Posted by Benson on November 07, 2003 at 00:32:51:
In Reply to: Dotting the "i" at Ohio State posted by Jeremy Knudtson on November 06, 2003 at 13:34:23:
Dotting the "i" has been going on since 1936 when the formation was first born. It was first done by a trumpet player who just happened to be in the right place at the right time during the first script ohio. After a few games of this happening, director of the OSUMB Eugene Weigel, decided that it would be interesting to have a Sousaphone march out to dot. The rest is history. The actual stut has evolved from marching into an actual strut like that of the drum major.
I dotted last year at the Penn State vs Ohio State game, and it's an incredible honor. I don't think in all of my future audiences as a player/teacher that I'll ever have 105,000 fans screaming at the top of their lungs for me. I even got to be on ABC national television when I did it, with my name at the bottom of the screen, as well as Brent Musberger saying my name and talking about the traditon. It's definitely something that I can be proud to tell my kids about, and neat to show people the picture of the script I'll have on the wall in my bandroom. It definitely helps our sousaphone tryout numbers for the band as well. We had almost 70 Sousa's try out for 28 spots this year. Dotting the "i" is always a good recruitment tool for sousas to try out for our band.