The M.O.B. Strikes Again!

We are blessed to have some amazing college bands in the Houston area like TSU's Ocean of Soul, Prairie View A&M's Marching Storm, and UH's Spirit of Houston.

But none of them can match the legendary irreverence of Rice University's Marching Owl Band, or 'The MOB' as they are affectionately known.

The MOB doesn't wear traditional band uniforms or march onto the field.  They scatter into formations in their pinstriped three piece suits and fedora hats.   They also live for irreverently poking fun at their game day rivals, politics, life on the Rice campus and themselves.

While those MOB shows can be good natured at times, there are other times the MOB drew ire from their targets because they struck a nerve.   One memorable MOB show involved them during a November 17, 1973 game at Rice Stadium poking fun at cherished Texas A&M Aggie traditions. 

The MOB Nazi goose stepped onto the field, mocked the Aggie War Hymn and the Corps of Cadets, and formed a fire hydrant while playing 'Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone' to mock the Aggie mascot Reveille



The Aggies were not amused, and losing the game to Rice didn't help matters    The pissed off Aggie fans formed a mob of their own that trapped the embattled band in the stadium tunnel for several hours after the game.   HPD had to come in to disperse the crowd as the band escaped the Aggie wrath in empty food trucks

In 2007, the MOB mocked the legal woes of the Texas Longhorns by playing the theme from Dragnet as three band members dressed as Longhorn players were chased by other band members carrying cardboard police cars.

In 2011, days before Texas A&M announced they were leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, during the Owls season opener against Texas in Austin, they formed the words '$EC' during their halftime show.

In  2016, when Baylor last made the trip to Houston to play the Owls, the MOB not only formed the roman numeral IX to refer to Title IX and the sexual assault scandal engulfing the school at the time, they formed a star and played 'Hit the Road Jack' to allude to the firing of former Baylor president Ken Starr

They whacked UT again this season when they spelled out '2.89', which is the cumulative GPA of the Texas Longhorn football team.   



The MOB struck again last Saturday as they hosted Baylor at Rice Stadium.    They took a jab at Baylor for denying a charter for an on campus LGBTQ group.  They formed the word 'Pride' and played the Village People's YMCA as students ran onto the field carrying the various TBLGQ community group pride flags.

Aw yeah.   Going to have to check out a Rice home game before the season is over to see what the MOB does next.

 

2010 Battle of the Bands

If you watched the movie Drumline, you got a taste of this event that will be happening this Saturday in the ATL.

The 2010 edition of the Honda Battle of the Bands will be rocking the Georgia Dome starting at 3 PM. There will be nearly 65,000 fans cheering and dancing to the music of eight HBCU bands in what promises to be a very entertaining evening.

From 10 AM-2 PM there will be a HBCU Recruitment Fair that will be a great opportunity for young students to check out the various universities and colleges.

There were 41 bands that started on the road to the ATL, and these are the final eight HBCU bands selected to be part of the Georgia Dome fun.

Clark Atlanta University Mighty Marching Panthers
Virginia State University Marching Trojan Explosion
North Carolina Central University Marching Sound Machine
Prairie View A & M University Marching Storm
Southern University Human Jukebox Marching Band
Albany State University Marching Rams
Tuskegee University Marching Crimson Piper Band
Florida A & M University Marching 100

While there won't be a final winner selected like there was in the movie, the 60,000 people dancing in the aisles will be the judges on which band 'won'.

Since I have family members who have gone to various SWAC schools such as TSU and PVAMU and my dad was a play by play announcer for TSU athletics, I'm a SWAC band fan. I've seen all of the SWAC bands perform including the two that are representing the SWAC at this event from Prairie View A&M and Southern University.

I was surprised to see that Grambling elected not to participate this year.

But I have to give it up to the Florida A&M Marching 100 who are probably the faves going into this among the crowd that will be watching in the Georgia Dome Saturday.



Of course, I'm rooting for the homeboys and girls from Prairie View.