Titan Pep Band

The current University of Detroit Mercy Pep Band may seem to be a modern invention, but its roots stretch back over ninety years to the formation of the University’s first musical ensemble. In 1916, the University and surrounding community were delighted to hear the first performance of the “University of Detroit Chamber Music Association,” a string ensemble. Its success was hailed by all present as a milestone that the college had come of age. Thus began the proud (if intermittent) tradition of music at U of D.
Three years after the formation of “The Association” came U of D’s first wind ensemble. Under the tutelage of Fr. Kelly, SJ, the call went out for volunteers in fall of 1919. By the spring of 1920, twenty-five instrumentalists had answered and performed first in April 1920 under F.M. Deschaine’s direction. After a summer of rehearsal, this assemblage appeared for the 1920 football season as the university’s first true pep band. Reports from their first performance were positive and reflected the growing pride shown by the students in their school. By the end of their first season, the group had acquired uniforms, and by their second season they had swelled to forty members. The university’s band was also well known throughout the city of Detroit, and was featured in many parades and festivals of the day.
Golden Age
1920s-1960s
In this manner, the band soldiered on through the roaring twenties, the Great Depression, until the Second World War. In 1942, due to a shortage of personnel, the band was suspended (as were many other extracurricular activities) and its instruments tucked away by then director Mr. Philip Wood. After the reinstitution of football in 1946, steps were taken in 1947 to reorganize the band. Under the direction of Jack Giere, thirty-eight members appeared for the first rehearsal, and by the end of the 1947 season roughly seventy members were participating in the concert and pep bands. By 1952, the music program had truly begun to blossom with the First Annual Music Festival being held on April 26 and 27 at Music Hall in downtown Detroit. The concert featured the University Band and Orchestra, and the Choral Society. By 1953, the festival mushroomed in popularity and drew a crowd of over 2000 people, who met the performers’ harmonies with thunderous applause. This was the general state of instrumental music at U of D in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Decline
1962-1994
The music program was not immune to the financial woes that beset the University in the early 1960s. In the summer of 1962, it was decided that the band (along with varsity golf, tennis, sailing, and track) would be discontinued after the following academic year. On the night of April 7, 1962, the band, under the direction of Robert J. Tapitch, performed their farewell concert before an audience of 1100. After a curtain call that included “Titan Melodies”, a medley of “Dear Old U-D,” “The Alma Mater,” “The U-D Stein Song,” and “Victory March,” the band bowed out of existence. Though a group of twenty instrumentalists organized a pep band the following football season, this group was affected by the termination of the football program in 1964, lack of interest, and then the general decline that befell the University in the 1970s. A small group is noted as being present through the mid-1970s at basketball games and a concert band appears in several contemporary yearbooks, but it would appear that instrumental music disappeared completely from the University some time in the early 1980s.
Renaissance
1994-Present
After the merge of The University of Detroit and Mercy College of Detroit in 1990, the band experienced a rebirth. In the fall of 1994, a small group of students petitioned the athletic department for approval to form a pep band for performance at home basketball games. Their proposal was accepted and the group began to collect music and instruments in time for that season (previous groups’ equipment had been parted with). Every year since then, the band program has grown steadily. Today the band has approximately forty members who perform at all home basketball games as well as the annual Celebrate Spirit Mass and Commencement Exercises.
Recent Titan Pep Band Directors
1995-2001 Herb Nicholson
2001-2002 Jill Braun (Student Director)
2002-2008 Robert Langdorf, class of '98 (former student and founding member)
2008-2010 Jonathan Bjorklund
2010-present Dean Haddad
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