As they graduate another senior class, the Penn band’s tradition of ‘silly stuff’ at games lives on

Kristel Rambaud never planned on joining the Penn band.

She had just moved onto Penn’s campus and did not know anyone. She often sat in her dorm room like most intimidated freshmen.

“I heard a loud ruckus, I heard a lot of music playing. And I was like, ‘Oh, is there a DJ outside or something?’ I walked down from my room and I went outside, no DJ. It was the Penn band,” Rambaud said.

Adam Rose, then the student president of the band, gave Rambaud a flier for the band’s first rehearsal. Rambaud showed up and fell in love with the group and became the clarinet section leader through her four years of college.

Penn’s band is not a marching band — members make that clear if you wrongfully assume so. They are a scramble band. During halftime of football games, the Penn band takes the field to perform comedic skits and “scramble” around the field. Lacking the precision of marching bands, the performances are purposefully messy and have been since 1897.

“I think we pride ourselves on being one of the oldest student groups on this campus and one of the largest student groups on this campus,” said senior drum major Sarah Oburu. “Our advisers play a good role in reminding us of the ‘spirit of band’. I think the culture of band is to do silly stuff.”

The band is invited to play at most university events. Earlier this month, the band supplied the theme for Hey Day — a Penn tradition that signifies the juniors becoming seniors. On Monday, band seniors graduated with instruments in their hands.

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“I get to play at my own commencement. I think that’s really special, because not everyone gets to do this,” Rambaud said before the ceremony. “I played at three commencements. I played at four Hey Days, and getting to see stuff like that, and getting to be part of, it’s so cliché to say, something bigger than myself.”

The band seniors were sent off by someone who did graduate from Penn but never left the band. Director R. Greer Cheeseman III, 70, has been with the group for more than 50 years.

Cheeseman joined the band as a student in 1973. He was known for dressing in costumes during performances — including wearing a dress during a Wizard of Oz skit and a toga for a Greek-inspired show. He also started the toast toss tradition at football games, taking inspiration from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

After graduating with an engineering degree, Cheeseman became an assistant director in 1977 before taking over as band director in 1994. He has outlasted seven university presidents.

“I try to be more of a coach than a director,” he said. “It’s pretty much a student-run organization. I want it to remain that way. So I let them do the day-to-day stuff, and I just make sure everything happens.”

The director gives the final approval on all skits, heckles, and songs. A self-described “child of the 70s,” he joked that if it were up to him, the band would only play music from his era. Although he no longer recognizes “half the tunes” the band plays now, he allows them to branch out while maintaining tradition.

Cheeseman will still occasionally play alongside the band as he did 50 years ago.

“I love that man,” Rambaud said about Cheeseman. “Coming to college, it was a little scary. And then I see this old dude. And I was a little scared — ‘Is this going to be a cranky man?’ He’s not, he just wants everyone to have fun.”

Added Cheeseman: “I enjoy it. I like being around the kids. I like that. They accept me as I am. You know, I’m the old guy, but I get to play around with their reindeer games. You know, I’m included.”

The band also has an effect on games.

When not playing music, the band acts as a de facto student section. Penn’s student attendance at sporting events has dwindled in the past decade, but the band has continued to bring the noise.

They boast various “heckles” that have been passed down from generation to generation, losing any coherent meaning through the years. During opponent free throws during basketball games, for example, the band loudly chants “that’s my fish, that’s my fish” despite no active members knowing the chant’s origin.

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Cheeseman claims that the band’s heckles during basketball games are worth “three points a game at a home game, maybe five in an away game.”

“It doesn’t matter if we have no people in the audience, if we’re up by 30, down by 30, [the band] is gonna scream regardless,” said senior forward Stina Almqvist. “Which I think is so cool. It just shows that they actually care so much.”

Almqvist, who hails from Sweden, noted that her native country had no “band culture.” She first heard the band exploring campus as a freshman and sent a video to her friends from home, noting it was something “like in the movies.”

Besides their heckling, the Penn band may be most known for its massive paper rollouts — a Big 5 tradition. These rollouts, which go through Cheeseman’s review, usually poke fun at Penn’s opponents. On a special occasion though, they are used to celebrate the school’s athletes.

In February, Almqvist became the 26th player in program history to score 1,000 points. During the next stoppage of play, the band unveiled a rollup it had prepared to celebrate Almqvist hitting the millennium mark.