<p>"School spirit apparently got out of hand Saturday, resulting in a clash between members of the Princeton University band and cadets at The Citadel before their football teams took to the field. </p>
<p>Princeton band members allege they were greeted by something other than the famed Southern hospitality as they tried to perform at the military college in Charleston, S.C. "</p>
<p>Humor only goes so far… The band marched down The Citadels’ Avenue of Rememberance that runs in front of the chapel and is dedicated to the schools alumni killed in action…They were being irreverant with their pranks and hijinks…Well, there is a time and place for everything and that was definately not the time or the place…Most of the corps was in the area and with several recent KIA alumni that a large part of the student body have known…Not a good plan on the bands part…The performance at halftime was very innapropriate in that The Citadel was hosting elementary children from Charleston Metro Area and several band members decided that humping each other on the field would be cool…Again, not the time nor the place…</p>
<p>Um, well, it sounded like the PUB had no idea that it was some sort of children’s weekend nor that they were marching on a sacred road (they had been cleared to do a campus march by the administration, who hadn’t mentioned any areas of campus where it would be ill-advised to march).</p>
<p>I do think the bands take their irreverence too far at times (well, only when competing against non-Ivy teams), but the PUB was doing what scramble bands do best, and I don’t think they were in the wrong for not being informed the specifics by administration.</p>
<p>I think the problem started with communication…A simple, typical college band, formed in ranks, playing their school fight song is one thing, the administration did not realize that the PUB would be scattered about, with toilet seats and straw hats, mocking the cadets and antagonizing them…Marching with pride in ones school would be acceptable on “The Avenue”…Not what was presented…Having said that, I understand how the Princeton Band would have felt the administration understood what kind of band they really represent…A Scatter band not unlike Stanford…</p>
<p>The half-time show, which the band submitted to Citiadel officials for approval, which is not routine, is neither particularly funny nor offensive:</p>
<p>Our band is a little over the top foolish - I would use the word “silly”, but, honestly, they’re not actually funny. It’s almost painful listening to the announcer read the scripted lines that are supposed to make the audience howl. That said, Citadel guys who made physical contact with the band play right into the “dumb undisciplined ogre grunt” stereotype as well. </p>
<p>So I usually don’t like to say “they both were off”, but I’d say that the band does bear a small minority of the blame, since I can totally picture them doing unfunny, inappropriate things at the worst possible time without giving it a second thought.</p>
<p>This doesn’t give the Citadel guys who chose to attack the Princeton band the right to do so. I read some of their jokes though- they weren’t very funny and while the intention wasn’t to insult the Citadel- the jokes made Citadel seem like it was a ‘backwards military boot camp’.</p>