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Not everyone gets a personal invitation to the Super Bowl.
But Carol Stream’s Tim Camper and the Marching Hundred of Indiana University got exactly that. In fact, the marching band will have the field all to itself Sunday for about five pre-game minutes.
The IU marching band has seen its fair share of bowl games over the years, but not the granddaddy of them all — until now.
Normally, the band isn’t used to much post-season action while playing for the Big Ten Indiana Hoosiers, who went 1-11 this season, but the nearby Indianapolis Colts have a habit of asking the Marching Hundred to play during an occasional halftime show. So when the NFL asked the hosts of this year’s big game who might fill a five-minute, pre-game slot before the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants in Indianapolis, Colts officials had a go-to group of entertainers.
The band has a final practice on Saturday to iron out the kinks, but Camper said he and the band have been practicing for hours in preparation to share the field with football superstars Eli Manning and Tom Brady.
This kind of news calls for a grand announcement, and long-time IU Band Director David Woodley did just that at the group’s end-of-the-season banquet in early December. Even before the news broke, some band members had a sneaking suspicion the season wasn’t quite over.
“At first it was disbelief,” Camper said when Woodley shared news about the Super Bowl. “Then we realized that he was telling the truth and everyone started cheering.”
Camper, a second-year anthropology major and aspiring archaeologist, couldn’t be more excited, even though he said he feels out of place among musicians more talented than himself.
Camper plays the mellophone, which is similar to the French horn. To give more visual aid, he said the instrument is “like an oversized trumpet.”
His musical journey began in fifth grade with the French horn. When he joined the Glenbard North High School marching band, he switched to the more marching-friendly mellophone.
When other children his age lost interest in playing music, he kept the hobby alive. Now, some would certainly say it paid off. In his dad’s words, the Super Bowl performance is an opportunity of a lifetime. And although Camper is no lifetime musician, this will be quite a musical peak.
Not everyone gets a personal invitation to the Super Bowl.
But Carol Stream’s Tim Camper and the Marching Hundred of Indiana University got exactly that. In fact, the marching band will have the field all to itself Sunday for about five pre-game minutes.
The IU marching band has seen its fair share of bowl games over the years, but not the granddaddy of them all — until now.
Normally, the band isn’t used to much post-season action while playing for the Big Ten Indiana Hoosiers, who went 1-11 this season, but the nearby Indianapolis Colts have a habit of asking the Marching Hundred to play during an occasional halftime show. So when the NFL asked the hosts of this year’s big game who might fill a five-minute, pre-game slot before the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants in Indianapolis, Colts officials had a go-to group of entertainers.
The band has a final practice on Saturday to iron out the kinks, but Camper said he and the band have been practicing for hours in preparation to share the field with football superstars Eli Manning and Tom Brady.
This kind of news calls for a grand announcement, and long-time IU Band Director David Woodley did just that at the group’s end-of-the-season banquet in early December. Even before the news broke, some band members had a sneaking suspicion the season wasn’t quite over.
“At first it was disbelief,” Camper said when Woodley shared news about the Super Bowl. “Then we realized that he was telling the truth and everyone started cheering.”
Camper, a second-year anthropology major and aspiring archaeologist, couldn’t be more excited, even though he said he feels out of place among musicians more talented than himself.
Camper plays the mellophone, which is similar to the French horn. To give more visual aid, he said the instrument is “like an oversized trumpet.”
His musical journey began in fifth grade with the French horn. When he joined the Glenbard North High School marching band, he switched to the more marching-friendly mellophone.
When other children his age lost interest in playing music, he kept the hobby alive. Now, some would certainly say it paid off. In his dad’s words, the Super Bowl performance is an opportunity of a lifetime. And although Camper is no lifetime musician, this will be quite a musical peak.
Not surprisingly, news about Camper’s trip to the bowl spread like a fourth-quarter blitz in Carol Stream, first by a university news release, then a couple of news stories, all pushed around town through Facebook news feeds.
And Camper’s parents, Tim and Joan, also are excited — excited enough, Camper said, to “leak” the story to the press.
On Sunday, Camper said the band will use its five-minute slot to play Indiana native John Mellencamp’s “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” and the Marching Hundred’s bread-and-butter “Sing, Sing, Sing” performance.
And the 300-member group is a marching band, after all, so its members will form a living NFL logo and spell out “Super Bowl 47” during the show.
However, those watching on TV won’t get the chance to see the performance. A commercial break is planned during the band’s action.
Still, the elder Camper said he and others around Carol Stream are hoping NBC or someone in the stands puts the show on YouTube, or that maybe the NFL will share a copy of the performance with the university.
Unfortunately for the Marching Hundred, its members likely won’t see much of the Super Bowl after their performance except for on a few TVs in a room beneath the stands of Lucas Oil Stadium.
Regardless, perhaps the only thing that could make this Super Bowl Sunday better for the band is if Madonna joins them for chips and soda after her halftime performance.
