The Highty-Tighties and Tech Triumph

The Highty-Tighties are older than the Hokie cheer. In the spring of 1892, Col. John Alexander Harman created a six-piece drum and bugle corps for the cadets.

In September 1893 it became Band Company, with Frank Daniel Wilson as commander and James Patton Harvey as the first director. It is the oldest collegiate band in Virginia and Tech’s longest-serving musical group, according to the Corps of Cadets.

The band went to war early. When the Spanish-American War came, most of the bandsmen enlisted and served as the band of the 2nd Regiment of Virginia Volunteers. In 1935 the college awarded the band a white citation cord for that service. The Corps is careful to note that it came from the college, not the federal government.

In 1901, at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, the band played "The Thunderer" for John Philip Sousa himself. Sousa dedicated "Hands Across the Sea" to them.

A year later, at the Charleston Exposition, Theodore Roosevelt watched the cadets go by and said, "There goes the nation’s strength."

The name came later. The Corps says "Highty-Tighties" was in use by 1919, and the accepted story is that, like "Hokie," it began in a cadet cheer.

There is also a legend, and it is a good one. A drum major dropped his baton in front of Marshal Foch, caught it and kept going, which drew a "hoity-toity" that locals turned into "Highty-Tighty." Wikipedia dates the Foch parade to 1921. Take it as a legend that stuck, not the origin on paper.

The Highty-Tighties first marched in a presidential inaugural parade for Woodrow Wilson in 1917.

By the Corps’ count they have marched in 11 inaugural parades since. In 1953, 1957 and 1961 they won first place. Then, before 1965, the parade was declared non-competitive, and the band marched past Lyndon Johnson as "retired champions."

That streak was not a fluke. The Corps lists 129 first-place trophies in 130 competitive parades. Think about that ratio for a second. One loss, ever.

The band opened the 1964 World’s Fair in New York and appeared at the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville. It has marched in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade six times and at Mardi Gras four times. In 1975 the first woman joined Band Company.

Closer to home, the band has a cameo in mascot history too. When the first permanent Gobbler costume showed up at the 1962 Thanksgiving VMI game, the student wearing it spent halftime mingling with the band.

Tech’s fight song was written at a neighbor’s house. In the summer of 1919, cadet bandsman Wilfred Preston "Pete" Maddux, Class of 1920, was home in Blackstone, Va. His neighbor, Mattie Eppes (later Boggs), played the tune. He wrote the score and the words in one evening.

The college officially adopted "Tech Triumph" that December. More than a century later, both of Tech’s bands play it at games.

It even survived Metallica. For roughly the first 10 years of Enter Sandman, Blabbermouth reports, the entrance video faded the song at the crescendo so the band could play "Tech Triumph." Fans eventually won that argument and the full song stayed, but "Tech Triumph" never left the game.

Tech has two marching bands. The Highty-Tighties are the Corps band. The Marching Virginians, the civilian band, came along in 1974.

The Marching Virginians have their own claim to fame, and it is a big one. Virginia Tech’s traditions page credits a Marching Virginians member with starting the Enter Sandman jump on Dec. 1, 2001. Bandmates joined him. Today all of Lane jumps.

So the next time Lane is bouncing, remember who started it: a band kid who could not stand still.

Tech Triumph is not the only song in the book. The "Alma Mater" was written in the spring of 1939 for a student contest, with music by Ernest T. Sparks, Class of 1940, and lyrics by L.G. Chase, Class of 1941.

The "VPI Victory March" came from a football upset. Cadet Charles D. Steinwedel composed it after a 3-0 win over Georgetown in 1941. It debuted in the spring of 1942, and its words were revised in 2000.

Put it together and you get a band that is older than the Hokie cheer, older than orange and maroon, and older than the Gobbler. When the drums start at Lane, you are hearing something that has been around since 1892.