The Scottish Highlanders stand in front of Old Capitol on the University of Iowa campus, in a photo taken in either 1968 or 1969. (Scottish Highlanders Collection, University of Iowa Special Collections and Archives)

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The Hawkeye Marching Band once shared its halftime time slot with the world’s largest drum and bagpipe band: the University of Iowa Scottish Highlanders.

It’s been years since the group has performed, prompting two Gazette readers to write to Curious Iowa, a series that answers readers’ questions about our state and how it works.

A reader who grew up in Grundy County asked what happened to the group and why they no longer perform. Another reader, Mike Eischeid of West Union, wondered whether there was a chance of the Highlanders reassembling.

“A tradition reestablished, along with the salute to the Children’s Hospital, would really make the university stand out,” Eischeid wrote.

The Gazette dug through newspaper and University of Iowa archives and spoke with Heather Adamson Stockman, the de facto historian of the UI’s Scottish Highlanders to find the answers.

The original five University of Iowa Scottish Highlanders pipers, all of them ROTC students, were organized in February 1935 and began training in September 1936. Their first appearance in uniform came in January 1937 at the university’s Military Ball, and they played at Iowa home football games beginning in 1938. (Frederick W. Kent Collection of Photographs, University of Iowa Special Collections and Archives)

Why did the University of Iowa have a bagpipe band?

Pipe Major William L. Adamson, his wife, Frances, and their son, Billy, were featured in The Gazette on May 21, 1939. Adamson, then 30, led the University of Iowa Highlanders to the World's Fair in New York City in June 1939. Adamson directed the bagpipe band from 1939 until his death in 1965. (Gazette archives)

The “father” of the UI Scottish Highlanders is Army Col. George F.N. Dailey. Dailey arrived at the UI’s Department of Military Science and Tactics in 1934. He wanted to form a marching unit but felt there were already too many drum and bugle corps.

Dailey, who had been a military attaché to a regiment in Scotland, was inspired to create a bagpipe band after watching the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo — a competition of bagpipe bands held at Edinburgh Castle. Enamored of the pageantry and music, Dailey set out to create his own band in Iowa.

Dailey recruited five ROTC members to the cause. The problem was that none of the members knew how to play the bagpipes. So Dailey sent one man to Toronto for a month of intensive bagpipe lessons and then had him teach the rest of the group.

According to the University of Iowa Special Collections and Archives, the Scottish Highlanders were organized by ROTC students in February 1935, with training starting in September 1936.

When that initial student group graduated, Dailey searched for a new director. In 1937, he recruited William L. “Bill” Adamson of Boston.

Adamson became the driving force that grew the Highlanders into the largest drum and bagpipe band in the world. He directed the band until his death in 1965, the year of the band’s peak membership of 113.

Heather Adamson Stockman stands in front of her University of Iowa Scottish Highlander memorabilia at her home in Iowa City on Feb. 3. Her father was the original director of the bagpipe band, and she wrote a book, "The State University of Iowa Scottish Highlanders: A Treasure in the Heartland," about the group's history. (Bailey Cichon/The Gazette)

Adamson was an experienced piper and highland dancer, and his father was a bagpipe maker. His parents emigrated from Scotland to the United States and raised their children in Scottish traditions. Early in life, Adamson had a polio episode, which weakened his left arm. He picked up the pipes at age 9.

“So his father thought, well, learn to play the bagpipes, you’ll have to use everything you’ve got,” Adamson Stockman, who is Adamson’s daughter, told The Gazette. “So that’s what he did, and he became quite accomplished.”

Adamson and Dailey recruited more college students for the band and worked to build a piper pipeline from City High School. In a Dec. 26, 2002, article in the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Dick Feddersen recalled the day the pair came to his school.

“It was so crowded, (students) were sitting in the window sills and the aisles. Col. Dailey marched in dressed up in an immaculate uniform with boots and spurs. Bill Adamson and a drummer played a few tunes, like ‘Cock o’ the North’ and ‘Scotland the Brave.’ We’d never heard a bagpipe before. Everybody went nuts and signed up.”

Students were recruited early so that they would have two years of practice before they arrived at the university.

“There isn’t anything worse than a guy learning how to play the bagpipe,” Feddersen said in 2002.

Joining the group also meant agreeing to attend the University of Iowa and enrolling in ROTC, a program that trains students to become commissioned officers in the U.S. armed forces.

The group’s first performance was at the Military Ball at the university in January 1937. They began playing at Iowa football games in 1938. In 1939, they performed in New York at the World’s Fair, the start of a long list of performances far from the cornfields of Iowa.

The University of Iowa Scottish Highlanders march in formation in the ballroom of the Hotel Astor in New York City on June 22, 1939. (Scottish Highlanders Collection, University of Iowa Special Collections and Archives)

Adamson’s wife, Frances, was among the highland dancers in the group. They performed the Scottish sword dance and reel of Tullock, but there was a twist to the group’s performance of the Highland fling.

A wooden platform was placed over the head of a bass drum. Then, a dancer would step onto the platform as six band members raised the drum and supported it on their shoulders. The dancer would then perform the Highland fling atop the drum. Invented by Adamson, the Drum Dance was a signature piece for the band and both Bill and Frances Adamson performed it.

Highlanders became all female during World War II

The band dwindled during World War II and by 1943, 71 of the 73 members had gone to serve in the war. That year, the Highlanders pivoted, becoming an all-women group.

Adamson Stockman said women playing the bagpipes was unheard of, with the sentiment being they were too “delicate” to do so. University of Iowa coeds, however, jumped at the opportunity. According to The Gazette, more than 200 women tried out for 55 spots. Until 1973, the Highlanders were an all-female band.

“It was considered a coup to be chosen, like making cheerleader or a sorority,” Margie DeKock, a former drum major for the band, told The Gazette in 1981. “The camaraderie was terrific. … It took a lot of time, but we loved it so much we were willing to work it into our already busy schedules.”

Heather Adamson Stockman points at President Dwight D. Eisenhower's name on a replica of a University of Iowa Scottish Highlanders drum head at her home in Iowa City on Feb. 3. As the bagpipe band traveled around the world, it had prominent figures sign the drum heads. The original drum heads are stored within the University of Iowa's archives. (Bailey Cichon/The Gazette)

Global spotlight, autographs on the bass drum

In 1952, the group took its first overseas trip to the British Isles. Over the years, the group performed at the White House, Madison Square Garden, the Tournament of Roses parade and beyond.

A beloved Scottish Highlanders tradition was asking prominent guests to sign the head of a bass drum. Three drum heads, now stored in the University of Iowa’s archives, feature signatures from world leaders, like Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon and Kennedy, and celebrities, like Ed Sullivan, Doc Severinsen, Jack Benny and Tommy Dorsey.

Through the Scottish Highlanders, the global spotlight shone brightly on the university.

“That was a plus for the university because the group served as ambassadors not only for the university, but the state of Iowa,” Adamson Stockman said, “and then when they traveled internationally, the United States.”

“They were so popular that if the woman was looking at a college or university, she chose Iowa with hopes of becoming a member.”

She said that though most members didn’t come in with knowledge on how to play the bagpipes, some continued to play after they graduated. One former member who continued playing the pipes switching to the tenor drum after her hands became arthritic, Adamson Stockman recalled.

“I think once it gets in your blood, it’s wonderful.”

The University of Iowa Scottish Highlanders march in the Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1, 1959. The Hawkeye football team then beat the California Golden Bears in the Rose Bowl game, 38-12. (Scottish Highlanders Collection, University of Iowa Special Collections and Archives)

Why did the group disband?

The year 1981 marked a year of massive changes for the group. Funding cuts led to the band’s entire $29,000 budget being cut. The band responded by registering as a student organization.

For years, the band had played at every home football game and at one away game. But in 1981, the band ended the tradition, citing harassment from fans.

“This has been going on the for the last 17 years now,” Mark Isaacs, then-drum major, told The Gazette that September. “It’s become a tradition to boo us whenever we come on the field and to throw apples and toilet paper at us. … It keeps getting worse and worse.”

That spring, plans were announced for the group to organize a nonprofit educational corporation called the Mid-America Center for the Scottish Performing Arts to raise money for the band. Country-western singer, Scotsman and piper Glen Campbell publicly gave support, although efforts petered out when then-Highlanders director Bruce Liberati left Iowa. Before doing so, he played the Scottish lament on his bagpipe on the steps of the Old Capitol, mourning the perceived end of the band.

Numbers dwindled over the following decades, and the band made its final appearance at the 2007 Halloween parade in Iowa City before disbanding in 2008.

“I think they had three members at the time,” Adamson Stockman said. “I remember meeting with the people that make decisions like that at the university and (expressed), yeah, let it. They’re not what they used to be, and if it’s just an interest group, that’s fine.”

In September 2011, the Highlanders reunited for a 75th anniversary celebration. The event was marked by the dedication of a permanent exhibit about the band at the UI Athletics Hall of Fame in Iowa City.

If You Go

What: Scottish Highlanders permanent exhibit

Where: UI Athletics Hall of Fame, 2425 Prairie Meadow Drive, Iowa City

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Noon to 5 p.m. Sundays during home football game weekends.

Details: View replicas of the iconic autographed drum heads and original uniforms, watch filmed performances and learn about the history of the State University of Iowa Scottish Highlanders. Free admission.

What did a Scottish Highlanders’ performance entail?

Heather Adamson Stockman of Iowa City points to a photo of her performing the Drum Dance as a University of Iowa Scottish Highlander at the August 1966 International Rotary Convention. The photo is included in Adamson Stockman's book, “The State University of Iowa Scottish Highlanders: A Treasure in the Heartland.” (Bailey Cichon/The Gazette)

During its heyday, though, the Highlanders would march onto a field in formation, perhaps doing pattern marching, before the highland dancers joined them.

Adamson Stockman remembered the music as not always being pretty. “There was a lot of squeaking going on … it’s not an easy instrument.”

The grand finale was the Drum Dance. Adamson Stockman followed in her parents’ footsteps, performing the Drum Dance after she joined the group.

“I can’t say I was ever frightened up there,” she said.

The group shared halftime with the Hawkeye Marching Band — Adamson Stockman said the bands had a “jolly rivalry.”

The drummers and bagpipers wore authentic regalia imported from Scotland.

The pipers’ uniforms were modeled after the regimental bagpipers in the 18th century, Adamson Stockman said. They wore a Royal Stewart tartan wool kilt, a navy blue woolen doublet (jacket), tall black ostrich feather busby with red and white dicing, and a belted, draped wrap called a plaid. They also wore a belted horsehair sporran, black and red argyle socks and white spats over their shoes.

Snare drummers wore green hunting Stewart tartan kilts with complimentary socks, white spats, crimson wool doublets and navy blue hats called glengarries with red and white dicing. Adamson Stockman said these doublets were patterned after regimental soldiers of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Bass and tenor drummers wore the same uniform but with authentic leopard skins over their doublets. The leopard skins served a dual purpose: to honor tradition and protect the uniforms.

Margie DeKock of Cedar Rapids (far right) is featured on the cover of an October 1960 American Airlines in-flight magazine that carried a story about the University of Iowa Scottish Highlanders, an all-female bagpipe and drum corps. DeCock was a drummer and drum major for the group for four years while she attended the University of Iowa. (Submitted)

“When we would travel internationally to Europe, the customs people just sweat bullets over (the leopard skins),” Adamson Stockman said.

The highland dancers wore dress Stewart tartan kilts with complimentary socks, red corduroy jabots with lace trim on the sleeves, and black wool balmoral bonnets. Their plaids were secured with a decorative brooch. They wore dance shoes called ghillies.

According to previous reporting by The Gazette, the Highlanders were not only the largest bagpipe band in the world, but possibly the most expensively attired one. A uniform was valued at $25,000.

A highland dancer with the University of Iowa Scottish Highlander shows a step.(George Black Collection, University Archives, University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections & Archives) — A highland dancer with the University of Iowa Scottish Highlanders shows a step. (George Black Collection, University Archives, University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections & Archives)

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