Florida Atlantic Marching Owls

The Florida Atlantic Marching Owls is the marching band at Florida Atlantic University. The band plays for all home football games and regularly plays in area civic and community events.^[1]

History

The band was founded in 2002 by Florida Atlantic University's president at that time, Anthony Catanese, and literally had only weeks to be put together and ready for the opening game. The band consisted of a few dozen members who wore Hawaiian shirts and straw hats but managed to be a relatively successful addition to the football program and enjoyable to the fans.^[2] However, the band only survived for two years under the direction of George Sparks and was rendered inactive for the 2004 school year.

In April 2005, the school hired Christopher Chapman as the new director with the goal of having the band at football games again in September 2005.^[3] The idea was successful, and the band performed alongside the football team as they made the jump from Division 1-AA to Division 1-A in the Sunbelt Conference. 2005 was also the year that the band received their traditional blue and white uniforms.

In 2006, Florida Atlantic University hired Sean Murray to be the first Associate Director of Bands, overseeing the marching band and other athletic bands, such as Parliament sound at basketball games. It was in the 2006 season that the marching band changed its name officially to the Marching Owls. The band has performed at the New Orleans Bowl in December 2007 and has gained respect as a well trained band for its modest size.^[4] The band has also begun sponsorship and operation of a high school marching band competition in Boca Raton that drew fourteen high schools from the area last year.^[2]

In 2011, Florida Atlantic finished construction on its new 30,000 seat stadium on its Boca Raton campus, and the Marching Owls performed at the inaugural game on October 15 against Western Kentucky. The Owls have since established the tradition of pregame Owl Walk, performing various school songs and show music for fans outside the stadium and playing for the football team as they walk into the stadium.^[5]

In 2014, the football team moved up to Conference USA^[6] and hired a new coach, Charlie Partridge, previously from Wisconsin and Arkansas.^[7] In addition, the university announced the plan to build a new, state of the art athletic facility^[8] The Marching Owls continue to grow and build traditions to bolster FAU's football atmosphere.

References