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I think by "turning the T" he means that the entire band does a minstrel turn in the T so that the top end up moving towards a sideline. We did that several times back when.

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ohhh, gotcha! that's sounds awesome, i agree it would be cool to bring that back. roughly how many men were in the band back then?

~300 just like today. By filling in the south end zone I mean just that. Pretty much a mirror of how the Band started off in the north end zone. In those days the spread formation kept the basses and drums pretty much together to prevent the see-saw effect. Watch a drill from '68 or so to see what I mean. As the Band departs from the south end zone back into block band note the diagonal for the drums ranks to enter. And the bass rank. For a few years in the early '60's guys in the south end zone would face in the way they were gonna step off into block band. I think this was changed in maybe '66 - would difer to Bandsman of that era that remembers the year LTC Adams made this change. Compare this to recent spread formations with drums and basses scattered all over the place. And the 'curly cue' departure from the south end zone into block band.

To be able to do the 'curley cue' you had to scatter said drums/basses in the spread. LTC Haney tried this once in '73 and we Zips told him that this would cause the band to 'see-saw'. He relented that year but incorporated it the next year when we left. Been 'see-sawing' since. Toler kept it. Rhea has not fixed this on his watch yet. Jay Brewer could look it up but he didn't experience it first hand. Have to go back to the archives. Wanna really be 'old army'? Fix this.

[This message has been edited by WBBQ74 (edited 9/14/2009 9:49p).]