To vote for Tiger Band in the “Battle of the Bands” contest on ESPN.com, click here.
Patrick Tracy, a trumpet player in Tiger Band, voted for the Golden Band from Tigerland’s performance of the Indiana Jones theme song as his favorite on ESPN’s Web site Monday during his lunch break, and he made sure all his friends did the same. Voting started Monday for the “Battle of the Bands” competition and ends Oct. 17.ESPN teamed with Paramount Pictures to promote the release of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” on DVD, according to Roy King, assistant director of bands. Voters can submit one ballot a day for their favorite performance of the theme song, and the band with the most votes will be awarded $25,000, King said. “Our intent is to use the money for our new band building, so this would definitely be beneficial,” he said. The invitation from ESPN was originally offered to the bands whose football teams were ranked in the top-10 preseason poll, King said. “This is a good opportunity to showcase our marching band,” said Rob Dowie, Tiger Band drum major.There are very few college marching band competitions, so being invited to this one is a great honor, Dowie said. The last time Tiger Band was invited to participate in a national competition was in 1970 when it won the title of the All-American Marching Band, Dowie said.Each of the seven participating bands has a video on ESPN’s Web site to showcase their performance of the theme song. The Tiger Band video was filmed in the indoor football practice facility about two weeks ago, Dowie said.All bands participating play the Indiana Jones theme song with a different arrangement, Dowie said. “We put a little ‘Hold that Tiger’ and a little ‘Pregame’ in our arrangement,” he said. Southeastern Conference rivals competing include Auburn, Georgia and Florida. “This shows how intense the SEC really is in terms of football teams and marching bands,” Dowie said. Members of the band are trying to promote the competition, and they feel Tiger Band has a really strong chance, Tracy said. “I’ve seen quite a few Facebook statuses that say ‘vote for Tiger Band,'” he said.  Of the seven bands competing, LSU football coach Les Miles was the only coach to make a special guest appearance in a team’s video, King said. —-Contact Aimee Effler at [email protected]