UW Band at the Outback Bowl - Jan. 1

Tuesday, January 1 - Outback Bowl Game

We got up early today and left for the stadium by 7:30 am. Before we went into the stadium we played Pep Rallies for two groups of Badger Fans. Here are two photos of the band playing at the first one.

The second Pep Rally was more crowded, and there wasn't much room between the band and the fans.

In fact, the band was surrounded by fans.

We marched in our usual Pregame formation into the staduim.

Once we arrived, we had time to find our seats before Pregame. This is a picture of Mr. Stone and me in front of the Tampa Bay Buccaneer pirate ship in the stadium.

Because Wisconsin was the home team, the Tennessee Band performed first at both Pregame and Halftime.

This is Rachel, drum major of the Wisconsin Band starting the band onto the field for our Halftime show.

At Halftime, the Wisconisn Band performed a medley of songs from"West Side Story". This is the last formation of the halftime show looking from my ladder across the field to the home side of the stadium.

In this picture the UW Band is playing in the stands. Our seats overlooked one of the end zones.

Although it was a close game, the Badgers lost. However, EVERY Badger football game ends with the 5th-Quarter, and this game was no exception. For me, the 5th-Quarter is a time to enjoy being at the game, win or lose. My attitude probably stems from the fact that when I marched in the band in the late 1980's, our football team lost a lot. Back then, sometimes all we had to enjoy were our Pregame and Halftime performances and the 5th-Quarter. It's also really cool that Wisconsin fans stay to celebrate with the band after every game. Here, Mike Leckrone is leading band and the fans in one of our many traditional 5th-Quarter songs.

Badger fans stayed to dance and enjoy being in the warm weather in Florida.

At the end of the 5th-Quarter we formed up again and marched out of the stadium.
The trumpet player on the left in the front row is Doug Cowgill, a graduate of Monona Grove.

We went back to the hotel for showers and then bused to the airport to fly home. I took one last picture of the sun setting over the beach in front of our hotel. (When we arrived home, it was 5 degrees!)