I went to high school in Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth area), graduating in 1989. I was in the marching band.
During my three years in high school, no members of the varsity football team were also members of the marching band, so the issue never came up. I don’t know what would have happened if a student had really wanted to do both.
The time commitment to do both football and marching band would have been considerable, but (I suspect) possible by somebody sufficiently dedicated. Band practices were generally in the morning (starting before school and continuing into the first class period), while football practice began in the final period and continued after the school day ended.
My guess is that the football staff would have had a bigger problem with it than the band staff, but that’s mere supposition. UncleRojelio perfectly sums up the band staff’s attitude towards halftime performances:
If a guy’s going to be marching at the contests, the band director is going to want him out on the field during the halftime “live practices.”
Cleveland, OH. I’m absolutely certain that if a football player had wanted to join the band and go out at halftime, the band would have allowed it: We were willing to accept anything that got warm bodies out there on the field holding an instrument (actually playing it was preferred but optional). I do not know if the football powers that be would have allowed it. And never once, to my knowledge, did the concept even remotely occur to anyone to ask.
I’m from Peoria, which isn’t exactly rural Illinois (and even then there’s big differences between rural Illinois depending on how far south you are), but I’ve never even heard of football players being in marching band. And I went to band competitions all around. The only places I could see this happening were those tiny tiny schools that have about 5 people in the band.
And like others said, there were very few athletes in band because of scheduling conflicts.
Football and marching band were mutually exclusive activities at my school because both required full time commitment. Marching Band wasn’t quite as uncool as it is popularly portrayed, and indeed several guys who could have played football joined the band instead. It was partly due to the fact that our football time was horrible (four badly losing seasons while I was in HS) while our marching band regularly won their regional conference (3 championships, 1 second place finish).
My Dad claims that he did this in high school. This would have been in the late 50’s.
My high school left this up to the football coach’s discretion. Unofficially, he made it very clear that any player wanting to get off the bench needed to quit the band.
At my school, a lot of band members played football specifically to get out of having to participate in marching band. Band was considered fairly cool but it was all about the jazz band, small combos and soloing. Marching band was the necessary evil of the band community and was to be avoided at all costs.
Another NE Ohio school here, and my marching-band daughter remembers 3 different years where a football player was also in band, and, yes, they are allowed to march during half time without changing into band uniforms.
There were no football players in my band in high school. Orinda, California, late 70’s. I don’t know if they would have been allowed to march had they been in the football team, uniforms or no.
Likewise, no basketball, baseball, soccer, water polo or any other jock-like activities were represented in the band, orchestra (and maybe even chorus, but I didn’t sing in high school, so I’m not sure about that).
Early to mid 80s, New Jersey. Very little overlap between band and football. If they were is JV they could do both. Once they made varsity there was no way. Both practiced at the same time. There were a couple of football players that were in concert band after football was over.
No. There were two or three football players in the band, but they were only football players when they were at football games. They would still do other band things from time to time during football season, and they were in the concert band for the other 3/4 of the year, but they would never ever play their instruments during football games.
Not in high school. Band and male athletics were both first period activities. You could not have both on your class schedule. It was however possible in junior high, and it would just meant that you’d have people marching in football jerseys. It kinda seemed weird during contests when they’d actually have to wear the proper uniform.
And, nowadays, band isn’t even really band anymore at high school: the new band director is more concerned with marching than with playing, and it shows. He deceives people by taking them to easy conferences, but the band is constantly out of tune.
We had a couple football players marching with the band in the halftime show. They were still in their shoulder pads.
The band did some serious competition and complex marching routines. The one football player who played sax was out in the middle of it. Another who was a percussionist was pretty much stationary on the sideline with his setup.
I’m from the same area as Iggy and it definitely wasn’t unheard of for there to be football players marching with the band, though not super-common. There were one or two football players in my high school band over the course of my 4 years, mostly tuba players. They marched in their football uniforms during the games. Most of the area high schools would have one or two football players in their bands too, all in their football pads and jerseys. I haven’t been back to a game since 2004, so I don’t know if this holds true still, but I suspect it does.
The ones splitting time between football and the band at my high school weren’t really stars in either, so I think they were a bit more able to balance the demands. Most of the band stuff took place during band camp and during class, while athletics were always in the afternoon after school. We had afternoon practices, but they weren’t daily and there seemed to be a lot of mutual coordination of schedules between the football coach and the band director.
I’m with Heart of Dorkness. It’s absolutely inconceivable to me that a football player would be willing to participate in marching band under any circumstances whatsoever. I was not especially cool in high school, but at least I wasn’t in the marching band!!
I went to high school in Missouri in the 80s/90s. For the record, until reading this thread I’d never even heard about marching band competitions. I’m still trying to figure that out.
We were a competitive (DCI-style routines) in WV in the early-mid 1990s. There were no football players in the marching band, I’d say at least nominally due to the practice schedules (three weeks in the summer, 3 days a week after school, etc.) We did have on cheerleader that cheered AND marched (playing bass drum, nonetheless) which was a lot of work.
Our marching band was a lot more successful than our football team. We had over 250 members and my senior year was the end of a 12 winning streak. The band was serious business and a source of pride in our town. There were many competitions during the year and we travelled across the country and overseas to compete. Fast forward to now and the football team is a powerhouse and the band is pathetic.
Northern California, class of 1986. We had one football player in the band for two of the years that I was in high school. He did not march at football games, but did when we did parades etc.