For University of Iowa band, going to Rose Bowl 'equivalent of going to the championship'

IOWA CITY — When it comes to trumpets and pom poms and golden girls, the Rose Bowl is the crown jewel.

'As far as marching bands, it's the equivalent of going to the championship for us,' said University of Iowa marching band manager Jack Frank, a super senior and trombone section leader who never imagined getting to play his final Hawkeye football game at 'the granddaddy of them all.'

Nearly every UI band member — 243 players, including a few reserves — is headed to Pasadena for a week of Rose Bowl-related performances and practices. The Athletic Department also is sending all 40 members of its spirit squads, including cheerleaders, the dance team, UI's golden girl and the Herky mascot.

The total band and spirit contingent — including coaches and spouses — is about 330, all of whom will be flying on a chartered plane out of Cedar Rapids on Dec. 29 and catching a return flight the night of the New Year's Day game, said Kevin Kastens, professor and associate director of bands.

The band equipment is going by truck, leaving Des Moines on Saturday.

Costs associated with the travel were not immediately disclosed but Kastens said the university gets a bit bigger budget for the Rose Bowl than for other games.

'The spirit squad doesn't always take the entire group, but we are able to do so on this trip,' he said. 'It's the Rose Bowl. There's a higher payout and more expense money available.'

It's quite the reward for students who spend hours upon hours practicing and performing for little academic credit, he said. Kastens said he has been teaching or leading collegiate bands for 24 years — including the past 18 years at Iowa — and hasn't yet experienced the coveted Rose Bowl.

The band is lined up for three pap rally-type performances and three rehearsals in the days before the game. On Jan. 1, the band and spirit squads will have the physically intense charge of leaving their hotel at 5:30 a.m., marching in the 5.5-mile Tournament of Roses parade and stopping by the Hawkeye tailgate before playing a pregame routine, the national anthem and halftime.

The marching band for Stanford University — Iowa's Rose Bowl opponent — also will play in the parade, before the game and at half time — although not in conjunction with Iowa.

Iowa won the chance to play the national anthem because the Hawkeyes are ranked higher in national polls, Kastens said.

Part of what makes the Rose Bowl so prestigious for marching bands is the parade, which Kastens said nine television networks from around the world cover.

During the halftime performance, each band is guaranteed two minutes of airtime, which Kastens said is 'very rare.'

Within the UI band ranks, the Rose Bowl over the years had obtained a sort of legendary, unattainable status, said band manager Frank, originally from Marion.

'People in the band have been saying for years, as a joke, 'Oh, if we go to the Rose Bowl, I will do this, or I will do that,'' he said. 'Now people are chewing on those words a bit.'

Like, for example, the members who vowed to get tattoos if they ever played in the Rose Bowl. They now are planning such an outing.

'It's that big of a deal if you're a part of a band that got to go,' he said. 'It's the pinnacle of band.'

When band members learned of their Rose Bowl destiny, they quickly launched extra parade preparations, Frank said.

'A lot of the band has been going to the gym to get in shape,' he said. 'We've had longer rehearsals, and we are planning the meals we are going to eat to make sure we are as prepared as we can be to look really, really good.'

As Iowa's baton-twirling golden girl, Whittney Seckar-Anderson said she knows that many eyes will be on her during the parade and game-time performances. And she, too, has been practicing a little longer and harder to make sure she can maintain for the longest parade she's ever marched.

'There is a little bit more pressure,' she said. 'There are 250 other people in the band, but I stick out because I'm the only one with the batons and the sparkly costume.'

In her fourth year at Iowa, Seckar-Anderson said this bowl feels different from the others. She's among the group considering a flowery tattoo in remembrance.

'It's so prestigious and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,' she said. 'So I might do that.'