Friday, February 27, 2009

No.9: Tupelo High School Band - 1968

(Photo courtesy of S. Byrd)

The 1968 Tupelo High School Band is pictured above with their director Jim Scott. As I look at the faces in that picture, it seems the band would have been very small indeed had it not been for the sophomore class.

Did you ever wonder why the band wore red and blue uniforms when the school colors were blue and gold? I think I remember someone telling me years ago that the official school colors were actually red and blue, but the blue and gold were a later version after the athletic teams first started being called the Golden Wave. If anyone has a better explanation for the colors of the band uniforms or any idea when the Golden Wave became the Golden Wave, please add a comment.

3 comments:

  1. Daniel Monaghan sent the following email to comment on this post:

    I don't know about earlier uniforms, but the ones that immediately preceded these were indeed blue and gold and white. These were new in the spring of 1965. I had never heard that the colors were originally red and blue, but doesn't mean that it isn't so...

    Thanks for the comment, Daniel. I do remember the previous uniforms now that you mention them. It was good to hear from you.

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  2. The red, white and blue was because Tupelo was
    "The All American City." At band competitions, our uniforms were very distinctive and you knew when Tupelo took the field. My wife and son wore these
    uniforms and hated to change to the school colors.

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  3. The red, white and blue uniforms were indeed very new when we started wearing them. They were also the full heavy-weight wool uniforms that seemed to have been designed for northern bands rather ones in MS. I can clearly remember everyone absolutely drenching them in sweat during the warmer months and particularly during the fair parades in September. They were unbelievably hot. I wore (and sweated in) them for four years. Today, even northern marching bands wear 'summer uniforms' in warm weather of short sleeve shirts and shorts, but we sweltered in those woolies.

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