The Penn State Blue Band

The Penn State Blue Band is recognized as one of the nation's finest college marching bands. The talented musicians perform to capacity crowds in the 107,282-seat Beaver Stadium—home of the Penn State Nittany Lion football team.

History

• 1899 Six-member drum and bugle corps is initiated by a student.
• 1901 Board of Trustees member donates money to form brass band.
• 1913 The band is named the College Band.
• 1914 Wilfred O. "Tommy" Thompson becomes the first permanent director.
• 1923 New blue uniforms replace the brown military-style uniforms.
• 1939-1996 The Blue Band gains recognition.
• 1971 The first Drum Major "flip" was performed.
• 2004 The Blue Band moves into its first permanent home.
• 2005 The Blue Band is awarded the prestigious Sudler Trophy.
• 2005 Members of the band march in the Marc Jacobs fashion show in New York City.
• 2008 Making the Blue Band airs on public television.

Tradition

• The Blue Band has 310 members: 260 instrumentalists, 34 silks, 14 majorettes, a feature twirler, and a drum major.
• The Blue Band is the largest recognized student organization at Penn State's University Park campus.
• The Blue Band practices roughly nine hours per week.
• Band members perform the high-step march on gamedays—the thigh is parallel to the ground, and the calf is perpendicular to the ground.
• The Blue Band has performed in 33 bowl games.

Learn More

Find out more about the Penn State Blue Band.

The "Blue Crew"

Making the Blue Band follows a small group of Blue Band "rookies" as they prepare to join the band.
They're called the "Blue Crew," and we thank them for allowing us to join their journey.

The Filmmakers

Jeffrey A. Hughes
Executive Producer

Jeffrey A. Hughes is an executive producer for WPSU/Penn State Public Broadcasting. During his nearly twenty-year tenure with the organization, he has produced programming spanning a wide-range of genres—music, sports, documentary, and promotional, to name a few. His work on the series Music from Penn State was recently acknowledged with a Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy Award nomination. Also, in 2003, the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters presented an Award of Excellence for a video he produced for the Blue Band Building fundraising campaign.

Hughes' interest in the Penn State Blue Band originates from his time as a trombonist during the 1986 and 1987 seasons. He considers performing at the Fiesta Bowl during the 1986 national championship game to be the highlight of his college years.

Cole Cullen
Producer/Editor

Cole Cullen was a member of the Blue Band Drumline from 1992-1996 and Blue Band videographer in 1997. While a student in the band, he produced a number of Blue Band “Video Yearbooks.” In 1999, he produced Raise the Song, a documentary following the 100 years of the Blue Band’s history.

Before joining WPSU/Penn State Public Broadcasting in 2005, Cullen edited programs that aired on NBC, FOX, TLC, CourtTV, and HGTV. Cullen is the father of three future Blue Banders and is married to another Blue Band alumni, Kari Cullen.

The Funders

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this documentary possible.

Major Funding Provided by:

Clara "Pat" Lamade Robison
Penn State Alumni Association
Penn State Alumni Blue Band Association (ABBA)
Pennsylvania Public Television Network

Broadcast Times

Press Room