By Don Hower, WSU Cougar Marching Band,
and Tim Marsh, WSU Today
Saturday, Nov. 13, has been marked on Don Hower’s calendar for many months. He penciled it in as a reminder; it has since become remarkable.
Hower knew the Cougar Marching Band, which he directs, would be playing that date at the Oregon State stadium in Corvallis. It is the band’s only road trip of the 2010 WSU football season.
What he did not know was that the Cougars would beat the Beavers 31-14, breaking a losing streak and making the band’s peppy presence especially appreciated by WSU fans. After the game, the band played the “WSU Fight Song” for football players, coaches, fans and friends (see video).
But, for Hower, there’s more to the story.
On that Saturday morning, before the WSU and OSU marching bands rehearsed the National Anthem to play together before the game, Brad Townsend, OSU band director, introduced himself.
“I was surprised when Brad told me that I influenced him to become a college band director,” said Hower.
When Townsend was a student at Somerset (Pa.) High School, the school’s band participated in “Band Day” at the University of Pittsburgh. The university’s marching band performed a five minute show before Somerset and other high school bands came on the field to perform.
The University of Pittsburgh show was based on the “1812 Overture,” complete with a recording of church bells and cannons placed around the stadium shooting blank shells at the appropriate times.
“Brad was so taken with this spectacle that he went home and announced to his parents and the Somerset band director that he wanted to be a college band director,” said Hower.
Hower was the University of Pittsburgh band director.
Hower and Townsend both moved west. They both have connections to Temple University in Philadelphia: Hower received his master’s of music degree from Temple, while Townsend is a former Temple band director. Though their paths never crossed at Temple, they have many of the same friends from there.
“The fact that I had that kind of influence on someone’s life is quite humbling,” Hower said. “I have been told that if you can have an effect on just one person’s life, you should consider your own life a success. I never thought about myself in those terms. If I have just made people happy, that makes me happy,” he said.
It also made him happy that WSU beat OSU.
“The band and staff have waited for a breakthrough football win this season,” Hower said. “To be part of it in an opponent’s stadium made it even more exciting and satisfying. Though we rode buses back to Pullman on Sunday, those band members were still ‘flying’ from Saturday’s win. As tired as the band members were when they got off the buses on the WSU campus, everyone had smiles on their faces.”
The final Cougar Marching Band performance for this football season will be Dec. 4 at Martin Stadium in the Apple Cup, when WSU will play the University of Washington Huskies.