The Rice University Marching Owl Band, more commonly known today as “the MOB,” has been in existence since the Rice Institute opened its doors 100 years ago. The MOB’s first band director was Wilson Betts, a student from the first entering class at the institute. While it wasn’t until the early 1970s that the persona of the MOB would be to make a mockery of current events with a sketch show, the early band’s roots did show a flair for what would become a tradition at Rice University for years to come.
After “The evolution of the MOB at Rice,” watch the extended video interview featuring current Rice Band Director Chuck Throckmorton telling the story of the infamous 1973 MOB halftime performance at the Rice-Texas A&M game that almost started a skirmish with Aggie fans.
Working with Centennial Historian Melissa Kean, video producer Brandon Martin takes a look at the MOB. For more information on Rice’s history, visit Kean’s blog at www.ricehistorycorner.com.
To help celebrate the university’s centennial next week, Rice University has been producing weekly videos since February exploring the school’s unique history.
To see other stories in the centennial video series, go to www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL60D6D71E71B66B3D&feature=plcp.
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As a freshman trombone player in the MOB in 1973, I greatly appreciated the piece on the band. I had never before seen the video from our infamous A&M show, though now that I think about it, perhaps some of the formation videos may have been shown at band practice. I have certainly relayed the story many times, but enjoyed hearing some things that I did not remember. It was a brilliant show as were many that season, including the one on the road at UT Austin where we insulted them just as much as the Aggies, but got a standing ovation (I think that the football score was something like a Rice loss of 61-7 or on that order). One correction to the telling for Chuck Throckmorton – The band stayed in the stadium for 3 hours after the end of the game. There had been police surrounding the band by sometime in the fourth quarter. After many chants outside, the crowd was cleared by the police before the food trucks came.