The life of a student-athlete is a very busy one. It takes hours of commitment, dedication, and stress management—work that often goes underappreciated or overly criticized. Along with the athletes, college sports teams employ a full-time staff that puts in just as many hours. Running alongside these coaches and trainers, however, is another student group that is sometimes unrecognized, but never unheard—the marching band.

The history of the Columbia University Marching Band is one of longevity and innovative trend-setting. Since its inception in 1904, CUMB has graced Lion fields and courts to bring spirit, humor, and, of course, music, to fans and the athletes they support. The self-proclaimed "Cleverest Band in the World" has gained notoriety with national news outlets since the 1960s with a series of pranks and cheers that bring levity to the oftentimes fruitless world of Lions sports.

The band's unique, irreverent humor has incited controversy over the years, never failing to tackle socially relevant issues. During the infamous "birth control" show of 1966—one of CUMB's earliest displays of political commentary—band members converged to form a birth control pill, a calendar representing the rhythm method, and a chastity belt, a stunt for which the band was suspended for several games thereafter.

The consequences for the band's actions, however, are not always as harmless. In 1990, the band received a bomb threat after forming an American flag accompanied by The Doors' famous song, "Light My Fire," following a United States Supreme Court decision upholding the right to flag burning.

Most recently, CUMB came under heavy criticism in 2002 for an improvised joke before a game against Fordham University. Before the start of the pre-game show, the band taunted that Fordham's tuition was "going down like an altar boy," spurring a furious debate between band members and Catholic officials who deemed the comment bigotry. Newly appointed Columbia University President Lee Bollinger ended the debacle by apologizing to Fordham's president, Reverend Joseph A. O'Hare.

Though the band has yet to stir up any controversy since, it still serves as one of Columbia's most prominent spirit groups. At every football and basketball game, the band attempts to incite support from an often silent crowd—an interesting feat from a group that doesn't actually require sports interest from its members. While a band member does not have to be a sprots fan, however, school spirit is the main prerequisite.

"While you don't have to be a sports fan, members of the band almost always have a good amount of Columbia spirit," said CUMB Drum Master Hancy Huemer. "It is true that you don't always have to know what is going on, but I think it would be hard to be in the band—or any spirit group—if you didn't have any school spirit. The band goes every week to the football and basketball games, no matter what the record of the team may be, and cheers and plays. If you don't have some sense of spirit, that isn't an easy thing to do."

For a group that claims to not need interest in the game itself, the band is practically as much of a time commitment as playing for the team it supports—for those who want it to be. The band rehearses at Teachers College, twice a week during football season and once a week during basketball season. As CUMB Treasurer Hilary Baboukis said, "Band is as much of a commitment as you want to make it."

The flexibility of the schedule fits the laid-back persona of the group and its members, whose musical backgrounds tend to be as diverse as the bevy of songs in the band's repertoire. One of the only musical groups on campus that does not hold auditions, CUMB is a come one, come all band—anyone who wants to join can.

"If you don't play anything," Baboukis said, "we can loan you instruments and arrange for lessons if you want them, or you can chill and play cowbell—the choice is yours."

For those who want less cowbell, however, CUMB introduced the innovative concept of the "miscies" (rhymes with "whiskeys"): students without musical experience who march alongside the musicians playing miscellaneous objects such as beer bottles, a condom harp, and even a GameBoy Advance.

The duties of a marching band present a unique challenge—learning a lot of songs in a limited amount of time. While a concert band rehearses during the course of a year and prepares for only a few performances, a marching band must be able to play every week of the season with the same amount of rehearsal.

"It's a much different attitude and atmosphere in each," said CUMB requisitioner Jonathan Jager. "With a marching band, you can't go into as much musical depth because you have more songs to learn and less time to learn them in, but people get to hear you play them more often."

More prominent than the band's playlist, however, is its array of cheers. CUMB has a new script every week of the football season and has the tough task of getting a rise out of the people in the stands.

"The band is very vocal," Baboukis said. "The spirit manager is responsible for leading cheers and getting the band to participate, and when the band is participating, chances are good that the crowd will want to join in. If nothing else, we can always get a laugh out of the people around us."

It is clear from the songs and cheers of the past nothing is off limits to The Cleverest Band in the World.