university’s Cadet Band played and marched at his inauguration.

• Sixteen sousaphones survived a fire that destroyed the band hall in 1958 and are still used today.

• The band’s Saturday morning rehearsals before each home football game take place in the Indoor Field Facility near campus and are open to the public.

• The largest section of the band is the trumpet section. It has roughly 70 members.