THE LAST time that the Harvard Band was arrested for disturbing the peace, New Haven residents were overly upset at the Band's impromptu parade through downtown New Haven at 3 a.m. on the night before the Yale game. That was in 1962, and since then, the Band has changed considerably.

Last year, the Band decided that the best way to treat the Yale Band and Yalies in general was to ignore them, so they made a point of not mentioning Yale in their halftime show at The Game. Plans for today's Harvard-Yale game were still in the formulative stages Wednesday night; to be blunt, the Band hadn't thought about their plans at all.

When most Harvard students and alumni think of the Band, they think first of its traditional Saturday afternoon antics at Harvard football games. There is no doubt that the Band is now as much a part of Harvard football tradition as Bobby Leo or Chub Peabody.

But there is more to the Band than halftime skits and raucous bronx cheers. In the spring of 1965, for instance, the Band played before 1,800 people at Carnegie Hall.

But, despite its leanings toward more serious music in recent years. the Band's main source of notoriety remains its performance at Harvard football games. During dismal football seasons, such as the present one, the Band is always there on Saturday to entertain those Harvard supporters too disgusted with the football team to pay any attention to the game.

Through the years, the Band has conjured up some memorable halftime shows. Usually, the shows are some disproportionate blend of social commentary and smut; consequently, the skits attract much attention.

After the Band had staged one of its more smut-oriented shows at last year's Princeton game, Playboy ran a pictorial on the show and placed it under the category "Wish We Were There." The Band also appeared in Playboy in 1961 when it formed a full color "Bunnie" for one of the magazine's layouts.

Mickey Mouse has been the football Band's preoccupation in recent years, and last year at the Dartmouth game, the bandsmen erected a monolith from which Mickey Mouse emerged to end the halftime show. This year, the strains of the Mickey Mouse Theme were repeated and have reaped some adverse reactions.

According to Sports Illustrated, the Band's rendition of the Theme backfired at the BU game early in the year. They quoted BU quarterback Pete Yetten, after BU's 13-10 upset victory, as saying, "When the Band struck up Mickey Mouse it made us a little mad."

Band director Jim Walker, A.M.T. '63, explained the Band's choice of songs by saying, "We just couldn't think of a last formation, so we did Mickey Mouse. People who take this all so seriously really are Mickey Mouse. Sports writers make these fantasies out of football player's remarks and act as though something like Mickey Mouse really enrages the players. We enjoy it."

"There's not much left to be gained from pushing Mickey Mouse. I think we've pretty much finished off the novelty aspect of Mickey," Walker added, perhaps forecasting Mickey's demise.

Perhaps the Band's most successful halftime show came at last year's Dartmouth game. The final skit of the show began with the formation of a stick figure with a pentagonal head. As the Band played Alice's Restaurant in the background, a narrator said that the Band thought the Pentagon was losing its head over the war in Vietnam, and the stick figure's head fell off. As the narrator called for defeat by the enemy and general disarmament, the figure's arms came off. The skit ended with the figure's arms forming a peace sign inside of the smoothed-out head.

"That show was the first time that everyone seemed to be in tune with us," Walker recalled. "In the past two years, we've moved away from a lighthearted approach at football games. The guys are making a definite commitment to themselves to help change the present political situation."

Band manager Tim Feige smiles wryly when asked about the nature of the Band. "The Band probably has more fun than any other organization on campus. When we're playing during football season, we're mostly out for a good time. During concert season, we concentrate on playing good music well, but we still have fun," he said.

The Band's football game shows are all the more unbelievable considering the fact that the Football Band practices only once a week. The one rehearsal takes place on the day before the game when the bandsmen go over the show's music for the first time. The halftime skits are written during the week and are read to the Band at the rehearsal. The only time that they practice the show formations is on Saturday morning.