FAMU plays minus band

No halftime show at first home game.

TALLAHASSEE — As Florida A&M’s Marching 100 quick-stepped across the grass, the stadium announcer’s voice would boom through the speakers to remind those in the stands that no one could match the show they were watching: “Often imitated, never duplicated.”

This season, the words more commonly used to describe FAMU’s famed marching band, which has performed at highprofile events like the Super Bowl, are “disgraced” and “suspended.” Saturday marked the school’s first football game in decades without a halftime show of elaborate dances, booming percussion and thundering brass.

The band will be absent for the entire academic year as part of the fallout from the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion. The Atlanta-area resident died following a hazing ritual that took place following FAMU’s last football game of 2011.

Twelve former band members have been charged with felony hazing in connection with Champion’s beating. All have pleaded not guilty.

The scandal has nearly paralyzed the school. The band has been suspended, and the longtime band director and university president have resigned. The school is being sued by Champion’s parents, who say university officials ignored a culture of hazing.

University officials have responded by putting in a long line of new policies, including new requirements for band membership and new requirements for all students at the school.

More immediately, the university is trying to figure out how to entertain a fan base accustomed to dancing in the stands as the band played. They have turned to rappers, high school bands and D Js in an attempt to keep up attendance.

“Around here the band was everything,” said Tracy Garrison, a native of Tallahassee who was tailgating outside of Bragg Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

Al Lawson, an alumnus of FAMU and former state legislator, said the absence of the band had “left a void,” and he was unsure the university could fill it.

“A lot of the fans as long as I remember say, ’I don’t really come for the game but for the show at halftime,’” Lawson said

Lawson noted the university reached out in the weeks before the first home game by reaching out to alumni and those who own local businesses to encourage them to come to the game. Lawson said he even bought extra season tickets this year.

“The (National Football League) has proven you don’t need a band at halftime to draw fans,” he said.

Andre Brown, who lives in Tallahassee and has supported the team most of his life, acknowledged that it’s “hard when you lose the 12th man.”

But Brown said he hoped that people would show for the game anyway.