Greetings Hawkeye Marching Band Alumni!

Can you hear it? It’s the sound of marching bands forming across our great nation as we get ready to welcome in another new year of football, music, marking time, high stepping, hijinks, and hilarity! It literally is my favorite time of year. As our Homecoming preparations get finalized, we are excited to share that we will be welcoming back Dr. Myron Welch and his wife, Marcia! Dr. Welch, Director of Bands and Professor Emeritus, was recently elected to the National Band Association Hall of Fame of Distinguished Conductors. Congratulations Dr. Welch and Welcome Home for HOCO 2026!

In addition, this year’s “honoree” is the band uniform. While our commitment to excellence has remained at the highest level, our uniforms have evolved over the years. From the standard issue 1880’s military dress blues to modern, sleek black and gold uniforms, the Hawkeye Marching Band has undergone several iterations to get where it is today. We will have several of them on display at the Voxman reception on Thursday evening so be sure to sign up and check it out!

The weekend’s events are as follows:

• Thursday, October 29, 2026 – Reception at Voxman Music Building
• Friday, October 30, 2026 – Homecoming Parade in downtown Iowa City, followed by a family-friendly picnic at the Iowa City Community Recreation Center and opportunities for alumni “pep band” in downtown Iowa City and Iowa River Landing.
• Saturday, October 31, 2025 (HALLOWEEN) – Alumni Band “Takes Back the Field”.

While the HMB Alumni Band HOCO Committee has been hard at work behind the scenes, our Alumni Pep Bands (Regional Bands) continue to be active with Spring and Summer performances! Our Cedar Rapids-Coralville-Iowa City, aka, Corridor Regional

Band, made an appearance at the Cedar Rapids Houby Days in the Czech Village! In addition, this year we had competing requests for the 4th of July and we chose to represent at the Hills, Iowa 4th of July Parade! Where would you like to see us next year on the 4th? Thank you to Steve Jepson for helping to coordinate and to and Craig Brown, Board Member for the photos to document the festivities! Our past presidents of the Alumni Band Leadership Board; Kirk Phillips and Arlene Houk, and to all who participated and represented our Iowa Alumni Band!

As we continue to expand our outreach, Regional Pep Bands are active at various events during the year. A group in Dubuque, led by Jeff Eagan, performs for each football game at Gary Dolphin’s Iron Bar and were featured last year in the local news for their fundraising efforts benefiting local music non-profit groups.

The Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) Iowa Club has also reached out to the Board to express interest in collaborating between our two groups. Any HMB alumni within driving distance of the Dallas area are invited to connect through the Club’s website: https://linktr.ee/dfwiowaclub

If HMB alumni in other areas would like to explore collaboration (and playing opportunities), the Iowa Club Location website might be a valuable resource. https://www.foriowa.org/networks/locations.php Lastly, we are working with the UICA to launch new and easier ways to connect us with our local I-Clubs and to engage with our HMB alumni to continue to create and grow more Regional Pep Bands across the country. Look for invitations to connect from the UICA!

Finally, your Alumni Band Leaders have also been representing us at various functions on and off campus!

In April, I had the distinct honor of returning to Iowa City for Gradfest, a new event designed to connect new graduates to our various Iowa Alumni Communities! I spent some time meeting a few of Iowa’s newest graduates and welcomed them into their next chapter! It felt so rewarding to see our next generation of alumni excited about their future plans and to be inside of the IMU! Thank you to UICA for organizing such an important event! I encourage you all to volunteer for this event as it coincides with Iowa’s Alumni Day which will be held next April 24, 2027!

I also had the privilege of representing you all at a reception held at the President’s house where our Alumni Band President Emeritus, Arlene Houk, and I met up with other Iowa Network Volunteer Leaders to kick off the annual planning workshop. Joe Judge, our Vice President, joined me the next day as we had a very robust day of networking, learning, planning, and idea-sharing that will take our Hawkeye Spirit across the country and help to evolve our Alumni Band in the year to come!

To stay up to date on Alumni Band news and pep band performance opportunities, please like and follow the University of Iowa Alumni Band Facebook page.

If you have any questions or would like to volunteer to help wherever need with Alumni Band activities, please send an email to iowaalumniband@gmail.com.

Excited to see you all at Homecoming! It’s going to be Spooktacular!

On Iowa, and Go Hawks!

Dina M. Jensen, BA, MS