Rammer Jammer Excellent Post LibertyBell7
Actually, the drum majors did not beg; Dr. Ozzello called it up.
I feel this is an appropriate time to set the record straight on when and when not to play Rammer Jammer. This post will be long, but there is some history to tell. I have heard the information from people on the band staff for the past three years, so I believe that it is reliable.
After we played Rammer Jammer five times and the Tennesee Waltz at UT in 2002, UT officials complained to the SEC, and so the SEC made the following rule:
If the visiting team wins, then the visiting band can only play the fight song and the alma mater after the game. The argument is that after the game, cheers such as Rammer Jammer taunt the opposing fans and band more so than the team. Also, in 2003, Coach Moore made some guidelines on the use of the Rammer Jammer cheer: it can only be played if we win by at least seven points (in football) and ten points (in basketball). This is also the year that Coach Moore began to really pressure the directors to end the rampant alcohol drinking in the band. My opinion is that these two things were done to boost the University's image in the wake of the Mike Price incident. Again, this is my opinion, but Dr. Ozzello had alluded to Price when he first discussed these rules two years ago, so that is why I believe this.
The MDB has pretty much complied with these two rules. During our last two road games where we won by more than seven points and a band was present, we played the Rammer Jammer cheer before time expired. These two games were Miss. St. in 2003 and South Carolina of this year. By doing this we obeyed the SEC rule and Coach Moore's rule. We did not play Rammer Jammer at Ole Miss because it would have violated both rules (especially the SEC one). Ironically, we actually did violate the SEC rule because one of the drum majors called up "Dream On." I'm sure nobody cared, though. We broke the letter of the rule, but not the spirit of it.
After the UT game, when we had finished Yea Alabama at the end of the game, Dr. Ozzello told us to play the RJ cheer because "I want to" (He might have said "Because I want it"--I was relatively far away). I used italics because he pointed at himself when he said I, which is the best way to emphasize that word to 300 band members at the stadium. Why would Dr. Ozzello want to, especially when he had just reminded us that morning at practice about the rule?
Now, what I am about to write is entirely my opinion, but I consider it to be an educated guess. If you read this Dr. O and it is untrue, please know that these may be the reasons I especially wanted to do Rammer Jammer to the Vols, and maybe thought you had similar reasons. In 2003, after UT beat us at Bryant-Denny, they did the Rammer Jammer cheer to us. This was particularly infuriating because they were the ones that complained to the SEC the previous year! The ink wasn't dry on the rule when they turned around and broke it. Dr. Ozzello reported it to the SEC office the following Monday, but I doubt they did anything about it. So I think he wanted it to deliberately get back at them. Plus, they thought we "conspired" to take a long time to start our halftime show last year (which is a whole other issue), so he was feeling no love for them anyway. On the other hand, he also might have wanted it because he has been here since 1989, so he has had to suffer UT like the rest of us.
I apologise for the length, and I want to reiterate that the last paragraph is my opinion (except about UT playing RJ in 2003).
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