You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. We’ve all heard it before.
This year’s Tiger Band roster features someone who embodies this through and through.
Sitting in the Bengal Brass section is 66-year-old Kent Broussard. After retiring from Sazerac, an alcohol beverage supplier, in 2023, Broussard decided to pursue something else. That meant playing the tuba in the Tiger Band.
“I’m not the kind of sit-at-home type of person that I want to just sit there and do nothing when I retire,” Broussard said. “That’s not me. That was not me when I was working, and it’s certainly not me now.”
It’s been over 40 years since Broussard picked up an instrument, but he’s back into it in full swing. It wasn’t without some convincing and a lot of hard work that he decided to chase a lifelong dream.
About five years before he retired, Broussard said his daughter bought him the book “The Golden Band from Tigerland” by Tom Contine and Faye Phillips in an effort to push him toward trying out.
As a born-and-raised Louisiana boy, Broussard’s always been invested in LSU. Along with and coming from a family with a background in music, he said he would always find a way to watch the Golden Band.
“During the games before the east and west upper side lines were built, and before the south end zone was enclosed, you could walk around the stadium basically unimpeded in the stadium,” Broussard said. “I would make my way from the south end zone and go all the way to the band and just stand by the band and listen to the band play.”
Despite his love for LSU, he went to Southeastern Louisiana University. He got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the university, all while playing in the band too.
He later settled in Laplace, Louisiana, and started his family while working for Sazerac.
Once retired, he knew that making it onto the Tiger Band roster was not going to be an easy feat — even for the most consistent musicians — so he looked for a tutor.
Broussard filled out a form to hire a graduate assistant and was matched with Mathew Thompson, an LSU School of Music graduate. Thompson said it was one of the coolest things he’s seen during his time as a graduate assistant.
“My tuba professor, Dr. Goodman, just kind of sent it to us and said, ‘Does anybody you know want to teach the student? He’s 65, wants to play sousaphone and wants to join Tiger Band,’” Thompson said. “And I was like, ‘Oh heck, yeah, that’s awesome. I’ll do that.’”
Once Thompson and Broussard connected, they started from square one. Thompson helped Broussard learn how to read music again and play the tuba again, but most importantly, he took care of Broussard throughout this journey.
“I hadn’t played an instrument in 45 years, and so it took a while to get my chops back and to start to learn to read music again,” Broussard said. “Mathew was extremely helpful and very, very informative on the things that I needed to do to be successful and to read music and to get myself to this point. He was a big help.”
Thompson said what he was most worried about was the physical demand of the Tiger Band. It’s extremely physically challenging to carry a tuba down Victory Hill and across the field for performances. That’s just another necessity, along with the lung capacity needed to play the tuba well.
But Broussard came prepared for the Tiger Band. His hard work didn’t start because of a spur-of-the-moment decision.
“For the past 16 years, I’ve run between 25 and 30 miles a week,” Broussard said. “I lift weights. I actually bought a weighted vest for me to put on, walk around my neighborhood, mow the grass at my house. Just do a lot of things outside with the vest on. That’s helped, that’s helped a lot…I used a 20-pound weighted vest for like, four months before I started this.”
In addition to teaching Broussard how to read music, Thompson also helped him understand marching band techniques while replicating the expectations of a season in the Golden Band.
Thompson would emulate the fast practices and mental struggles Broussard would likely face. He’d give Broussard a sheet of music; first, he would preview it in front of Thompson, and then, he would take a week to practice before playing it again.
“I kind of prepared him for the fast-paced environment of Tiger Band, which is they send you the music, you learn it really fast and by Saturday, you’re ready to play it in front of 100,000 people,” Thompson said.
All of the hard work that Broussard and Thompson put in paid off, because Broussard made the 2025 Tiger Band. Despite the accomplishment, he won’t accept the attention.
Broussard says that although his story is headline-worthy, he wants to direct all of the attention to every single hard worker in the Golden Band. He said he’s not an attention-seeking person, and he wanted to do this for other reasons.
“I’m not a big attention person,” Broussard said. “That’s just not me. I’ve always been a behind-the-scenes person, and this is a perfect example. In the classes that I’m in, I’m sitting almost in the back row. It’s like, I don’t want to be noticed, and yet, what I’m doing, people are noticing, but I think in a good way.”
The band often goes unnoticed, and Broussard said that all of the attention he is bringing is good for the future of the band and himself. He wants to inspire anyone who wants to do something to just do it because it has been extremely rewarding for him.
Broussard said that one of his greatest accomplishments so far, other than making the band, was running down Victory Hill. Broussard also said that not many people, especially at his age, are in good enough shape to be able to carry a tuba that far, let alone run down the hill.
He also wants to inspire everyone to try to live out their dreams, even if it takes them 66 years to make it there.
“The only failure is not trying,” Broussard said. “You’ve got to try. On the other end of the spectrum, it’s not just about older folks. It’s about younger people, too. This is about younger people seeing what’s possible if you push and push.”
