The MOB's Origins

The Rice Owl Band, organized in 1916, was made up of twelve enterprising students from all colleges of the university and it was built upon interest in band activities and the reading of band literature. Under Mr. Lee Chatham's leadership starting in 1922, the band grew from thirty-five to about fifty pieces. Rehearsals were held in Autry House, across Main Street from campus. During this period, however, there were few high school bands, so civic and municipal bands, as well as private teachers, supplied the main body of membership. Mr. Kit Reid stepped up as director following Mr. Chatham's retirement in 1938. During the period of World War II, the supply of band personnel was very unstable, so toward the end of the war, Hugh Saye and Dick Kincheloe formed a band of Navy cadets under the V-12 program. This group was supplemented by civilians from the student body. After the war, the band was reorganized and the first women, four majorettes, joined the previously all-male organization. Neel Cotton completed the academic year as director following Mr. Reid's retirement in 1950. In 1951, Holmes McNeely became director and instituted a building program of both equipment and personnel. Mr. McNeely was the first to offer a number of band scholarships to students involved with the Rice Owl Band. At this time, women musicians were added to the general Rice band for the first time.

Upon the retirement of Mr. McNeely in 1967, Mr. Bert Roth took charge of the band activities. In the fall of 1968, he gave a work scholarship to every qualified member of the Rice Owl Band in recognition of their participation. The Rice Owl Band broke with tradition in 1970 and introduced timely and sometimes controversial topics into their half-time activities. With their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks, the band parodied politics, life at Rice, and other members of the Southwest Conference using the brains that Rice is famous for, rather than brawn. The band also gradually stopped marching and began the "scattering" that it is now famous for. This type of entertainment proved popular with band members as well as with the student body.

Dr. Ken Dye took over the director's job in 1980. By emphasizing musical quality and contemporary show design, the band (now called the Marching Owl Band, or the MOB) could target and entertain a larger audience. His first year marked the beginning of the jazz ensemble and the granting of credit for the concert band. Dye updated the MOB's uniforms in 1982, and so the MOB donned their trademark gray felt fedoras for the very first time! Dr. Dye's tenure at Rice saw MOBsters perform at the Opening Ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics, the 1985 Presidential Inauguration, the 1986 Statue of Liberty Celebration and U.S. Olympic Festival, as well as the 1993 Carnivale in Nice, France. Dr. Dye believed that travel was an important part of any major college band. During his time as MOB director, the band took trips to places as far afield as Notre Dame and the campuses of all three U.S. Service Academies. The MOB also took shorter trips to SMU, TCU, and Tulane University. Dr. Dye's single greatest legacy lies with his tremendous talent for arranging music for bands. During his time at Rice, he arranged literally hundreds of tunes for the MOB to perform. Our music library overflows with his first-class arrangements of many rock, jazz, and blues standards. When it comes to playing great music, the MOB has long been among the best college bands in the country, a tradition that it will uphold for years to come.

More recently in our history, Willy's Pub and the MOB band hall were destroyed in a fire that gutted much of the Rice Memorial Center in the spring of 1995. Luckily enough, however, the MOB was already planning a move to a new location. With a new band hall in place, the MOB had to rebuild from nearly zero; new instruments, equipment, office supplies, computers, and uniforms all had to be bought in the summer of 1995 in time for the 1995-96 season. In 1996, the Southwest Conference officially disbanded. This meant that longtime rivals UT, A&M and UH were no longer regular adversaries. Rice, SMU and TCU joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Our new conference includes such exotic destinations as California and Hawaii, and the MOB looks forward to terrorizing our new opponents' stadia, wherever they may be found.

In 1997, Dr. Dye left Rice to rebuild the band program at the State University of West Georgia, a position he held for only one year before moving on to a directorship at Notre Dame University in the fall of 1998. Mr. Sean Williams was hired in the summer of 1997 to serve the MOB and the Rice Band Department as interim director until a permanent replacement for Dye could be found. That replacement was Dr. Robert Cesario, who came to us in the fall of 1998 from Tulsa, Oklahoma. After four years, Dr. Cesario resigned from the position of Director of Rice Bands in the summer of 2002.

The MOB welcomed Mr. Charles Throckmorton as our new Director of Bands in 2002.