Activities & Organizations

Flashback: Drum major lights up the field

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Engineering student Max Duncan, drum major for the Cougar Marching Band in 1981, leads the band at a football game. | 1981/The Daily Cougar

1981 was a new year for the Cougar Marching Band. That fall, the band received a new director, Greg Talford, and a new drum major, Max Duncan, pictured.

Talford began the tradition of the Cougar Brass playing the Olympic Trumpet Fanfare to signify Cougar victories. This is now considered the “de facto Houston Victory song,” according to uhcougars.com.

Duncan, an engineering major, added flashlights to his suit for a flash of special effects and performed a variety of acrobatics on the field, such as backflips.

Duncan practiced with the band three times a week before leading them during the Saturday football games.

8 Comments

  • Whoever wrote this article needs.to do some research. Greg Talford lost certainly DID NOT begin the tradition of the Olympic Fanfare. that had been a.part of UH BAND TRADITION for years before he arrived.

    • this information is completely false. The Cougar Band has been playing the Olympic Fanfare for Victories since the early 1969. Bill Moffit the new band director at the time arranged the Bugler’s Dream fanfare after it was used on ABC for the theme of the 1968 Olympics. Get your facts straight!!!

  • Wrong!!!!! The cougar band has been playing that since Moffit came to UH. He was the mastermind behind many proud band traditions. Greg Talford did nothing!!!

  • The Daily Cougar really needs to just stop trying to write about the Moores School of Music and the marching band. You guys really need to do some research before attempting to write articles.

  • 1981 was a very challenging year for the marching band. We lost a marching institution when Dr. Moffit left for Purdue. His replacement, Greg Talford, implemented quite a few changes including a new marching style and quite different music selections. Some of the comments are an insight into just how emotionally charged such a difficult transition can be.
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    The article does have a few facts confused, which is understandable since the details are, I hate to say, several decades in the past. The Olympic Fanfare and directing the National Anthem with flashlights in a darkened Astrodome with a spotlight on the featured singer were both holdovers from the Moffit years.
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    I will always remember my four years with our Cougar Marching Band as some of the very best. And a special thanks to the group that allowed me to be their Drum Major for two wonderful years. Go Coogs!

  • It s ok to delete me. Gregg Talford was a mean man. His wife seemed petrified of him.As a five star high school,TC High could not compete but played host to the International Marching Band Competitions. We were always impressed with the Dundee Scott’s.We were a high stepping marching band at that time which works much better at a college level because of a more uniform height.to make a short story long,we hated gregg Talford but we prospered as musicians in spite of him.

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