The Minnesota Marching Band performing on the Memoial Stadium field in 1964. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

That will change next fall when the band moves into its new home at TCF Bank Stadium, which will open on September 12, 2009. The 20,000 square feet reserved for the band—an area roughly the size of four basketball courts— will triple the band’s current space. In addition to a larger and acoustically improved rehearsal hall, the band’s new home will include a lobby with room to showcase historic photographs and instruments, better locker rooms, and built-in technology that allows the band to film and review its performances.

Marching band director Tim Diem says proximity to the playing field will give the band more time to rehearse. Instead of a six-block walk from the instrument storage area in Northrop over to Bierman Field for outdoor marching band practice, the trip will be just a few steps. “We’ll finally be able to have both indoor and outdoor rehearsals in the same day,” he says. Perhaps more important, the new space is truly—and solely—the band’s.

Drum major Aaron Marks thinks the change will be a moving experience in more than one way. “Nothing excites me more than the opportunity to revive the traditions that surround on-campus football,” he says. “I am anxiously awaiting the first home game, when this band will march—not bus—into its own on-campus stadium.”

Ann Ulring, development officer in the College of Liberal Arts, says the new space helps highlight the important role the band plays for the school. “They are the ambassadors for the University,” she says. “Every time they go into public, they shine a bright light on the University.”

The University will seek to raise $2.5 million for the new facility, half of which will be matched by a fund set up by University President Bob Bruininks. A full $1.25 million of the money raised will be designated for the Marching into the Future–Scholarship Fund, which will provide leadership scholarships for marching band students. The other half will be designated for the Marching into the Future–Band Facility Fund to build the new space. The space, which also houses smaller rehearsal rooms that can double as classrooms, will be able to hold classes for students at the School of Music and rehearsals for the Band Alumni Society. “The new space will be used all year by a large number of grateful, and in my mind very deserving, students and alumni,” says Diem. “And we’ll have a wonderful space that band members [and alumni], young and old, can come home to.”

While everyone is looking forward to the new home, drum major Marks says band members are well aware of the history they’ll be leaving behind. “It will be extremely difficult to say goodbye to Northrop Auditorium after this season,” says Marks. “But TCF Bank Stadium will be a place that brings people together and rekindles Gopher spirit.” And that will be music to everyone’s ears.

To contribute to the Marching into the Future funds go to www.music.umn.edu/marchingband.
—Erin Peterson

Sports Notebook
Gopher sports news and notes
Comcast began carrying the Big Ten Network (BTN) as part of its expanded basic level of service in mid-August, ending a stalemate between the two parties that began prior to the launch of the BTN last August. The agreement allows Comcast to move the network from its expanded basic level to a digital tier in spring 2009. The BTN is also carried on DirecTV and a number of other regional cable and satellite systems. The BTN will televise a number of Gopher games in a variety of fall sports. For a complete schedule, go to www.bigtennetwork.com.

The College Gymnastics Association named seven University of Minnesota gymnasts All-America Scholar-Athletes for the 2008 season. Sophomores Aaron Fortunato and Thomas O’Brien, along with senior Kyle True (B.S. ’08), earned first-team honors for achieving grade point averages of 3.5 and better. Second team honors for grade point averages between 3.2 and 3.499 went to senior Sergei Dmitriev, junior Kit Beikmann, and sophomores Colin McGuire and Adam Reichow.

Barbora Spotakova became the first Golden Gopher to win a medal in the Olympic games when she captured gold in the javelin in Beijing. Spotakova, who was an All- American at the University of Minnesota, competed for the Czech Republic. Five other former or current Gophers also competed in the Beijing Olympics, including triple jumper Shani Marks (B.A. ’02, M.Ed. ’03), volleyball player Lindsey Berg (B.A. ’01), and beach volleyball player Nicole Branagh for Team USA and current Gopher Jilian Tyler and former Gopher Mike Brown who swam for the Canadian Olympic team. Another Gopher athlete, sprinter Ibrahim Kabia, was set to compete for his native Sierra Leone, but found out a week prior to the Games that the country’s athletic association would allow only their home-based athletes to compete. Kabia left the country seven years ago.
—Cynthia Scott