 Tenor Drummers Matt Altmire, Jason Kim and Chris Thompson show the effects of a 100 degree day, but are having a great time at the reception hosted by the Texas Band After the game. |
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A Message From Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma
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Greetings from Westwood! It isn't often that current band members have an opportunity to give feedback to the alumni who support us year in and year out. So, we thought we would write a letter for the newsletter that gave you an idea of what our traveling opportunities have meant to us. Our names are Jeff and Tori. We are the current Presidents of the National Honorary Band Fraternity and Sorority, Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma, for the 1997 1998 schoolyear. Both of us were fortunate enough to travel with the band to Austin in September for the Texas football game. The trip was a ton of fun! Neither of us had ever traveled outside of California for a regular season football game and being a part of a new football environment, outside of the PAC-IO, was really exciting. The game itself had the usual pregame hype and taunting from the Texas faithful....but after the first quarter, it took a strange turn in our favor. You see, our team could not stop scoring! Just when we thought we were going to take a break and play defense for a while, the ball was intercepted and run back to the 1 yard line. We beat the living daylights out of the longhorns and we couldn't stop cheering/laughing/playing till our lips fell off. A new phrase was even coined on that trip which helped us to 10 straight victories beginning with the Texas game - that was simply SCORE AT WILL . Final score : UCLA 66 - Texas 3 (Okay, so we let them have ONE field goal) Another really great thing about the trip was the hospitality. The state of Texas has some of the best and biggest Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma chapters around. Texas University is no different. Their respective chapters greeted our pep band on game day with an invitation to a pregame barbecue. The temperature during gameday was in the 90's easily....however, their KKPsi/TBS members brought over periodically during the game water, Hawaiian punch, apples, and wet towels. |
They even did all of this despite having to sit through their school's second worst loss ever at home. We almost felt guilty after the game was over. This next September, though, our respective KKPsi/TBS chapters plan to give them the same kid of reception no matter the score when they visit the Rose Bowl in September of 1998. The trip was a great way to give a Texas a little navor of UCLA. The band practically took over a club after the game on Saturday night on Austin's "Sixth Street". All Texas fans that were there congratulated us on our big win and wished us a pleasant rest of our stay in Austin. Texas band members gave us a full tour of their music building including the trophy room of KKPsi and TBS. We were able to hang out with them for about an hour after the game in their social hall and trade stories. Everyone from their band seemed so pleased that we were there. I know it is difficult to completely keep in touch with an organiration that you were once a part of. However. we want you to know that your continuing support, particularly the members of the Solid Gold Sound Club, has not gone unappreciated. This exciting three day trip would not have been possible without you. It is important to us that the UCLA Band become more noticeable away from the Rose Bowl. This was one trip that definitely took a step in that direction....and we had a blast while we were there! Sincerely, Jeff Panos 4th Year Trumpet - Senior Chemistry Major President - KKPsi jpanos@ucla.edu Tori Taylor 3rd Year Horn - Junior Music Education Major President- TBS vataylor@ucla.edu |
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