Alumni of IUP's century-old marching band celebrate love for music, each other

Ask Stuart Estes what instrument he played in his college marching band five-plus decades ago, and the answer gets complicated.

“It’s an interesting story,” said the 75-year-old from Shippenville, a 1968 graduate of what is now Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Raised in Potter County near the New York line, the only instrument he knew how to play during his freshman year was the flute, but the band had no place for it in its performances. Instead, he was asked to fill out the last of 96 positions, holding a clarinet he did not know how to play.

“I just held it to my mouth,” Estes recalled. “I marched to the formation and looked like I was playing an instrument. I didn’t have to worry about learning the music.”

Marching bands are more than just footsteps and mileage between shows. At a centennial reunion this weekend at IUP, hundreds of alumni of “The Legend” band are celebrating bonds they developed over their shared love of music and the sacrifices needed to get the performances right — even if that meant pretending to play an instrument.

Estes went on to teach music for nearly four decades after graduation. He was the most senior former band member attending planned events Friday and Saturday.

Established in 1921, the band’s first performance was in May 1922. The Legend had its 100th anniversary in 2021, but postponed the centennial celebration until 2022 because of the pandemic.

Originally a 60-piece, nonmarching ensemble, the band now has 101 members, said IUP spokeswoman Michelle Fryling. Uniforms first arrived in 1936, and for a period the group was all male.

Over the decades, The Legend has played some high-profile gigs. It was the official band at the U.S. Constitution bicentennial celebration in 1987, according to an IUP band history. Based in part on notice achieved from that performance, Jacques Chirac, then the mayor of Paris, invited The Legend to perform at a celebration of the French bicentennial in the summer of 1989, officials said.

The same year, the band was in Washington, D.C., for shows on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home.

It also has performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City and at the base of the Statue of Liberty. It has played at NFL games and high school festivals in Pennsylvania and neighboring states.

The Legend’s crimson red and gray uniforms are a familiar sight during events at IUP, including halftime shows at home football games.

The band’s oldest living member turned 96 last week.

Louise Ashbaugh of Ligonier graduated in 1947 from what then was Indiana State Teachers College. She was not able to attend this weekend’s reunion, but spoke enthusiastically of The Legend and the campus memories it generated.

“I enjoyed the fellowship,” she said.

A clarinet player, Ashbaugh enrolled in 1943 and joined the band while many male students and faculty were away fighting in World War II. “There weren’t many men then. We were there until the veterans came home my junior year.”

She went on to teach music for 29 years before retiring.

Estes also spoke of the bonds that came through taking part in band camp and hours and hours of rehearsals. He said it was the best part of his years at IUP, other than meeting his wife of 54 years, Vivian, also an IUP graduate.

“You can’t begin to describe the feeling of being in a group that is working so hard together to put out a product that pleases so many people, including yourself,” he said.

About 900 alumni and friends were expected for the weekend’s events. On Saturday, alumni played alongside current band members at halftime and after Saturday’s 2 p.m. home football game against Clarion University at Frank Cignetti Field.

The reunion saw the debut of “Sustaining Grace,” a documentary produced and created by marching band alumni Mary Megna, a 1984 music education (flute) graduate, and Jarrell Verbecken, a 2018 communications media graduate.

IUP said the video chronicles the marching band’s historic journey in the years since adopting its cherished song “Amazing Grace,” arranged by Chris McDonald, a band tradition since 1981.

The video was created with contributions from a GoFundMe project. It is being offered for a suggested donation of $30, with all proceeds benefiting the marching band.

Long-time band director Charles Casavant said a number of children of band alumni named their daughters Grace, according to IUP. Officials there said Megna was a sophomore when the song was first performed.

“The first time we played ‘Amazing Grace,’ it was such a powerful experience. I’ve never forgotten it,” said Megna, whose hometown is Mechanicsburg. “I’ve played professionally with orchestras, with the Army band and at private events, and I’ve never had another musical experience like it.”