Husky Alumni Band plays for tailgaters in SE parking lot.

Squad, pre-game huddle, chanting and swaying, getting all fired up!

Things were looking impossible at the football game last night: the UW Huskies were down 33-21 to the University of Arizona Wildcats with only about four minutes left to play in the game. Suddenly, with hands clasped in front of his face and then raised to the sky, the Husky Alumni Band (HMBAA) trumpet player sitting next to me openly prayed aloud to the “Husky God” for a “miracle in our house.”  Sure enough, within the next ~1.5 minutes, the Huskies had scored 15 points and won the game. Actually, the four plays (pass, extra point kick, interception, two-point conversion)  which yielded those 15 points took only 18 seconds off the game clock.  “Unbelievable!” screamed the 1.5″ headline in the Sunday Seattle Times.

Now it was really fun playing again in the Husky Alumni Band…lotsa good musicians having fun like the college kids we once were. “You Can Call Me Al,” “Louie, Louie,” “Gimme Some Lovin’,” “Johnny Q,” “Celebration” are just a few of the many songs we played before masses of people tailgaiting in various parking lots around Husky Stadium. And of course, “Victory” and “Bow Down to Washington” many times. Three vintage trumpeters, Dave, Dave, and Stan, showed me around and were especially fun to play with. I’ll be back for the Apple Cup against WSU on 28 November (Thanksgiving weekend), God willing!