Very cool video of a pre-game tradition of which I was unaware (HT: Alberto at NDN) - the Irish Trumpets. I was a student for 4 years, went to every game for the 4 years after that, and have been back at least once a year since leaving Chicago and I had no idea this existed. Maybe it's new? Dunno. But it's sweet.
This is the kind of video that we should have, and should want, to circulate the Internets. It shows what ND is all about: Tradition, Class, the Students, and getting FIRED UP FOR NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL!
This got me going. Enjoy.
By SDI May 21, 2010 - 1:17 pm
that is cool. thanks for sharing.
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By Titus May 21, 2010 - 1:54 pm
The number of people who don’t know about this really surprises me, especially given how unbelievably crowded the rotunda is when they do it. Pretty sure it’s been around a while.
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By trey May 21, 2010 - 2:15 pm
Yeah, I knew about it. Never been, but knew it happened.
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By The Biscuit May 21, 2010 - 3:16 pm
yeah, Titus, i figured if i dont know about it then there have to be a lot of others that dont. there are so many people that head to games that dont have any kind of heads up on these things. how are the masses to find out? it’s not like a marketing push exists (or is appropriate). it’s through word of mouth, which is pretty limited in terms of reach on a given weekend for a single short event. i think it’s pretty sweet though – will be going next time i am on campus.
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By Steve in Iowa May 21, 2010 - 3:19 pm
The performance is great if you can see it live. Also, WAY better than Freekbass and Tobotius.
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By Garrett May 21, 2010 - 3:47 pm
Pretty sure this has been going on longer than the Midnight Drummers’ Circle, which began in 01/02(?)
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By Charlie Weis May 23, 2010 - 9:53 am
LETSSS GOOOO…this is a reason we shouldn’t expand- Pride Honor Tradition.
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By OderName May 24, 2010 - 8:10 am
I’m a Double Domer, was there from ’96 to ’01, and have never heard fo this — Thanks for sharing. With the expiration of BGS, HLS is now the top of my daily blogroll (thanks again to BGS for referring me). Maybe HLS should do some more of these, highlighting some of the gameday traditions (real, not contrived) which many people may not know about.
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By Jen May 24, 2010 - 9:11 am
My brother made the band as a trumpet in fall 2000. It’s been going on since at least then. A lot of the different band sections have some sort of activity/tradition between concert on the steps and step off.
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By The Biscuit May 24, 2010 - 12:23 pm
thanks Oder, glad to have you here. we’ll try to keep things like this coming. the challenge is that we dont know what we dont know – since i just learned of this randomly by digging around, we’re a bit at the mercy of what we can find out. but, maybe we’ll do some profiles on other events we do know of from our days on campus.
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By TubaPete May 24, 2010 - 8:49 pm
I don’t think it had started yet when I was there so that would narrow the start to sometime between 1971 and 2000.
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By Irish Mike May 27, 2010 - 11:42 am
The trumpets also perform this exact routine in the Rotunda before the band marches across campus to Friday Night Band Practice.
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By Erik '04 May 27, 2010 - 1:20 pm
If there’s only ONE thing my wife and I do on campus before a Notre Dame football game, it’s see the trumpets in the main building. We might actually be in that video, as we were there for the Washington game October 3rd 2009. I can’t tell with the resolution on my computer screen, though. We usually try to see the band play on the steps of Bond Hall, and then sprint over to the main building before it gets too crowded in there.
While the trumpets are playing under the dome, the saxophones and other sections are playing outside in front under a tree. The saxophone part of the fight song is definitely not the melody.
Thanks for sharing the video. As much as I think more people need to know about this because it’s so awesome, I’m also torn because of how crowded it already is.
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By Jason Spak '95 June 3, 2010 - 8:24 am
This tradition started in 1993. I know because I played trumpet in the band and was there. Another trumpet player – Chris Putt ’93 – had the idea. We did it on the Friday afternoon before #2 ND beat #1 FSU that year. It stayed on Friday afternoons for a while; I don’t know when it got moved to Saturdays. Like a lot of other traditions, it seems to have been co-opted by the University: now it’s got a formal video and everyone is in uniform. Still cool, though.
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By Jason Spak '95 June 3, 2010 - 8:29 am
Correction to the above: it remains on Fridays and is now on Saturdays, too. I wrote something for the ND trumpet website about it back in 1995 – when the web was brand-new – and it’s still up: http://www.ndtrumpets.org/traditions/almamater.html
I feel old.
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By The Biscuit June 3, 2010 - 1:15 pm
thanks Jason. crazy that it went on for my entire 4 years and I never knew.
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By Bryan in Florida June 6, 2010 - 10:11 pm
I got a chill down my spine listening. I miss playing the trumpet…would love to play that before a big game. Go Irish!!!
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