For Marching Mizzou alumni, Homecoming weekend provides the opportunity to relive the collegiate band experience with a performance on Faurot Field.

On Homecoming weekend, the Marching Mizzou Alumni Band will perform during the pre-game show before Missouri’s game against the Idaho Vandals. The group is also known as M2AB, and is affiliated with the Mizzou Alumni Association. M2AB started in the 1970s when a group of band members wanted to continue to play after graduation and reconnect with old friends. Since then, M2AB had performed during every Homecoming pre-game show.

All Marching Mizzou alumni are invited to participate and march on the field for the Homecoming game. Those unable to march due to physical restraints are known as visual marchers, who still keep the Marching Mizzou spirit alive by watching the performance on the field.

“Everyone is invited and encouraged to come back,” M2AB President Johanna Reed Adams said. “This year we have about 130 people performing and about 20 visual marchers coming back to support us. We are thrilled.”

On the day of Homecoming, the alumni are up and ready to play at 7 a.m. to practice their pieces for an hour and a half in their required uniforms: matching shirts and black pants. After, they are joined by the current members for an hour to practice their combined performance before heading to Memorial Stadium for the pre-game show.

“We get to run on the field by ourselves and play a few pieces, then the current students join us,” Adams said. “After, we leave and the students finish up the pregame.”

The alumni get to play popular Marching Mizzou songs such as the “Missouri Waltz” and “Old Missouri” as well as the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

Alumni ranging from all ages and sections of the band enjoy the chance to come back and play their instruments in front of Homecoming crowd.

Callee Curtis, a recent MU graduate, plans to come back to play the cymbals for Mizzou drumline every chance she has.

“While I was in college, I would have laughed and said no to coming back,” Curtis said. “But I miss Marching Mizzou more than ever because it was such a big part of my life. I will take advantage of every opportunity to come back.”

Some Marching Mizzou alumni have been coming back every year since they graduated. One alumnus, Luis Actis, has returned every year to play the snare drum since he graduated in 2002.

“It’s always a good time,” Actis said. “I have been in the alumni band for a while. I continue to come back because it’s an opportunity to play that type of performance in front of a large crowd again and reunite with the people I marched with.”

During their four years in Marching Mizzou, the band members spend enormous amounts of time together. The band has practice every day, on top of performances at every football game and various other large events. The members remain close after they graduate, but the bonds are strengthened by events like Homecoming, which becomes a great way to reunite and catch up with one another.

“I miss the people. The drumline was my second family because our life together was not just on the field; we were together 24/7 and created a bond,” Curtis said. “When I graduated, I thought I was going to have to leave my college friends behind and make new friends.”

Several band members became more than just friends, as romantic relationships have also formed. Several of the alumni are married and have been together since their college days. Molly Froidl, a clarinet player, met her husband in Marching Mizzou.

“My husband marched and played the trumpet,” Froidl said. “We lived in the same dorm and he would make it a point to talk to me at rehearsal and sit with me at the dining halls.”

Some alumni have relocated to the same area after graduation and now have children of the same age that have grown up together.

“Tons of couples have come from being together during Marching Mizzou,” Froidl said. “Some alumni have kids that march in the same band as my son at school.”

For one family, Marching Mizzou has stayed within a family tree for more than one generation. The director of Marching Mizzou Alumni, Hadley Haux, played the baritone as an undergraduate and graduate student in the early ‘80s. He now has children of his own who play for Marching Mizzou.

“I marched for seven years, then participated as a grad assistant for two years,” Haux said. “Now I have two children of my own, a son and daughter, that are in Marching Mizzou.”

During their collegiate careers, attending every football game and traveling to perform at destinations around the world provided the opportunity to form countless memories. But for many in Marching Mizzou, the most recalled memories are the ones made during football games.

“I definitely remember one of the rivalry games,” Actis said. “Everyone thought we were going to lose, but we ended up winning. Everyone rushed the field and ripped down the goal post, tearing it to pieces, then carrying it downtown. I actually managed to get a piece of the goal post. It was pretty cool.”

More than the memories that have been made through Marching Mizzou, members have formed friendships that will last a lifetime.

“There are so many people from different backgrounds in the group,” Curtis said. “I loved getting to know everyone, and everything was always so much fun.”

The Marching Mizzou Alumni Band will perform during the pre-game show before the Homecoming football game at 11 a.m.

_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_