Received Oct. 2
It was July or August of 1980, and my best friend and neighbor, Ricky “Smiley” Gilbert walked down to my house and said, “We need to go on a trip!” I probably said, “When do we leave?” He then told me that our high school friend, Jimmy McKinney, was the director of the marching band at Iowa State University and we should go and visit him and see his band. I said, “I thought he was still in jail!”
He wasn’t, and for the next three years, we visited Jim in Iowa. Then, in 1983, Jim was hired by SDSU. (Best move they ever made!) I thought, South Dakota? He must have entered the witness protection program. Well, 25 years later, The Georgia Boys, Tom, Rick (Smiley) and Dave, will be making our Silver Anniversary trip to Hobo Day in beautiful Downtown Brookings. That’s right, for 25 years, Smiley, Dave and I have been coming to Hobo Day and listening to you people talk with your funny accent and watching football games being played in temperatures below 45 degrees. What’s that all about?
The football has been good at times, but The Pride has been tremendous every single time. The Rose Bowl Parade, the Inaugural Parade (two times), the Metrodome, Lambeau Field, Fourth of July in D.C., and The Rose Bowl Parade, again. And of course, all those Hobo Day parades and halftime shows. The Pride is the only marching band ever to be invited to the Rose Bowl Parade more than once. EVER! Thank you, Jim McKinney. By the way, Jim is the only person to ever march in the parade three times. He marched as a drummer in the 1968 Tournament of Roses Parade with his high school band (Smiley was the Drum Major-Hapeville High School, Hapeville, Ga.) and Jim has marched as the director twice for the Pride.
In 1983, we met our friend Dr. Robert Wagner and quickly found out he was a big fan of The Pride. Then came our girl friend, Dr. Peggy Gordon, who married that giant and became a Miller. I asked her what she was going to be when she grew up and she answered, “Short”. I knew then she would be just fine. We didn’t have to train her or nothing. There is no bigger fan of Jim and the Pride than Dr. Miller. And there are no bigger fans of Miss Peggy than the Georgia Boys.
Since Jim is retiring after this year, we Georgia Boys won’t be around to help train the new guys. Of course, Alan Taylor doesn’t need any help with the Hare Raising Brass and Aaron Ragsdale is doing just fine with those crazy drummers. Erik Peterson needs no help as long as he can remember that he is not a Ute any longer and Urban Meyer is not the football coach. Maybe this year we can spend a little time helping Mr. Reynolds (the new Corky) and Mr. Reger, the new V.P., feel more relaxed. Smiley could help Mike set up his Web page on the SDSU site (he needs to have one), so people could check him out. Probably wouldn’t charge much.
Presidents don’t need any training so we won’t need to spend much time with Dr. David Chicoine. Heck, he’s the boss! He’s been in school all his life. The University of Illinois, Delaware, Western Illinois and The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, wherever that is. Maybe he was in the “Student” witness protection program.
This will be our year to say “goodbye” to our friends from Brookings. We will miss Mr. Coull and especially his lovely and hard working wife. John Gross, the cattleman, who was our driver in D.C. Dar, who didn’t like us very much early on, but realized we weren’t going away and that we were really OK guys. Corky, who is just “The Best.” Suzy, with her wonderful voice and beautiful smile, and our buddy V.J. Smith who is scared to death of what we might do next.
The Pride is the Greatest and we really hope that the new guard, Dr. Dave, VP Mike and Mr. Reynolds will continue the tradition of always being one of the largest and best marching bands in the country. The guard before them, along with Jim, kept The Pride on top, and we certainly need to stay there another 25 years.
We have enjoyed our many visits to Brookings and will always remember the friendships that were made. We love you guys, and I guess, by now, you can figure we kinda like our friend Jimmy McKinney a little bit too.
We will be watching The Pride’s progress. Don’t make us come back to scold you!
Jim’s friends and honorary members of The Pride,
Tom, Rick and Dave
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