Greetings! When I last wrote to you, we were about to begin the Hawkeye Marching Band’s 139th season. Now, we are days away from Spring Break, and things are already in motion to prepare for the 140th edition of the HMB. I want to take this moment to reflect on the exciting events of the fall. We made incredible strides this year toward our goals. So many wonderful things are happening for the Hawkeye Marching Band, and we have our friends, fans, and alumni to thank for so much of this growth!

In 2019, we marched 262 Hawkeyes, and I’m incredibly proud of what our students and staff accomplished together:

• We saw 20 sousaphones on the field for the first time in decades
• We featured 24 custom arrangements, with 15 belonging solely to the HMB
• We performed at the Davenport Spectacular, where our students performed and engaged with high school and middle school students from the Quad Cities
• We premiered HMB TV: a nationally recognized halftime show in the game against Penn State, featuring music from crowd favorite tv shows— with integrated props and video
• We paid tribute to our past with a special performance of 1812 Overture, with music and drill from the 1989 and 1990 Hawkeye Marching Band
• We shared great performances and celebrated a big Hawkeye Football win at the Holiday Bowl in San Diego

We also held the first annual Band Jam in Kinnick Stadium on September 7 in the game against Rutgers. We welcomed over 100 high school band students to perform in our pregame Rec Building show and to participate in a special halftime performance of the Iowa Wave with country music star Pat Green. We are looking forward to the second Band Jam on September 26 in the game against Northern Illinois. While Pat Green was in town, our students also had the opportunity to record our custom arrangement of Wave on Wave with him and his band. We are looking forward to the release of this recording on iTunes soon!

I continue to be incredibly grateful for the good work of the Hawkeye Marching Band Alumni Advisory Board. These wonderful alums are making significant progress toward our shared goals around engagement and support between past and present members of the band. I want to call attention to two specific initiatives taken on this year. First, they successfully executed a GOLDrush Campaign to purchase a replica of the Sudler Trophy won by the HMB in 1990. As I explained to the Board, there are currently only 32 Sudler bands in the nation, and it will be so meaningful to celebrate the band’s 140th year, as well as the 30th anniversary of winning the award by installing the trophy on campus. Lastly, I am grateful to the Board for launching a mentoring program aimed at assisting current members of the HMB with networking and career advising. This fall, we welcomed four alums from various fields to a meet-and-greet with current students, and we have plans to develop this program further by engaging even more of our talented alumni. If you are interested in participating, please email Board Vice-President Arlene Houk.

2019 brought my favorite University of Iowa Homecoming yet. We welcomed over 200 members of the Alumni Band home to Iowa City. They participated in the Friday night parade as well as pregame in Kinnick Stadium. This year, we added two special performance elements to our Homecoming festivities that were very meaningful to me as director of the HMB and an alumnus of the University of Iowa. For the first time, we invited the Alumni Band to join the current HMB in the singing of Alma Mater Iowa in the tunnel before pregame, and we combined forces on the field to perform the instrumental version of our Alma Mater with almost 500 marching Hawkeyes past and present. These special events go a long way in connecting our current students to the legacy of the HMB.

Thank you for all you continue to give to this organization. Our success relies on the support and enthusiasm of our outstanding friends, family, and alums. I am grateful for this community because of the impact it makes each day in the lives of our students!

On Iowa, and Go Hawks!

Eric W. Bush
Associate Director of Bands
Director of the Hawkeye Marching Band