An Introduction to the Virginia Pep Band

Welcome to the CyberHome of the Virginia Pep Band. The Pep Band has been the official Band of Lunatics, Fools, and Brigands of the University of Virginia since at least 1969, and we plan to hang around pokin' fun and raising eyebrows for even longer. The Pep Band is a scramble band like those in the Ivy League and at Stanford and Rice - that is, our performances involve humor and satire (whereas marching band performances tend to involve tributes to Andrew Lloyd Weber and precision marching rhombi - which are, we admit, always funny in their own way.) We are entirely student run, our uniforms are more interesting than uniform, and mere references to marching are frowned upon in the extreme. We have a lot of fun, some of which we even sometimes remember.

Recently, the University has decided to ditch the tradition and become just like everyone else by getting a marching band. No worries - we're not going anywhere. We'll continue to support Virginia athletes any way we can, entertain the student body, scramble through the occasional parade, do a little work for charity, sing bawdy drinking songs, maintain an electronic mailing list, throw extravagant parties at one of the Pep Band houses, be banned in at least 3 states, and consider one another the fastest of friends!

So how did we get our impossibly huge moniker? I'll defer to Evan MacBeth and Renee Le Febure (respectively) for the explanation.

From Evan:
"The Award-Winning" - Back in the 50s, the UVA Marching Band won a trophy for a marching competition. As far as I know, the trophy is still in the office (with my POS tape player). At least it was four years ago. But the earth has cooled since then so who knows... That award was the original impetus for the 'award winning' portion of our name. Later, the Band scrambled in the DC "Gross National Parade" when that cacophony of disgrace still existed. The Pep Band won an award at that parade for its performance, I believe, as the 'rubber band, sponsored by Trojan.' If memory serves, the Pep band really WAS sponsored by Trojan, complete with costumes and a schload of Free Condoms.
"Virginia Fighting Cavalier" - original portion of name
"Indoor/Outdoor" - I'm not positive, but I believe that this was added when the Band started doing Basketball games.
"Precision" - No idea, but I don't think it was part of the original name.
"Marching Pep Band" - original portion of name
"And Chowder Society Revue" - Added to honor the East Lawn Chowder and Marching Society
"Unlimited" - I believe an original portion of our name.

And Renee:
Apparently there were two factions; "The East Lawn Marching and Chowder Society" and the "West Lawn Chowder and Marching Society." They were both sort of like secret societies and were selective in choosing their members. However, if you look in old yearbooks, they had their pictures taken, so I guess the groups weren't too secret.

They used to drink and generally have a good time, setting up parties, gambling, visits by girls before they were officially admitted to UVA, etc... Also, they loved annoying their opposing group. So, the West Lawn group would raucously play instruments and set up pranks etc.. on East Lawn and vice versa. Fun!

I believe our CSRU comes out of the East Lawn Marching and Chowder society. They were cooler and lasted a little bit longer before becoming defunct. A lot of people in the ELM&CS were also in the Pep Band, so the transition made sense. Our absorbing their old members was much like the transition in the world of better known UVA secret societies from the Hot Feet to IMPs and the Seven Society when the Hot Feet were banned by President Alderman in 1911.

And there you have it. They're old, so I believe them.