The History of the Marching Owl Band
The Rice Owl Band was organized in 1916 with twelve members. It was made up of
enterprising students from all colleges of the university and was built upon
interest in band activities and the reading of band literature.
Growing gradually, the band had thirty-five members when Lee Chatham became
director in 1922. Under Mr. Chatham's leadership, the band grew to about fifty
pieces. Rehearsals were held in Autry House, across Main Street from campus.
During this period, however, there were few high school bands, and so the main
body of membership was supplied through civic or municipal bands and private
teachers.
Following Mr. Chatham's retirement in 1938, Mr. Kit Reid became director.
During the period of World War II, the supply of band personnel was very
unstable, so toward the end of the war, Hugh Saye and Dick Kincheloe formed a
band of Navy cadets under the V-12 program. This group was supplemented by
civilians from the student body. After the war, the band was reorganized and the
first women, four majorettes, were added to the previously all-male
organization. Neel Cotton completed the academic year as director following Mr.
Reid's retirement in 1950.
In 1951, Holmes McNeely became director and instituted a building program of
both equipment and personnel. Mr. McNeely was the first to offer a number of
band scholarships to students involved with the Rice Owl Band. At this time,
women musicians were added to the band for the first time.
Upon the retirement of Mr. McNeely in 1967, Mr. Bert Roth took charge of the
band activities. In the fall of 1968, every qualified member of the Rice Owl
Band was given a work scholarship in recognition of their participation. In
1970, the Rice Owl Band broke with tradition and introduced timely and sometimes
controversial topics into their halftime activities. With their tongues
firmly planted in their cheeks, the band parodied politics, life at Rice, and
other members of the Southwest Conference, using the brains that Rice is famous
for, rather than brawn. The band also gradually stopped marching at this time
and began the "scattering" that it is now famous for. This type of
entertainment proved popular with band members as well as with the student body.
Dr. Ken Dye took over the director's job in 1980. By emphasizing musical
quality and contemporary show design, the band (now called the Marching Owl
Band, or MOB) was able to entertain a larger audience. His first year marked the
beginning of the jazz
ensemble and the granting of credit for the concert
band. In 1982, Dye updated the MOB's uniforms, and the MOB donned their
tradmark gray felt fedoras for the very first time.
Dr. Dye's tenure at Rice saw MOBsters perform at the Opening Ceremonies of
the 1984 Olympics, the 1985 Presidential Inauguration, the 1986 Statue of
Liberty Celebration and U.S. Olympic Festival, and the 1993 Carnivale in Nice,
France. Dr. Dye believed that travel was an important part of any major college
band. During his time as MOB director, the band took trips to places as far a
field as Notre Dame and the campuses of all three U.S. Service Academies. The
MOB also took shorter trips to SMU, TCU, and Tulane University.
Dr. Dye's single greatest legacy lies with his tremendous talent for
arranging music for bands. During his time at Rice, he arranged literally
hundreds of tunes for the MOB to perform. Our music library overflows with his
first-class arrangements of many rock, jazz, and blues standards. When it comes
to playing great music, the MOB has long been among the best college bands in
the country -- a tradition that it will uphold for years to come.
More recently in our history, in spring 1995, Willy's Pub and the MOB
Bandhall were destroyed in a fire that gutted much of the Rice Memorial Center.
Luckily enough, however, the MOB was already planning a move to our current
location, the newly-refurbished basement of the Campus Central Kitchen Buidling.
Although a new BandHall was in place, the MOB had to rebuild from nearly zero --
new instruments, equipment, office supplies, computers, and uniforms all had to
be bought in the summer of 1995 in time for the 1995-96 season. In 1996, the
Southwest Conference officially disbanded. This meant that longtime rivals UT,
A&M and UH were no longer regular adversaries. Rice, SMU and TCU joined the
Western Athletic Conference (WAC).. Our new conference includes such exotic
destinations as California and Hawaii, and the MOB looks forward to terrorizing
our new opponents' stadia, wherever they may be found.
In 1997, Dr. Dye left Rice to rebuild the band program at the State
University of West Georgia, a position he held for only one year before moving
on to a directorship at Notre Dame University in the fall of 1998. Mr. Sean
Williams was hired in the summer of 1997 to serve the MOB and the Rice Band
Department as interim director until a permanent replacement for Dye could be
found.
That replacement was Dr. Robert Cesario, who came to us in the fall of 1998
from Tulsa, OK. We're confident that Dr. Cesario is the right person to keep our
traditions alive while leading the MOB into the next century.
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The Marching Owl Band