Posted: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:57 AM - 11,652 Readers

By: John Kelso

Since the Longhorn Alumni Band has some old band folks and Woodstock (the concert) featured a lot of old bands, I was hoping to find an alumni band member who actually went to Woodstock.

No luck.

"Nobody knows much about Woodstock here (in Texas)," said Vincent DiNino, the alumni band's founder and one of the directors. "If you had said skinny-dipping at Lake Austin, you'd get a lot of response."

The alumni band is a busy bunch. Over the years they've given more than $500,000 in scholarships to Longhorn Band members. And they'll be reviewing their routine at 4:30 a.m. Saturday for their performance later that day at Royal-Memorial Stadium. So I get the idea that some of these band geeks may still be skinny-dipping at Lake Austin. It's probably the drum line.

Saturday's halftime show at the Texas-Iowa State game marks the 47th annual reunion of the Longhorn Alumni Band, which bills itself as the largest of its kind in the world. They're expecting 500 horn blowers, baton twirlers and the like to show up.

"Between the Longhorn band and the alumni band, it's close to 1,000 people on the field," DiNino said. "We won't leave a lot of grass showing."

To qualify for the alumni band, you must have been in the regular Longhorn Band, but it doesn't matter if that happened last year or in 1241. So you've got members running from people who tweet to people who think Tweet's a great nickname for a canary.

Take DiNino, who will be 92 on Monday. On Saturday for the game, he'll be climbing the director's ladder. "It takes a little longer than it used to, but I sure make it," said DiNino, the man who introduced "March Grandioso" to the Longhorn Band's play list.

"We do have an EMT at our practice and at our marchdown, and once we enter the stadium, the marching band marches up all the ramps to our seats at the stadium," said Coral Noonan-Terry, the alumni band's president and a feature twirler. "And if people can't march up all the ramps, they take the elevators."

Noonan-Terry, by the way, doesn't even come close to needing the elevators. And yes, she still practices twirling in her off time.

"I have a little cement area that's kinda like a basketball area at home," she said. Now that's marching band commitment. After I got out of the Laconia (N.H.) High School Marching Band, I never played cymbals again.

Marching up all the ramps to their seats in Royal-Memorial is no small feat for some alumni band members, or many other bands, too, unless you're talking about the Everest Sherpa Marching Band. Getting to these seats will suck the wind out of your sails. The alumni band gets Sections 120 and 121, in a corner of the stadium's horseshoe, up there in the thin air.

But the band isn't complaining. In fact, some of the members look at this as a gift.

"Well, when I think about it, I think of all the football players who'd like to come back and perform before the crowd one more time," Noonan-Terry said. "So it's amazing that we have that opportunity."

John Kelso's column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 445-3606 or jkelso@statesman.com.