• That’s my Dad
• He was a major influence
• Drummed a lot into me
They’ve been going in and out of style
But they’re guaranteed to raise a smile.
So may I introduce to you
The act you’ve known for all these years,
Arthur Scheerer’s Iowa College Band.
I was lucky to go to the 50th reunion of my father’s Class of 1934 at Iowa State University to do an ABC Radio News story on college life then and now (now being 1984) and wrote about it here: Off To College with Dad – and Mic
He was proud of his stint as the drum major for the marching band, and here, in some photographs recently surfaced from my sister’s basement, you can see him leading the band to the football stadium. Marching backwards . . a prerequisite for the job.
And here they are inside Clyde Williams Field, which was replaced in 1975 by Jack Trice Stadium.
In the above picture there appear to be more than just band members on the field. And there doesn’t seem to be much of a coaching staff, if any, on the sidelines. So this may have been part of a graduation ceremony, not a football game.
ISU was known as Iowa College in the 1930’s. My Dad was known as a cut-up of sorts, so this last photo is titled, in pen on the back, “One Man Band”
I encourage you to listen to the radio series where my father’s contemporaries talked about college life in 1934 compared to 1984. Prohibition, bootleg booze and big bands vs. Lionel Richie and gin & tonics.
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