Columbus, OH -- The Ohio State Marching Band is known for their wildly entertaining and inventive halftime shows, but what you may not know is that in its over 100 years of existence, "The Best Damn Band in the Land", has never played in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

"We're really excited. It's a surprise to a lot of people that this band has never been in a parade." said band director Christopher Hoch. He also told us we can expect to hear a mix of school songs, tributes to the state of Ohio, along with some New York flare while marching Thursday. 

  • The Ohio State marching band plays in Macy's Thanksgiving Parade
  • 1st Time in the over 100 year history of the Band
  • Known for their entertaining and inventive halftime shows

The only catch is the band is preparing for this honor of a lifetime while getting ready for the biggest rivalry in college football, as the buckeyes host Michigan on Saturday. 

Hoch described the preparation saying “It’s been a whirlwind the last couple of weeks. We’re trying to put together our pregame show, our halftime show and of course all of our parade sequences and our Macy’s performance all at the same time. But it’s going really well, the students are learning really quickly and they’re doing a great job with it so it should be great.”

With this much on their Thanksgiving plate—the OSU band began practicing for the parade back in September, this while performing a different show every home game. Something this band is known for—their flashy shows that have gone viral and kept fans glued to their seats at halftime. 

And while they are sure to bring the flare against Michigan Saturday, senior band member Alex Scarmuzzi told us preparing for the parade has presented it’s own unique challenge saying “One of the most exciting thing is, we typically as a band don’t really rehearse parades as much as we have for this one, because it’s such a grand event that it’s kind of been unique for us to focus on some of that parade marching instead of putting on an entire show and having an entire football field, being able to put on a great show with just basically the width of a street.” 

 

 

And with every great show comes a grand finale something Hoch told us they have been practicing hard for saying “Preparing for the performance at the end of the parade right in front of Macy’s has been an interesting challenge for us…because we’ve never done anything like this.”

But something they have done is wow crowds on Saturday afternoon, something Hoch says will be no different this weekend against Michigan despite their stuffed schedule…

“It’s a huge game for us so we always make sure we put on a great show no matter what and this should be no exception…we’re having a lot of fun. It’s a holiday show featuring some music from the grinch and from polar express and elf…so lot’s of fun  holiday based movies.”

An entertaining show for the whole family Saturday and a chance to show the country on Thursday they’re “The Best Damn Band in the Land”.