Class of ‘70, VMI

Again, from the VMI News Center:

If you want to watch the Regimental Band in the Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1, you will be able to do so on most major networks. HGTV, the Home and Garden Network, plans to broadcast the parade in its entirety.

The band will be in the 27th position in the parade, and in the position of honor directly behind the car carrying the president of the parade, CL Keedy. Viewers should be on the lookout for the VMI band passing the reviewing stand beginning at 8:30 a.m. (PST).

For those who might be out there in person, here’s a map of the route along with a timetable of parade arrival times. And if you are there, I would certainly appreciate any pictures to post here on the site.

From the VMI News Center

LEXINGTON, Va., Nov. 21, 2007 – In late November and early December, the VMI Regimental Band and Pipe Band will be preparing in earnest for their highest-profile performance ever: the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 1.

This will be possibly the first appearance ever of a Virginia state college band in what is known as the “Super Bowl” of parades. The parade will be seen by 400 million worldwide on TV and 1 million on site.

“We’ve never had a composite brass and bagpipe band in the parade,” remarked CL Keedy III, Tournament of Roses president and chairman of the board, on a visit to VMI in early November. College bands are few and far between in the Rose Parade. There are many more high school bands than collegiate ones. “I can’t remember the last time there was a Virginia band,” even a high school one, in the parade, Keedy said.

VMI’s will be one of only three college bands in the parade other than the two from the universities that will vie in the Rose Bowl football game.

(Read on …)