The band scrambles into formation to spell out "Brown" on the field. The Brown Band, a beloved fixture at both athletic events and campus celebrations, is celebrating its centennial this year.
Marching to the beat of their own drum: Brown Band celebrates 100 years
To mark the band’s centennial, generations of Brunonians reflect on the harmonious history, quick-witted spirit and enduring traditions of a singular 100-year-old student-led organization.
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Brown Band Head Conductor Kanayo Duru led a procession of more than 250 band members and alumni as they set out to perform the largest halftime show in the band's 100-year history. Photos by Nick Dentamaro/Brown University
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Nearly 200 band alumni spanning seven decades performed in the halftime show during Brown's first home game against rival Harvard, an effort organized to celebrate the Brown Band's centennial.
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“It’s the shared experience of band that binds all these people together and enabled over 250 people who hadn’t necessarily ever played together to play together as a single cohesive unit,” said band advisor Karen Mellor, a member of Brown’s Class of 1982 and a former band percussionist.
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There were more performers than there were instruments, so dozens of alumni, like Class of 1966 graduate Ian Haberman, played along with kazoos.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — When first-year Brown University student Irving Harris attended his first football game, he sat in the wooden stands of Andrews Field, eagerly awaiting an appearance by the University marching band.
It was 1924, and bands were already a popular part of collegiate athletics to rally enthusiasm for players and fans alike. As the story goes, when Harris turned to ask a friend when the performance would start, he was flabbergasted to learn there wouldn’t be one — rather, the band at Brown was an informal group of student musicians who performed infrequently at a handful of events.
Irving Harris, seen here in 1927 standing in front of modern-day Friedman Hall, and later in 1964, founded the Brown Band 100 years ago.
At that, Harris swiftly campaigned to establish the Brown Band. One hundred years later, it’s one of the oldest student-led organizations on campus and is a staple at athletics events, campus celebrations and University milestones.
“I’ve been asked before what [Irving Harris] would say of the band today, and I can tell you with near certainty after years of research, and even talking to one of his family members, that I think he would absolutely adore it,” said Class of 2019 alumnus and former band percussionist Sean Briody, who recently published a book about the band, “The Brown University Band: An Ever True History.”
Harris returned to Brown to celebrate the band’s 40th and 50th anniversaries, in 1964 and 1974, respectively, and stayed in contact with the band until his death in 1976, Briody said.
Even though the world has transformed in innumerable ways since Fall 1924, the palpable, enthusiastic spirit of the Brown Band has remained unchanged.
“I think we all really love supporting Brown and its sports, cheering on the school and creating that spirit,” said Kanayo Duru, head conductor of the Brown Band. “It’s just a great time."
A ‘big Brown Band family’ for life
In 2024-25, the Brown Band is ringing in 100 years with the fanfare befitting a band. It kicked off its centennial year with a band alumni reunion and performance at the Brown football team’s first home game against rival Harvard, in which the Bears secured a thrilling 31-28 win against the Crimson.
At the game, nearly 200 band alumni spanning seven decades reunited and joined current band members to perform a halftime show on Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium. With more than 250 participants, it was likely the largest Brown Band performance in history, according to band advisor and percussion coach Karen Mellor, a member of Brown’s Class of 1982 and a former band percussionist.
A large section of the stadium seats were reserved for the 250 band members past and present who played in the Brown Band's centennial halftime show.
“It’s the shared experience of band that binds all these people together and enabled over 250 people who hadn’t necessarily ever played together to play together as a single cohesive unit,” Mellor said. “And even for people who’ve never met, they’re all part of the big Brown Band family.”
That was certainly the case for Brown Class of 1977 graduate Don Siegel, who played snare drum in the Brown Band and participated in the band reunion and alumni halftime show.
“Unlike simply going to a reunion… where it’s all about a past that doesn’t exist anymore and you can’t go back and they are all just memories, this reunion was just the opposite,” Siegel said. “We realized that all that stuff still does exist — the same Brown songs, the drum cadences, the cowbell, the buttons, the uncoordinated marching, the rowdy bus songs, the singing, the feeling part of something. It’s not just a memory… in 2024, 50 years later, it’s just like it was then.”
The Brown Band, donning skates for its very first ice show in 1970, forms a heart on the rink.
The Brown Band has yielded lifelong friendships, and even true love.
“I’d venture to say there are more marriages or partnerships coming out of the band than any other student-led organization,” Mellor said. “We had well over a dozen band couples at the reunion spanning the decades.”
Kenneth Sloan and Christine Curcio, members of the Class of 1969 and 1972, respectively, are one of those couples.
Curcio was one of three first-year women who visited the Brown Band board in the spring of 1969 to request that women be allowed to join. The trio was successful, and a few months later, Curcio met Sloan at a recruiting table for the band. They’ve been together for 55 years, and the couple returns to Brown to take part in the band alumni’s annual performance during ice hockey season.
“Brunonians always say we’re ‘Ever True,’ but when I stop to think about it, I really believe that the band is one of the best examples of that,” Briody said. “It’s all about loyalty. The band alumni, who were so loyal as students and band members during their time here, come back and they’re still just as loyal.”
Traditions, with a touch of tomfoolery
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A Brown student dons a Bruno mascot suit, while the band members in the background are dressed in a different type of costume.
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A band member playfully gives bunny ears to former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci, Jr. during a Brown football game.
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But Buddy Cianci was a fan, calling the Brown Band the "best in the Ivy League and world" and signing off as a cowbell player in this signed photo featuring band advisor and percussion coach Karen Mellor.
Unlike traditional, corps-style marching bands, the Brown Band is a scramble band. Rather than forming intricate, geometric formations, the band “scrambles” across the field, creating pictures that accompany a satirical, humorous script read aloud by an announcer.
That cheeky sense of humor sets the Brown Band apart, according to Briody, who served as one of the band’s historians during his time at Brown. He first set out to record a comprehensive history of the band as part of his senior thesis. Five years after his graduation from Brown, Briody published his book in early 2024, just in time for the band’s centennial.
Digging into halftime show scripts from decades past, he observed that humor underpinned the writing. By poking fun at current events, the band offered moments of levity and laughter, especially during contentious times, he said.
“Even when I was in the band in 2016, we’d have these funny scripts about Trump, Clinton, things like that,” Briody said. “And when I went deeper, going into the ’60s and ’70s, I saw these very similar script references about LBJ and Goldwater. “
For decades, the band has created custom buttons for each football game, emblazoned with quips, inside jokes and pithy catchphrases that lightly rib the rival teams — like “I’ve got a fever and the only prescription is less Cornell,” for the Big Red, “Legally Bland” for the Harvard Crimson, and “Why you always lion?” for the Columbia Lions.
Brown Band creates a custom button for each football game. Not every band alumni collects them, but almost everyone has a favorite. Class of 1998 alumna Jennifer Ragsdale, left, said hers is “Gregorian Champs” — an ode to former Brown University President Vartan Gregorian.
A collection of hundreds of those buttons and other historical Brown Band artifacts gathered by Assistant Director for the John Hay Library and University Archivist Jennifer Betts — like the first band sweater worn by founder Irving Harris — were on display at a band alumni gala held after Brown’s Sept. 28 game against Harvard.
In his research, Briody also discovered a history of playful pranks, like messing with the opponent by building a 15-foot-tall bass drum for a 1969 game against Harvard, which boasted its own 8-foot-tall bass drum dubbed “Big Bertha” — or the infamous 1973 “Foxboro Four” incident, in which four band members dressed up like news reporters and convinced the Harvard band that they wanted to record news footage of Big Bertha. Instead, they loaded it into the back of a pickup truck and attempted to haul it back to Brown, before getting stopped by Massachusetts State Police halfway down Interstate 95.
The Brown Band built its own 15-foot-tall bass drum in 1969, assembling it in the lower level of Faunce House the night before a football game against rival Harvard.
These are the types of stories that solidify the band’s fun, light-hearted canon, said Briody, who interviewed band alumni from the 1950s up through the 2000s for his book.
“Band alumni always tell great stories,” Briody said. “These are the things that you just don’t find when you’re looking through old Brown Daily Herald issues or old letters from the band. I never would have known about these stories if somebody had not brought them up.”
Marching through the present, into the future
Today, the Brown Band performs at every home football game and most away games during the fall, and at men’s and women’s basketball games throughout the season. In the winter, band members trade their signature brown blazers and sensible shoes for rugby sweaters and skates, taking to the rink to support the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams as the world’s only collegiate band to perform on ice.
They’re not afraid of a little mud, either, said Jillian Belluck, a senior who plays flute in the band, recalling a memorable band performance at a rugby game in Fall 2022. It was pouring rain, the pitch was a mess, and the band was slipping and sliding around the muck.
“It obviously wasn’t the ideal halftime performance, but the rugby team was so excited that we were there cheering them on,” Belluck said. “It reminded me of why we do this. It reminded me that we’re a very visible organization around campus, and people really do appreciate the music that we play and the joy that we bring to every performance.”
The Brown Band became a club within the University’s Division of Athletics and Recreation in 2023, formalizing the long-standing relationship between the band and the teams it supports. It’s also a part of the Brown University Sports Foundation’s Athletics Annual Fund, which helps provide additional funding for expenses like members’ travel to away games.
“The band has always been an integral part of so many meaningful moments on our campus, and they have truly enhanced the athletics experience at Brown for our student-athletes, coaches and fans,” Vice President for Athletics and Recreation Grace Calhoun said.
The Brown Band’s centennial commemorations will continue into 2025 with an alumni ice show slated for February. And ever true to its annual tradition, the band will lead a procession through College Hill as part of Brown’s 257th Commencement and Reunion Weekend in May.
For members present and past, their hope is that the Brown Band will endure and celebrate its bicentennial in 2124. To Belluck, it’s easy to envision the band marching on for another hundred years, singing and playing its traditional songs, making buttons and spreading joy.
“Regardless of who’s in the band, there will always be those core elements: the spirit, the goofiness, the love of music,” she said.
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