Huckaby: Redcoat Marching Band one of great joys of Georgia home games

If you have ever been to a football game in Sanford Stadium, at least in the last half-century or so, you have heard Dr. Tom Jackson make that admonishment at the beginning of halftime. If you heeded his advice you were treated to a performance by “the finest band in the land, the University of Georgia Red Coat Band.”

The Redcoat Marching Band originated in 1905, long before Tom Jackson arrived on campus at UGA from his home in LaGrange. At its inception the band was part of the military department and featured a modest 20 cadets. The bands’ first appearance at an athletic event was not at a football game, but rather a baseball game, against Clemson.

According to Dr. Jackson, the band wore red coats to counter the yellow jackets that their hated rivals from North Avenue in Atlanta wore. That’s a good enough reason for me.

I myself began attending games in Sanford Stadium in the 1960s and loved watching the band take the field at halftime and before games. Back in those days I also enjoyed watching the boys from the Athens Y play football before the games as well, but the YMCA football teams didn’t have majorettes or an auxiliary corps to capture my attention. The band did, along with hundreds of musicians.

Back in those days Coach Vince Dooley was a great supporter of the band. He called them the “Heart of the Bulldog Spirit,” and I remember that he always made a point of complimenting the band on his Sunday afternoon television show. He would often mention the fact that he didn’t get to see the halftime show because he was busy in the locker room, so he would go and watch the band’s dress rehearsal on a weekday afternoon.

When I was a student at Georgia, I was smitten by a particular band member, solo twirler Cookie French. When I was a manager of the varsity basketball team she would often practice in the coliseum while the team was scrimmaging and more than once I got in trouble with Coach Ken Rosemond because I was paying more attention to Cookie’s high tosses of the baton than my managerial duties.

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It was also during my tenure as an undergraduate student that the band formerly known as the “Dixie Redcoat Marching Band” dropped the word Dixie from its name. The change prompted Atlanta radio personality Ludlow Porch to suggest, tongue in cheek, that the band drop the color red because it stood for communism, the term Redcoat for fear of offending descendants of American patriots who suffered at the hands of British soldiers, and word band because of something to do with Poncho Villa and his band of desperados, leaving the group with only the designation “the.”  Luckily, Ludlow’s suggestions failed to gain traction, so we still get to hear Dr. Tom’s golden Southern drawl proclaiming “the Redcoats are coming.”

To this day I enjoy the band and savor all of their traditions. When I can tear my lovely wife, Lisa, away from our tailgate in time to attend the pregame Dawg Walk, I love to position myself near the Tate Center in time to see a band member begin the cheer “I had a little rooster.”

But I do love hearing the band chant, “Once a Dawg, always a Dawg, how sweet it is!” at the conclusion of their post-game show.

I love everything about the group of more than 400 free-spirited students that have brought me so much joy over the past 60 years of my life. They put in many, many hours of preparation each week to perfect an eight-minute show.

What I don’t like is the fact that for the last home game against Samford, the Redcoat band was not allowed to perform. Rain was in the forecast and whoever makes such decisions was concerned that the 400 performers would damage the turf on Dooley field. So, the Redcoats played in the stands and those who look forward to the spectacle they provide were disappointed.

But perhaps Mother Nature will be more cooperative next week when Kent State comes to town. If you are lucky enough to be in attendance, when Tom Jackson directs you to keep your seats at halftime, I advise you to do so. You won’t be disappointed.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia's Redcoat Marching Band adds to the UGA home game experience