ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9609040050
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
THE NAUGHTY and rambunctious UVa Pep Band just would not behave itself.
Officials at the University of Virginia, acting in loco parentis, tried and tried to teach this band some manners. Finally, in exasperation they sent its members to sit in the corner until the musicians learn proper marching-band decorum.
As parents always say, it hurts them more than the young'uns to have to mete out such punishment.
In this case, it's true, since the university will have to pay to bring in other bands to perform at halftime for the football team's five home games.
Oh well, at least the university's reputation for seriousness won't have to suffer further insults.
The Pep Band is to stay quietly on the sidelines and watch as the visiting bands demonstrate how a proper halftime show is done. Goose-stepping is optional.
The Pep Band can't say it wasn't warned. For years now, the madcap musicians have vexed and outraged sensitive souls with their attempts at satirical humor. They even piled on an Elvis impersonator and declared the King dead - of all times, during halftime at a game with the University of Graceland - er, Tennessee.
Sternly admonished by their elders, including state legislators, the goof-ups simply wouldn't refrain from goofing up.
Reform school, or perhaps a Virginia Corrections Department boot camp, is probably the place for these incorrigibles, but Mr. Jefferson's university for now is stuck with trying to teach them Pep Band etiquette.
The sooner the better. Says Dwight Purvis, director of bands, `` ... it's time to make some format changes to coincide with the quality of the football program.''
UVa isn't simply a place where scholars express themselves in an environment of academic freedom. It has aspirations now: to become a football powerhouse. A band of amateurs will no longer do.
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