(upbeat music) - [Announcer] You're watching a production of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

(upbeat music) (marching band playing) - [Kevin] There's really no other activity in the world where that many people are trying to accomplish one goal at the same time.

You'll never have that again in work, you'll never have that again in your family.

- [Peggy] It was never a sideline in the culture of this campus.

From all I can learn, music has always been core in our culture.

- I think it is the most entertaining and best performing band in the two states.

(band chanting indistinctly) I love the fact that everyone was welcome to be a member, we were all in it together and everybody's gonna work to make the best final product that we could put out.

- [V.J.]

That band represents every citizen of South Dakota, wherever they go.

It's an outward sign of not only this place, but this state.

It's their band.

- [Narrator] A school's marching band is as much a part of an athletic event as the sport itself.

For decades colleges have relied on their marching bands to bolster the enthusiasm of their student body and to represent the collective spirits of their institutions.

You cannot enjoy a Saturday football game without the sound, color or pageantry of tens, or sometimes hundreds, of young musicians coming together and giving it their all.

South Dakota State University's Pride of the Dakota's has a rich history.

It's become a staple of the Midwest, and is known across the country.

- [V.J.]

Regardless of a person's politics, regardless of where they had gone to college, people have come to understand that's South Dakota's band.

- [Announcer] Support for this program is provided by South Dakota State University, creating a culture where all thrive and are supported on their own personal and professional paths.

Donors to the Explore South Dakota Fund support the production of local documentaries and other programs of local interest presented by SDPB.

Friends of SDPB appreciates their support of this program.

- [Narrator] The concept of an agricultural college began in July of 1862.

The United States Congress passed the Moral Act, which set aside federal lands to create colleges to benefit the agricultural and mechanical arts.

In 1881, Brookings' lawyer James Scobie originally lobbied the territorial legislature to locate the state penitentiary for his hometown.

- And the reason for the penitentiary is that's a lot of jobs.

And obviously the folks in Sioux Falls, Minnehaha County, said, "We're bigger than you, we want that penitentiary."

And so they went to Scobie and said, "It's going to Sioux Falls.

What do you want now?"

And he said, "We'll take the cow college."

People understood the need to have places where budding farmers could learn new techniques and so these land grain institutions started appearing throughout the country.

- The first documented evidence of bands at SDSU was about 1886, and it was mostly for the military, the cadet core of students, that was on campus.

They would play for military maneuvers.

They were basically there to help move soldiers from one place to the next, which is really the genesis of marching band in general.

- [Narrator] In the beginning, South Dakota's band simply needed the resources to perform.

It's unclear whether the college initially provided uniforms and instruments for its students or if the students who could afford to be in the band paid their own way.

We do know in June of 1890 the Board of Trustees passed a resolution to buy instruments.

Two months later the South Dakota Agricultural College Band, under band director Stephen Lapham, was born.

- He was actually a Civil War veteran.

He was a drummer in a New York regiment.

The Board of Trustees at that time was reluctant to provide additional financial support for the band.

The finances were raised by lesson fees.

There were some attempts to get some money from the Board of Trustees, even for something as simple as piano tuning on campus, and the trustees turned around and said, to the current music director at that time on campus, that that was something that should come out of their salary, that was part of the expected duties of the music director was to maintain the instruments and the money for that maintenance of instruments came out of his salary.

- We have always been fighting for resources in South Dakota.

This is from the time of our beginning.

There was competition for scarce resources.

So if you tried to feed, what we had at the time, seven institutions that were in different places in the state everybody was fighting for the same dollar.

You couldn't get a box of pencils without giving good reason why you wanted a box of pencils.

Paper.

They watched things very, very carefully.

- [Narrator] In 1901 John Parmalee Mann arrived on campus to replace Lapham, who, along with half the faculty, was dismissed over an intense conflict between the institution and the Board of Regents.

- [Kevin] He was really the first person that was hired with the express directive to be the head of the music department, to direct the band.

He even directed the choir as well.

There weren't a lot of music faculty here at that time.

That was his main job.

Before some of the band directors were instructors of woodworking, or was the college registrar.

So he was in charge of the band.

College life was becoming much more prevalent, football was starting to become popular and so you saw the band going to state track meets.

You saw them going to football games, both here on campus and away.

They traveled to Sioux Falls, they traveled to Vermillion with the team on the train.

And so it became very much a part of the band's life to be involved in athletics as well.

- [Narrator] In 1904 St. Louis, Missouri welcomed hundreds of thousands of spectators for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, otherwise known as the 1904 World's Fair.

By then J.P. Mann had cultivated a disciplined group of young musicians who were already known across the Midwest for their talent and enthusiasm.

- [V.J.]

Millions and millions of people showed up and, of course, the band here took the train all the way to St. Louis and performed with other bands for the visitors.

That was the first public showing of our band.

- [Kevin] The description of the soldiers was endearing, something to the effect of, "The deep tan of the Dakota wheat fields."

And they just made these core cadets and band members out to be almost from another place in time.

It was a very quaint description of these boys from South Dakota.

- I saw somewhere that there were 125 band members, which would be really, really interesting, and from this perspective is that in 1904 there weren't even 200 students on campus and so you wonder if some people snuck into the band.

You know, they may be military, or former military, but they wanna go to St. Louis.

(upbeat music) - By 1906 Francis Haynes was the director of bands at South Dakota Agricultural College at that time and he sponsored a contest, he wanted to write a school song, or have a school song written, and so he put an advertisement in the school newspaper challenging students to write a school song and nobody submitted an entry and so he was kind of left to his own devices.

But he had a friend by the name of Niels Hansen, who was the professor of horticulture here and famous for going to Siberia and bringing back varieties of alfalfa that we still plant today and fruit that was hardy enough to be planted up here.

But in addition to all of that, Hansen was an amateur poet.

And so he and Haynes teamed up.

Haynes wrote the music, Hansen wrote the words, and we have "The Yellow and Blue" as a result.

♪ We come from the Sioux and Missouri ♪ ♪ The Cheyenne and the Jim ♪ - [Narrator] "The Yellow and Blue" would symbolize South Dakota Agricultural College's roots and distinctively Midwestern identity.

- [Kevin] The very first phrase is, "We come from the Sioux and Missouri, the Cheyenne and the Jim, from pine clad peaks of the Black Hills, brimful of vigor and vim."

So you hear that early century language in it as well.

"We sing the song of the prairie, the home of the Yellow and Blue."

And then he relates it to our landscape, "The gleaming gold of the corn field and the flax of azure hue."

So all of it has reference to who we are, where we're from, and the most striking characteristics of the state.

It was their song.

It was very personal to them.

"Yellow and Blue" is our very own, and so it's something we're very proud of, something that ties over a century of people together.

- [Narrator] From then on the marching band would tell the school's story at every athletic event.

- It's like The Pride national anthem, you know, "Yellow and Blue," everybody knows it.

We played it after every score at a football game, you know.

I mean as soon as you say those words, I hear the song.

So it means a lot.

- [V.J.]

Win or lose the football team stands in front of the band and on the large scoreboard come the words of "Yellow and Blue."

And the football players, again, win or lose, are locked arm in arm and they're swaying back and forth, and the band is playing "Yellow and Blue" and people are singing the words.

And it's a moment, we're all come together.

Again, win or lose, we come together.

This is where we're from, folks.

We come from the Sioux, Missouri, the Cheyenne, and the Jim.

That's us.

And I wonder at times whether the young people, the football players or band members, really realize what a powerful thing that they're doing.

But one day they will.

10 years, 20 years, 40 years down the road they're gonna reflect on them moments and say, "You know, the university, we're all, it's all of us and brought together by that song in that moment."

- [Kevin] It's a song that people knew in 1906 and a song that people know today and so it connects us across over a century of time.

- [Narrator] In 1906 Carl Christensen was hired to direct the orchestra and provide trumpet lessons.

When he took over for Director Haynes in 1911 Christensen sought to revolutionize the college marching band.

His tenure is known as a glorious era that saw unprecedented band growth and opportunity for its members.

Under Director Christensen the marching band became an iconic treasure to the college's students.

- He is the person who revolutionized bands here at SDSU.

The bands grew exponentially under his leadership and this is when you saw the band become somewhat of an iconic image here on campus because of their quality of performance, their excitement, and some of the travels that they did.

They were constantly on the go under Christy and they became very much a focal point on campus.

(upbeat music) In the 1920s there was a music education major that was reestablished.

And so not only was Christensen building the band, he was creating a lot of music education majors who were going out into the field.

And shortly after World War I was when you saw a lot of schools, K-12 schools, establishing their own bands.

So it became almost this cycle that Christensen was, had this great band, he turned out a lot of band directors, and they in turn sent students back to SDSU.

You could say he had his own farm system for the college band by turning out all of these marvelous band directors into the state and into the region.

- [V.J.]

Christy had the distinction of being the band director for the first Hobo Day in November of 1912.

And it was a big deal.

(crowds cheering) - [Narrator] In 1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England embarked on a Commonwealth tour in the wake of the Second World War.

This event marked the first time a sitting British monarch had visited North America.

The South Dakota State College band had earned a positive reputation across the Midwest and was invited to perform at a monumental welcome celebration in Winnipeg, Canada.

- [V.J.]

The parade route was eight miles long.

Eight miles.

They were tired, and their lips were worn, but they were very proud of the fact that they had played for the King and Queen of England.

- It was a contest as well as a parade.

The bands were in competition against one another and it just so happens that the South Dakota State College was named the best band.

They won $50 as as a result of their first place finish and when they got home from the parade they donated that $50 to the Pugsley Union Construction Fund because at that time the Pugsley Union was being built.

And so they gave that $50 to help buy a few bricks for that new building.

- [V.J.]

You go back to it was being known as a military band.

The kicker was, it stayed that way until 1943 because of World War II.

And now you have to have women, in order to complete the band.

Because up until 1943, women weren't allowed.

They had their own band in the '30s.

- [Narrator] The Second World War saw a significant decline in South Dakota Agricultural College's student population as young men enlisted in the United States military.

Christensen combined the marching band and the girls' band to fill the gaps.

- World War II came about and forced the hands of a lot of college band directors, including Christensen, to make the band co-ed.

And so you see, about 1942, pictures start popping up of the band and there are men and women sitting together and marching together.

And Christensen kept it that way through the World War.

- [Narrator] In the late '40s Christensen made the band officially co-ed, a progressive move at the time.

Band members were supportive of the decision, after all every member made the band what it was.

The marching band welcomed its female musicians, even going as far as to host a fundraiser to buy their matching uniforms.

- There's a wonderful picture in one of the college newspapers from that era of some men dressed up in women's clothing and some signs talking about fundraising for uniforms for the band so that the women could be outfitted in the same way as the gentlemen.

There are a ton of college bands across the country that didn't go co-ed until they were legally obligated to by Title IX in the early '70s.

So Christensen was really ahead of his time in that regard, that there were men and women in his band by the late forties and early fifties.

- [Narrator] Carl Christensen retired in 1954.

Subsequent band directors, and band members alike, consider his tenure legendary.

- [V.J.]

He was director of bands for 43 years.

It's really remarkable.

From 1911, when you're named the director of band and you go till 1954.

All the young people that he schooled, he mentored.

- [Kevin] Christensen's tenure here is absolutely legendary.

When he started in 1911 the band was a little over 20 pieces and by the time he retired the band was well over 100.

And he was beloved.

When he retired there was a collection taken up and he was presented with a brand new car at a football game just before he retired.

And so he was not only beloved by his students but he was a fixture in the town.

He had lived in Brookings, by that time, 50 years.

- [Narrator] Today he is still considered an icon, the band director who grandfathered what would become The Pride of the Dakotas.

Ken Carpenter took over for Christensen in 1957.

He started another contest to create a new fight song, one that had a little more energy.

Because a rival institution had dubbed SDSU the cow college students began the tradition of bringing cowbells to athletic events.

The new fight song would be called "Ring the Bell."

- [Kevin] Ken was a very enthusiastic fellow and when he came to SDSU he talked about wanting to have the marchingest band in the North Central Conference, that was a quote of his.

So along with that goal he just wanted a fight song that had a little more energy to it.

So the melody that he chose was the fight song of the University of Chicago and their title for it was "Wave the Flag," "Wave the Flag for Old Chicago."

♪ Wave the flag of old Chicago ♪ ♪ Maroon the color grand ♪ - And so he took that melody and took the words from, "Wave the flag for Old Chicago," to, "ring the bell for South Dakota."

'Cause at that time we had a bell in the tower in Old North and it just fit.

So he wrote all of the words to the fight song except for the last line.

And, again, another band director putting up a student challenge in the newspaper for somebody to write the last line.

And this time there were responses and Stan Schleuter, who was at that time a music major at State College, wrote the last line, "So let's ring, ring, ring those bells."

It's cemented in place in history in South Dakota State University, and I think he won a pen set for it.

(upbeat music) "Ring the bell for South Dakota, the yellow and the blue," so the first line obviously refers to our school colors and makes reference to our alma mater.

"Ring the bell for South Dakota, with loyal hearts so true," which draws lyrics, again, from our alma mater.

"Win the game for South Dakota, the school that serves us well.

We will fight for South Dakota so let's ring, ring, ring those bells."

And the melody and the words do have a little more reference to winning a game so it's a bit more apt for athletic events and to get people pumped up.

It's played a lot at home football games, or we hope to play it a lot because we play it after every touchdown.

- [Narrator] Warren Hatfield is another revolutionary figure in the band's history.

He took over as band director in 1961.

During his tenure at SDSU, Hatfield had a profound effect as the music department's administrative leader.

As a band director he created shows that were thematic, profoundly political, and musically diverse.

- [Kevin] He was the first to have the music department accredited and so just did phenomenal work as an administrator as well.

Warren was inspired by the marching band drill writing of Fred Ebbs, who was one of the band directors at the University of Iowa for many years.

And Warren knew Fred, was a student of Fred's, was even an assistant of Frederick Ebbs in the mid sixties.

So he took a lot of those innovative drill writing designs and adapted them for use here at SDSU and so a lot of the shows that you see that Warren wrote, there are some wonderful shows of a trumpet player on the field, or even a bongo player on the field, a grand piano with the lid down and then the next picture you see the lid on the grand piano is up.

So Warren did some wonderful writing with the band in the early sixties.

- [Narrator] In 1962 the Entertainment Director for the Minnesota Vikings, Red McLeod, approached Hatfield with a game changing opportunity.

McLeod requested that the state college band play during the Vikings halftime shows.

- [Kevin] Warren was very excited about the prospect of playing for the Vikings' games, but he needed to get permission from President Hilton Briggs because this was going to be a financial challenge, travel, hotels, meals, et cetera.

And Briggs was a little bit hesitant at first, but as soon as Dr. Hatfield explained to him the SDSU band is gonna be on national television that helps sway President Brigg's opinion and this is what started a over 20 year relationship with the Minnesota Vikings.

The SDSU band traveled once a year to a Vikings' game, typically in November, from the early sixties until the mid eighties.

- [Narrator] Each game the entire halftime show was broadcast on national television giving The Pride a level of renown they had never before reached in their history.

They performed at Vikings' games for two decades, earning them national acclaim.

- [Kevin] At that time networks broadcast the halftime show that was on the field, they didn't go to a desk and show highlights, et cetera.

The whole halftime show was on national television and so the South Dakota State College band was broadcast across the nation at halftime for a good number of years.

- It was just amazing.

They treated us like royalty and we had good seats.

- [V.J.]

I remember as a kid watching the Vikings play and they highlighted the band.

There weren't these studios back in New York where they broke to and four people sitting around talking about the games that were going on in the National Football League, the band was on television, and it was a great public relations moment for the state of South Dakota and the university.

- It always seemed like it was raining and sleeting and snowing.

I remember the first time I went over there, I had just bought a brand new wool long coat and it just, it ruined it, you know.

It just got soaking wet.

So when I got home I just basically had to throw it away.

- [Narrator] In the seventies Hatfield wrote his most controversial piece.

He called it "The Knowledge Show," in which the musicians formed the lamp of knowledge while an announcer described problems in higher education, thought to be caused in part by decisions made by the Board of Regents.

As the lamp fell apart the musicians began to play out of tune.

- [Kevin] There was some movement in the legislature to remove certain programs here from SDSU and that show was kind of in response to those decisions that were being considered.

And Warren was very concerned about it.

One of the programs that could have been on the chopping block was the music education program here.

And much to Warren's credit he did a lot of lobbying and a lot of work to save the program.

So that show was, I believe, in response to some of those very fraught times that they were going through here at SDSU at that time.

In the mid sixties, at the end of one of the SDSU Marching Band performances, the public address announcer, kind of in an impromptu manner, said, "There they go, the pride of the Dakota's Marching band."

And it stuck, and it has stuck ever since.

To this day we're referred to as "The Pride," and as a matter of fact "The Pride of the Dakotas" is copy written, it's protected, and it's a name that we're very proud of and folks refer to us as The Pride to this day, we're not even known as the SDSU Marching Band, it's just The Pride.

- The word pride is an appropriate name for the marching band because not only are the people watching them proud of them but, I mean, the band itself takes a lot of pride in what they do.

They want to be good spokespersons for the university.

And, I mean, they wouldn't be there if they didn't.

And it kind of carries over.

I mean, and whether you've got kids in that band or not, every single person who was ever in The Pride is gonna be proud of them and they're gonna say, "I marched in that band."

- [Kevin] It reminds me of how special this band is to not only its members and its alumni but to the greater university community and to the state.

It's a reminder that this is a...

The job of the director is a huge responsibility and I owe it not only to my students but to past members, past directors, the university in general, that this is done right and that we continue to uphold that name and continue to deserve that name.

- The Pride really deserves its name, they've always been very, very special people.

Never been an audition to get into it, if you're saying, "I'm willing to come to practice, I'm willing to work," you're in.

I think all of us directors felt like, "If you'll make the commitment, we're a good enough teacher, we can teach you what you need to do."

But it is something, they know their musical standards and personal standards and everything has to come up to that name.

- I think it's absolutely appropriate.

I think there's a ton of pride behind that name.

If you're a member of that group you know that you mean something and you belong to a group that has a long history of excellence, of just bringing a ton of energy everywhere they go, and there's a reputation that follows that name.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] In 1971, at the height of the Vietnam War, Hatfield directed a show that would end with an anti-war ballad by Pete Seeger.

It was called, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

The band not only performed this show at home, but at a Vikings game on national television.

At the time college campuses across the United States were fraught with student anti-war protests.

- [Kevin] "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

was a Vietnam War protest song and so it was, I think, perhaps perceived as a political statement on the part of the band.

- He was seeing young people come to this campus, get drafted, go there and put themselves in harm's way, and some didn't make it back.

And that personally affects you.

It does.

And so these young people, from that age group, were the ones who were protesting, who were part of that band.

They knew people who either died or were over there getting shot at.

- And it was, to say the least, a very polarizing show.

Hatfield, and the president of the university, received communications from around the country both praising the show and also very critical of the show.

In fact one letter to the president called for the firing of, "that commie band director," to quote the letter directly.

So it was a very controversial show.

- [V.J.]

Sometimes it takes people from the outside to come in and shake the tree.

And I understand, you know.

You know, universities push things a little bit and a lot of people have thoughts about universities and their thinking.

And so universities at times do things.

And it's young people that do things, participate in things, that push the envelope just a bit.

You know, let's face it the war protests, the Vietnam War protests of the late sixties and seventies, the focal point generally was at some college campus somewhere and it was pushing back.

And universities are designed to challenge people intellectually.

Is this what we're supposed to be doing?

And so, yeah, Dr. Hatfield and the presentation that they made that day pushed the envelope.

And you look back at it and say, "Hey, now, well, that was tame."

But it was something for people to think about.

And universities should do that, this is something that you should think about.

And, you know, they're sometimes criticized for it.

But the reason why these places exist is to have people ponder big things, big questions, and produce different ideas, new ideas.

They may not always be the right ideas, but at least they're producing ideas for us to think about things and not just go down a path because someone tells us we need to go down this path.

- [Narrator] During his tenure as band director Warren Hatfield gave The Pride a new level of discipline, quality and renown.

He became a guiding star for music education in the state of South Dakota for decades.

In 1973 Hatfield chose Darwin Walker to replace him as director of bands.

- [Kevin] In 1980 Darwin Walker was the director of bands here at South Dakota State University and he applied to participate in the inaugural parade, which at that time was the first inaugural for Ronald Reagan, and they were selected.

And when that selection comes through, obviously it's between the election of the President and the inauguration, so time is very tight, you generally don't get notice about being selected until December.

So they were selected and went through a very fast fundraising process with the help of the Alumni Association and the university, a lot of friends, a lot of alumni, and got them to Washington DC.

- I think that's one of the most heartwarming aspects of this whole operation.

The reception was absolutely unbelievable.

No matter where we went and to whom we talked about financial support the response was just overwhelming.

From industry, from the financial and banking organizations, everyone supported us, we were never turned down and it was just unbelievable.

I think that is one of the most rewarding things about this whole trip, the amount of support that we received.

(upbeat music) - [Kevin] I think the novelty of going to Washington DC was really significant.

And not only that, for the band this was the first time in 40 years that they had taken a substantial trip.

For The Pride, anyway, it was the first time in 40 years that they had had traveled on a national or international basis, since the Winnipeg trip, so it was very special.

- [V.J.]

You see them on television and you realize these young people are from the same small towns that you have known and grown up with all your life.

You may not know them personally, but you kind of share the same values.

(upbeat music) They come from small places and they do a big thing.

And I would imagine now, for the band members, if you asked them about that trip they could tell you everything that they did on that trip because it was such a significant, emotional moment in their lives to participate in that, something historical.

And so I look at it as realizing it's a life changing moment for them and it's a fantastic band that you're proud of.

- I was tired all the way through.

I thought I might fall down once or twice.

But it was fun.

- [Narrator] In 1975 Jim McKinney arrived at SDSU to direct The Pride.

He resigned shortly after to direct college bands in Iowa, but returned in 1985.

- [Kevin] Jim is a fabulous musician, a fabulous band director, and the best salesperson I've ever met in my life.

- [Narrator] Under McKinney's leadership and vision, paired with the arrangements of Pride alumnus James Coull, The Pride experienced an era of unprecedented growth and national exposure.

- [Jim] During that time I watched that band grow from approximately 220 members to almost 400 members, doubling the size.

- [Kevin] He could talk anybody into joining band, staying in band.

And not only could he talk 'em into joining and staying, but they enjoyed it.

You know, he could make them enjoy it too and just have a great time and really get into the culture and the spirit of that organization.

(upbeat music) - Jim McKinney was an incredible recruiter.

And not in a shallow way, but in a very authentic and meaningful way.

I remember being at All-State Band my senior year, we played in the Corn Palace, and he came up to me and I knew of him but he knew my name, he knew my mom's name, he knew that I was considering SDSU and he had me totally drinking the Kool-Aid just in a couple of minutes.

He's got that sorta that Hapeville, Georgia Southern drawl.

It's sort of unforgettable.

And, yeah, he was just really, really authentic when it came to identifying talented musicians across the state and wanting them to participate in his ensembles.

- Yeah, I think back on Jim McKinney and just about the charisma that he had.

With everything that he did he just brought a sense of passion and flare to everything.

And I reflect back on that with a lot of things that I do in my job.

I think about, you know, just his passion for making music and what a charismatic character he was.

And I do reflect on that and try to emulate that as much as I possibly can.

- He was terrific.

He was always so for The Pride and worked so hard to make it part of the university.

They were so much a part of our culture at our campus, and that's such a tribute to them.

- We're very excited to play for you this morning.

Some of 'em are so excited they didn't even go to bed last night.

(crowd laughing) (crowd cheering) I'd like to say we had great students, we had a great staff and we had great administrative support.

So it's sort of like a three legged stool.

If you lose any one of those, you're in trouble.

- [V.J.]

But for the most part during that time the president was Peggy Miller.

Peggy loved that band, and that band loved her.

- I feel like all the presidents at South Dakota State University have appreciated The Pride and supported The Pride in one way or the other, but Dr. Miller went above and beyond.

I love the quote, when I retired she spoke at my retirement party and she said, "When I saw Mr. McKinney coming to my office I knew two things..." - I'm gonna love what you're gonna tell me, and it's gonna cost me money.

- I love that, you know.

And she would dig and she would find it, and she would scrap.

- And keep doing it because we like doing these things for our students, it's wonderful.

- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen (indistinct).

(upbeat music) - The type of person that plays in is very driven, I'm sure their grades are at the top.

They probably have a part-time job.

They come out to band practice, they're very regimented.

I've heard a lot of students through the years say, "Well I don't think I have time for band."

And I said, "Yes, you do.

But if all your roommates say, 'We're going downtown to get pizza,' or, 'We're going to the movies,' you may have to say, 'No, my free time is with the band.

You know, my special time, my fun time.'"

But if you look around, you know, they are the students, the young adults, and now some of the older adults, that are in leadership roles.

In banking, in medicine.

They're the leaders of our community and you could see that in 'em during their college years.

(upbeat music) I always told them, "You gotta have fun, but you're always representing the university, and your family, and yourself."

So they very seldom got outta line, very, very seldom, in all those years.

They would go up to that line and then they would back off.

- South Dakota State University.

- [Narrator] On the eve of the 1996 presidential election, Bill Clinton made a final stop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

None other than The Pride of the Dakotas was invited to perform for the incumbent.

- It was his last campaign ever.

It was his second run for President.

He was late, of course, so the band, instead of just playing four or five numbers, we had about an hour and a half concert.

But it was at the end of our marching season so we knew a lot of music, you know.

So we kind of had the crowd rocking out there for pushing three hours before he showed up.

- I can still remember exactly where we sat.

When I go into the arena I'm like, "We were right there."

And we played through the entire rally.

Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, were all there.

The whole family was there.

- And at the end of the night the FBI came up, or the Secret Service, and said, "We want the band to stay in their seats when we empty the arena."

And I thought, "Well that makes sense, they don't wanna mix us up, we gotta go back and get our cases and everything."

And then when everybody was out of the arena, they said, "President Clinton would like to have his picture made with you."

- [Dan] The President comes walking in and he just says how much he appreciated having our energy there and how much he just loved what we brought to the event and thanked us for that and shook our hands.

I got the chance to shake his hand, which was pretty awesome.

- One of the things I loved about that, there was a young man from an African country, and I can't recall which, and he kept coming out to band every day and he seemed to love it.

So I said, "Well, why don't you join the band?"

And he said, "Well I don't play anything."

I said, "Well we can teach you to play cymbals, you know."

So he joined the cymbal line, never having a music lesson.

Well then about a month later he gets his picture on the magazine standing right beside the President of the United States.

- Then we all started chanting, "inaugural parade," and sure enough, a few weeks later, we got the invite to the inaugural parade.

- Listen up, please.

We're going to move out, make sure you got everything you need for the parade.

- [Mike] The security people, as we were getting ready to start marching, they were like, "Now stay in your formation and don't like run to the crowd or run to the sides because there's a bunch of snipers on top of all the buildings."

And we started marching and I remember looking up and sure enough peppered across all these rooftops are like military snipers, which was a little nervous.

The older I get the more I realize what a special moment that was, you know.

Because he just...

It's just a once in a lifetime experience and it is because I was a part of that band that I was able to have that experience.

(upbeat music) - [V.J.]

I'll never forget how I felt that whole January day watching the band march down Pennsylvania Avenue.

It was pretty emotional for all of us that were sitting there.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] In October of 2001 McKinney received an invitation to march at the 114th Tournament of Roses Parade.

The Pride was the only university band to be invited to the parade.

- One day he came to my office in the afternoon and came in and said, "President, we have an invitation to march in the Rose Bowl parade."

I said, "That's fabulous."

And he said, "Well, what do you think I should say?"

I said, "Say yes, of course we will."

He said, "But it'll be expensive."

I said, "Oh, I know that."

And he said, "You think we can do it?"

I said, "Yes, we can.

You know what I think, we'll find a way to do it."

(upbeat music) I loved it.

I loved it.

The Pride really made us proud.

(upbeat music) - [Jim] You know, if you take a math test and you get an A and your neighbor flunks it, you still got your A.

If you go out on a football field for a performance and you get an A and your neighbor gets an F then the whole band comes down, their grade.

So all of our students realize that we're depending on each other.

I've gotta do my part, I'll help you with your part, you do your part.

And they become very, very close.

And then you put in all those hours of work.

- [Paula] But even though it's so big, if you have someone missing, you know it.

You know what I mean?

It's like, you would think that, "Oh, one person out of 300 is not a big deal."

But when it's a marching band, they fill a spot, you know?

And if you go out and you play your show minus that person, there's a gap.

And people know it.

So even if it maybe doesn't affect the overall sound, there's someone not there and they're missed.

And so that's also maybe kind of a metaphor for the family thing, you know.

If they're not there, they're missed.

- I would think we'd all be surprised how many marriages have happened through Pride members.

They met their spouse through The Pride.

- Talk about a marrying machine.

You know, The Pride of Dakota is because you have so many people from all different majors across campus, you know, nursing, engineering, agronomy.

You know, pick a major there's usually someone from that in the band.

And you've got 150 to 300 students together and you're bound to make connections.

I think Jim McKinney can say that he's probably put the most people together in South Dakota.

- [Jim] And I'm proud of that, I think that's neat.

'Cause we are, and we were, a family.

- [Narrator] Former Pride drum major, Kevin Kessler, was selected as director of athletic bands in 2015.

A recent transition to Division One athletics has afforded the band new opportunities to showcase its talent on the world's largest stages, while creating a great game day atmosphere for the football team.

- Being the director of The Pride means being the part of a really special history.

It means being connected to people that I never got to meet, but are connected by music and connected by their association with the band.

And it's a big responsibility.

It's a tradition that has been placed in my hands to uphold and eventually to pass on, hopefully even better than I found it.

And I found it in fantastic shape.

But I think that's our job, is to leave something better than we found it.

So it's a responsibility in that regard as well.

- I realize that a lot of those young people come from small towns.

Come from small towns where the marching band may be 25, 30, and all of a sudden they're part of this huge band with a big sound.

And for them to be able to have the opportunity to be a part of something so large, and as a unit together, it's a big deal.

It's a big deal for me having come from a small town wondering, "Could I ever be a part of something big?"

And they are.

It's from the Lake Prestons, and the Winners, and the Mobridge.

All these towns of South Dakota, these kids, and they come from different majors for one reason, to produce great music for the enjoyment of all of us.

- Some of these people are my dearest friends today.

I lived with them in college, we were in each other's weddings, we talk often.

I can't even begin to express, like had I not, had I not got connected with that activity it's hard to imagine what my circle, my social circle, would even look like.

So I'm super thankful for that opportunity to meet those people and to build those kinds of relationships.

- The Pride is a part of a lot of people's lives and it's a part of a lot of traditions and, you know, it's just...

It just is.

I don't even really know how to describe it better than that.

You know?

It's...

I mean, if it wasn't for The Pride we wouldn't be together and a lot of other people wouldn't be together and, you know, the world would be a lesser place for it.

- At least for us.

- Yeah.

- [Peggy] Like the football team, and the basketball teams, and the wrestling teams, and the debate teams, and all the student groups that go out beyond the campus to other campuses and other communities and things, they're all our living logos.

And the fact that they do it so well, and they do it with such joy and enthusiasm, they make our logo one that's special.

- [Dan] I think the legacy of The Pride is being the most famous band in the region.

People know it.

People recognize the name.

And it's a brand, you know.

People know that brand.

When The Pride comes down the street you know you're gonna have an experience, you know.

You know it's gonna be big, you know it's gonna be powerful, you know it's gonna be loud and it's just fun to hear a group with that kind of energy.

You know?

And that's, I think that's what people know it for.

(band cheering) - The most important part of this band is what it means to its individual members.

And the word that has been used, as long as I have known this band, has been family.

The members of the band become just very close to one another and the relationships that are built not only in the four years here but in the decades after is, it's hard to describe how important they are to people.

We still have reunions here and a couple hundred people will show up and conversations will pick up like they were never ended from decades ago.

People meet their wives and their husbands in this band.

My wife and I met each other in The Pride of the Dakota's Marching Band.

So it's even that much more important to us as a part of our history.

But it really is family.

And the culture of that and the supportiveness amongst the members has been something that has been unchanged for decades, and I think is perhaps our greatest legacy.

(upbeat music) - [V.J.]

When it says, "Pride of the Dakotas," they're absolutely right.

There are some other bands around, and you don't wanna be competitive about it but there are other bands around, and they're good bands, taking nothing away from them, but we know the greatest sound, the best march, comes from a place called Brookings and South Dakota State University.

(upbeat music) (crowd cheering) - [Announcer] Ladies and Gentleman, The Pride is back.

(upbeat music)