UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN • BOWL PREVIEW SECTION Thursday, December 10, 1992
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Justin Knupp / KANSAN
The Marching Jayhawks perform during halftime during the Colorado game.
Aloha Bowl berth gives KU band members opportunity to travel
By Lynne McAdoo Kansan staff writer
Football players are not the only ones going to Hawaii to play in the Aloha Bowl. Thirty-five seats on the plane are reserved for members of the Marching Jayhawks.
"Everyone going has to play an instrument, even the band director," said Ken Green, who instructs the percussion section and will be playing the drums alongside his students. "There's not enough room for any tag-alongs."
Even Jason George, a drum major from Shawnee, will be playing his clarinet instead of conducting.
Because of the limited number of seats on the plane, band director Bob Foster and the rest of the band staff had the difficult task of choosing which of the 300 band members would get to go to Hawaii.
"It was terrible," Foster said. "It was an impossible decision. There's no way to bus the whole band to Hawaii."
The first priority was meeting the needs of the band, he said. He said he chose more members from the percussion and brass sections because they would make a louder band. Seniority and ability were the other two factors used in deciding who would go the Aloha Bowl.
"We couldn't just have 30 tuba players," he said. "We have to have a certain mixture to make things work."
Although the band does not have 30 tuba players, it does have 40 piccolo players to choose from.
piccolo "That means you make two very happy piccolo players and 38 unhappy ones," he said.
Holly Hartman, Lawrence junior, was not one of the players chosen to go, but she will pay her own way. She said she had watched the Kansas football team struggle for several years and wanted to be there to see the Jayhawks finish a great season. Her grandmother bought her a ticket as a combined Christmas and birthday gift.
"This is my fourth year in the band,
and this year has been really exciting—getting to go to a bowl game," said Hartman, who never has missed a performance in four years. "It's the trip of a lifetime."
Eric Kennedy, Leawood senior, and Greg Davis, Stilwell senior, are band members and roommates. Both of them are going to Hawaii. Their other roommate, Dan England, Lenexa junior, also a band member, is going on a family skip instead of going to Hawaii.
He said that there always would be opportunities to go to Hawaii, but that this was probably one of the last times he would go on vacation with his family.
"I know it's cheesy, and it should be on the Waltons," England said. "But my family is very important to me. It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make."
England said he would be having fun in Colorado while his roommates were exploring the island of Oahu.
"Thope they send me a postcard," he said.
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