Bigger Than Ever, Pride of the South Readies for Playoff Stage

Since 1928, the Pride of the South has played the soundtrack of Ole Miss' success and been the voice of school spirit both on and off the field, but it's never had a cohort quite like this one – or played a game quite like this.

"We have the largest enrollment right now ever in the history of the marching band, and this particular year, the thing that really contributed to that is our retention," said Tim Oliver, director of bands. "Seventy percent of the population here are not music majors. That means that every college, every degree-granting undergraduate entity on this campus has some representation in the marching band.

"We are Ole Miss. The marching band is really just a microcosm of the university."

The band and Rebelettes dance team have 333 members, topping the previous record set in 2014. More than 50 majors are represented among the performers, more than 80% of whom are from Mississippi.

The reason band members are staying with Ole Miss is varied, but Mel Morse, the band's assistant director, said he suspects it has something to do with the community created on the practice field.

For Oliver, Morse and Randy Dale, director of athletic bands, the band became a family affair. Morse met his wife, Lewanda on the same practice field where later he and all three band directors would have children in the Pride of the South.

With a band as large as Pride of the South, the members will find their community there, too, he said.

"When you're in band, you're going to get a community that is embracing and is helpful to you, whether that's small study groups, breakouts, friend circles or Venn diagrams of all those things," he said. "And I think that ownership and the desire to do hard things with your friends really gives a strong sense of purpose and belonging to where people don't want to leave."

That was the case for Sofia Euyoque, a Philadelphia native who played in band all four years of her undergraduate career and is serving as a graduate assistant while she earns her master's in music.

"Oxford is home," she said. "I know everyone always says, 'You never graduate from Ole Miss,' but I really think that's true. I have lifelong friendships that have turned into family here."

That's not to say that being a member of the Pride of the South is easy. Every student practices three days a week on its new practice field, and many students are a part of multiple school bands, such as the Wind Ensemble, the Concert Band or the Sound of the Sip, which plays during Ole Miss basketball games.

Pride of the South and Sound of the Sip members also travel multiple times throughout the semester, hopping on airplanes to crisscross the United States with their student-athlete counterparts.

There is a lot of hard work that goes into every halftime show that many people in the crowd may never see, Oliver and Morse said.

"But to be able to do that with people that you've grown to love and the friends that become family, and the bonds that makes through shared experiences and travel and first-time things; to walk into an SEC stadium and there's 70,000 people, and you played a thing and they shouted a thing back at you, and to be part of the pageantry of all that; those are moments," he said.

"Those are moments that you can cherish all your life."

Top: Members of the Pride of the South marching band prepare to march onto the field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for an Ole Miss football game. Band members make friendships and memories that last a lifetime. Photo by Maria Ramirez/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services