"The Most Exciting Alumni Band in the Land" took the field for the first time in 1973. That year, approximately 60 former marching band members returned for a halftime rendition of "Stand up and Cheer." In that performance, a tradition was born.

Today, more than 200 Alumni of Ohio University bands make the trek to Athens for Homecoming each fall to relive a bit of their college days.

In the fall of 1999, 26 years after that first alumni band performance, the Alumni Association Board of Directors approved the official Ohio University Marching Band Society of Alumni and Friends (OUMBSAF).

The purpose of the OUMBSAF is to "aid and promote the general welfare of the Marching and Alumni Bands, in order to achieve the goals of the Alumni Association and to promote and facilitate the active involvement of alumni and friends of the Alumni Association/Marching Band."

Whether you've marched with the band or cheered from the stands, you're invited to join the Society of Alumni and Friends in its support of marching bands at Ohio University.

Also, feel free to check our announcements to see what the OUMBSAF is working on.