The world was a much different place 135 years ago. Benjamin Harrison was president of the United States, the country of Turkey didn’t exist yet. South Dakota State University itself was only nine years old. The state of South Dakota was granted statehood alongside North Dakota merely one year prior. Yet through all these differences, one notable thing has been the same: The Pride of the Dakotas.
The marching band officially turned 135 years old this past August. To reach this milestone, the Pride has been a part of many notable moments in history, including two presidential inaugurations, two Rose Parades, a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, a National Memorial Day Parade, a National Independence Day Parade, two national championship games in Frisco, Texas and even a performance for the King and Queen of England. To reach this level of success and longevity, The Pride has made a lot of changes since their humble beginnings.
Kevin Kessler, Director of Athletic Bands, said when the band began in 1890, it mainly played for ROTC units and athletics, with the director usually being a professor at the college with some sort of musical experience rather than a trained professional. Halftime shows looked very different too, as the theatrics and showmanship of modern halftime shows did not fully bloom until the ‘40s and ‘50s.
Once the band got their hands on proper musical training and leadership and adopted the more choreographed, routine-based field show style that was emerging at the time, The Pride as SDSU knows them today fully came to form.
After one performance in the mid ‘60s, the PA announcer cheered on what he called “The Pride of the Dakotas” over the speaker system. The name stuck, and the rest was history, Kessler said.
Fast forward to today and The Pride, now nearly 300 students strong.Kessler said that each year begins with new Pride members moving in on Monday, one week before classes start, followed by returning members moving in the following day. The whole week prior to the official start to the fall semester sees The Pride working up to 8-9 hour days to learn all they can before classes begin. Once they start, however, they are limited to just 75 minutes, four days a week.
“It’s a lot to learn,” Kessler said, “because there’s all the music that we play in the stands, there’s the music that we learned for shows, and there’s typically three tunes in a halftime show.”
To master every element of their performances in such a limited amount of time, Kessler credits the student leadership he sees on the field, especially during the opening week, claiming the work the students put in to help younger, more inexperienced marchers learn their timings and fundamentals is crucial to the process.
Kessler himself played trumpet and was a drum major, or student conductor, during his five years participating as a student in The Pride. Having that experience, he also feels having strong leadership in the form of The Pride’s four drum majors is specifically integral.
One of the drum majors this year, junior math education major Maegan Questad from Sioux Falls, SD, explained what that looks like on the field.
“It’s just a matter of trying to help everyone shift the mindset of ‘We’re here and we’re gonna put in our best effort for the next hour and 15 minutes,’ because we want to be able to create something amazing for people on game days and anywhere else we go,” Questad said.
To be a part of the band, especially as a drum major, means a lot to Questad. She elaborated that to be an ambassador for the school and to be a part of an organization that the school and the entire state can be proud of is what it truly means to be a member of The Pride of the Dakotas.
Being an ambassador spreads far beyond mid-game antics during a home game, as The Pride travels often for exhibition performances in local schools’ marching competitions. For example, this Friday, September 26th, the band will be traveling to Platte, SD for the Missouri Valley Marching Festival.
Back in Brookings, The Pride will continue to get ready for a handful of upcoming events, such as their new routine for Hobo Day and the border battle game against NDSU, and the reunion performance for Pride alumni.
Every five years, the SDSU Alumni Association’s Pride of the Dakotas’ chapter hosts a reunion performance that includes former members marching during the Hobo Day parade, as well as performing during the pregame show. Andi Fouberg, the president and CEO of the SDSU Alumni Association, who played trumpet in the Pride during her time as a Jackrabbit, shared how that impacted her.
“I think that it was truly my first community at SDSU,” she said. “I’m still in touch with the people that were right around me in The Pride because we were right around one another every day in the fall for four years. I met people in other majors that I wouldn’t have met had it not been for The Pride.”
It is that sense of community that The Pride of the Dakotas holds as one of its most important core pillars, even 135 years later. Kessler explained that his personal pride in the band stems from the people who make up the band’s DNA, and the experiences they get to share with one another during their time together; a sentiment that Questad highlighted when asked her favorite memory from her time with The Pride.
“I think it has to be all of the time I’ve spent with my friends,” Questad said. “Because that’s who The Pride is: just one big family. We might not know everyone…but we all have this one relation where we can just have these incredible memories together.”
