Why the University of Idaho marching band are now heroes in Connecticut

The University of Idaho Marching Band, carrying Yale T-shirts, performs at the NCAA Tournament sport between Yale and San Diego State in Spokane, Wash., on Sunday. The band has been honored in Connecticut for filling in as Bulldogs.

Ted S. Warren/AP

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Ted S. Warren/AP

The University of Idaho Marching Band, carrying Yale T-shirts, performs at the NCAA Tournament sport between Yale and San Diego State in Spokane, Wash., on Sunday. The band has been honored in Connecticut for filling in as Bulldogs.

Ted S. Warren/AP

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont officially declared Thursday “University of Idaho Day” in his state.

To perceive why, we have to return precisely one week and several other March Madness video games in the past, when the Yale University males’s basketball staff confronted off in opposition to Auburn in the NCAA event.

Yale’s marching band wasn’t in a position to journey to the sport in Spokane, Wash., as a consequence of beforehand scheduled spring break plans, according to ESPN. Upon listening to this, the marching band from the University of Idaho — which hosted the first two rounds of the event — volunteered to fill in.

“We want to help out another university,” Idaho band director Spencer Martin told the Associated Press. “We want to help out another band.”

He mentioned it was an thrilling alternative for college kids, some of whom hadn’t even completed unpacking their luggage from the earlier week’s Big Sky Conference Tournament, and for different extra junior members who would not have in any other case gotten the expertise.

The band held a single rehearsal on Friday morning, practising the Yale battle music, “Bulldog,” and tweaking some of its personal chants to suit the event earlier than boarding the bus for the 90-minute experience to Spokane.

“We put all our marbles into ‘Bulldogs,’ ” Martin informed the Yale Daily News. “There’s a lot of stuff we didn’t know so we were just trying to have fun with it.”

The Yale spirit guard met them with T-shirts and different emblem put on. Yale Athletics coated the price of the transportation, shirts and pizza, although the band wasn’t in any other case compensated.

The blue-clad band known as themselves the “Vandogs,” a portmanteau of the Idaho Vandals and Yale Bulldogs. They sang the Yale battle music, chanted “Handsome Dan” (the identify of Yale’s bulldog mascot) to distract Auburn throughout free throws and have been on their ft cheering by the finish.

No. 13-seeded Yale defeated No. 4 Auburn in a surprising upset, successful simply their second NCAA event sport in college historical past.

Yale coach James Jones mentioned in a post-game press conference that the Idaho band had contributed to that victory.

“Having that atmosphere and the people coming out and supporting us, there’s nothing better than that, and we can’t appreciate them more than to be Bulldog fans,” he mentioned. “And a lot of times when you’re on the road and you’re the underdog, a lot of times the crowd goes in your favor and that helped a little bit, too.”

The “Vandogs” additionally accompanied Yale for its sport in opposition to San Diego State on Sunday, which ended in defeat.

But that act of camaraderie endured as a March Madness excessive level, going viral on social media and prompting Lamont to formally acknowledge the Vandals’ “display of generosity and sportsmanship.”

The proclamation honors the University of Idaho band — quoting from Idaho’s own fight song — saying it had “made a significant contribution to the atmosphere and energy of the crowd and enhanced the Yale Bulldogs’ 2024 NCAA Men’s Tournament experience.”

Idaho’s athletic division responded in its personal enthusiastic post on X, previously often called Twitter, celebrating that the Sound of Idaho (as the band is understood) “is being heard in Hartford”: “The best band in the Big Sky is now the best band in the Ivy League!”