Above: UCF's marching band will debut new sounds on Tuesday at the Community Kickoff Luncheon.
UCF Marching Knights Celebrating 25 Years of Music with Spectacular New Shows
by Tom Evelyn (tevelyn@mail.ucf.edu)
ORLANDO, Aug. 28, 2005 -- Much like the university it represents, the UCF
Marching Knights band has risen quickly from humble beginnings and
continues to aim higher.
The University of Central Florida's band will celebrate its 25th
anniversary this fall with a dramatic makeover that will introduce new
songs and spectacular football halftime shows. The band will preview its
"sound of gold" with a performance at the 2005 UCF Community Kickoff
Luncheon on Tuesday, Aug. 30, at the Rosen Centre Hotel.
The Marching Knights plan to step up their performances in pep rallies,
parades and other community events to increase spirit and raise the
visibility of the band and UCF. The group will continue to incorporate
contemporary music and fast-paced shows. New high-energy performances will
incorporate Disney-style production techniques, including featured
vocalists and pyrotechnics.
"We're hoping to keep a lot of what we do as a great college band -- the
pageantry and tradition -- but make it bigger, more flashy, more big-time,"
said Ron Ellis, assistant director and drill designer since 1995. "We want
to elevate the level of entertainment. We don't want anybody to leave
during halftime."
A commemorative CD, "Celebrating 25 Years of Music," including performances
of the UCF fight song and Alma Mater, will be available for sale at events.
The Marching Knights are hoping the new shows and CD will help spark
interest in a fund-raising effort for a new band building. The band has
outgrown Rehearsal Hall near the Bookstore and is planning a larger
building close to the new practice field in the southwest corner of campus.
Because the current building holds less than half of the 250-member band,
the Marching Knights are often forced to cancel rehearsals during lightning
storms and heavy rains. The new building would also provide appropriate
teaching and performance space.
"The existing energy radiating from the UCF bands, combined with the
addition of a new band building, is expected to establish UCF as one of the
top 10 band programs in the country," said Richard Greenwood, director of
bands and marching band director since 1988. "Improved facilities will
allow students to reach their highest level of achievement."
The Marching Knights band was founded in the summer of 1980, a year after
UCF added football. Starting from scratch, the group's first director,
Jerry Gardner, and drum major Troy Driggers dug through enrollment records
looking for students with music backgrounds to begin the first band.
Gardner, who died in January, and Driggers, who died in a car accident in
1982, recruited 125 members for the inaugural year.
The group's initial $30,000 budget was spent immediately on instruments and
equipment. Without enough money for uniforms, the band made its debut in
jeans and T-shirts at a football game on Sept. 27, 1980. A local clothing
store donated the group's first set of uniforms -- black pants and gold
shirts -- in time for the band's first Homecoming performance that year.
The band has since been through several sets of uniforms and seen its ranks
and performances swell in number and quality. "The members of the Marching
Knights and its many dedicated alums are proud of the rich tradition of
excellence they have established over the first 25 years," Greenwood said.
For more information on the Marching Knights, visit www.ucfmarchingknights.com.
DETAILS: 2005 UCF Community Kickoff Luncheon, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday,
Aug. 30, Rosen Centre Hotel, 9840 International Drive, Orlando. UCF
Football Coach George O'Leary and ESPN's Lee Corso will speak. The event is
sold out.
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