McCollum's Column: A band with a flair, a beat and much energy

Think that's going to take you somewhere with Britney Spears photos or get you a warning from Homeland Security?

Here's the acronym: Award Winning DePauw Fighting Tiger Indoor/Outdoor Professional? Cheering Pep Band & Spam Society Revue Unlimited!!!! @ DePauw University.

The group prides itself as the single highest consumer of verbal spam in America. According to pep band lore, regular and random blood caffeine checks are administered for optimum energy and spirit.

Some of the musicians are probably good enough to perform at Carnegie. Many more of them would also be comfortable appearing on Letterman.

The A........@dpu's traveled in mobile homes about 10 hours to Conway this weekend to serve as the official pep band for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament at Hendrix College.

And this is a group that feels right in sync playing out of the box. It's a student-run and operated group that has served as the pep band for all teams since the SCAC tournament began six years ago.

In addition to being free spirited you might hear the bouncy "Hey" song accompanied by a violin and caracas and you'll see dancers with hula hoops and Tiger headbands there are almost no boundaries to the box.

They invite any other pep band around to join them in their repertoire. People can come out of the stands and dance or gyrate with them. Faculty and alumni are part of the group. One of the trombone players was Danny Piiser, 67, Class of 1963, who, along with his wife, are performing at their second tournament.

The more the merrier, the merrier the more.

"The key is to go out and have fun," said Adam Hilkert, a senior music major who serves as director and conductor. His fiance, Celeste Grossman, choreographs the dance, which has certain designed steps to certain songs, some general routines to multiple songs and some "just wing it" stuff.

The band was created out of "wing it." The school had a regular marching band but the director, Dr. Greg Pare, had a disagreement with the administration on the how to operate and fund a marching band in the right way. The band disbanded several years ago after the dispute. But the DePauw administration demanded a marching band, so this "student-led and "whoever wants to grab and instrument and frolic" group was formed, officially known as the Tiger Pep Band, Alumni Bands and Stumblebums.

Some members of Indiana rival Rose-Hulman, formerly a member of the SCAC, join them for the journey to the conference tourney. This week, they've devised special fight song lyrics of Centre fans because one of their members, Valerie Ziegler, missed her first SCAC tournament because of sickness. She's a Centre graduate. The colors of the two institutions are exactly the same.

One of of the band members each year wears a yellow and black Dr. Suess symbolic of the band's spirit. During a mysterious and captivating ceremony last years straight from the Druids or Monty Python the hat was transferred from a senior member to an underclass.

The band starting playing about 12:30 p.m. Saturday for the four-game session. They were still playing and dancing at 9:30 with no real break.

"We push ourselves," Hilkert said.

So if you happen to catch some of the action today, bring a kazoo, an instrument or choice or just dance along.

But be prepared for a workout.

If you're an A......@dpu, you're always moving or doing something.

(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)