In the fall of 1973, a Harvard first-year named Sam G. Coppersmith was left in charge of the Harvard Band's six-foot-tall Big Drum.

But before the Brown football game, three students from the Providence, R.I. university convinced Coppersmith that they were ABC reporters and needed to borrow the drum for pictures.

Eager to please, Coppersmith and Band Director Thomas G. Everett, who holds that title to this day, helped the Brown students load the drum into their pick-up truck.

By the time the student and the director realized the instrument had been stolen, the thieves were well on their way back to Rhode Island.

"At the time, we assumed it was Yale," Everett says now. "Who ever would've thought Brown people were smart enough to pull it off?"

Then Harvard Police Chief Robert Tonis ultimately saved the day. He put out an All Points Bulletin for the Brown students in four states, according to Everett.

The undergraduates were quickly caught on Interstate 95. The judge in the case, reportedly a Harvard graduate, was not lenient, Everett says.

Coppersmith, by the way, is today a U.S. representative and the Democratic nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona.

That 21-year-old story is only one of the adventures and misadventures band members have survived in the institution's 75-year history. Everett has directed it for the past 23 years.

Next Friday night, the band will mark its Diamond Anniversary with a concert at Sanders Theatre featuring alumni, students and special guest performers.

Early Years

In the early 1900s, the only Harvard band was a group of banjo players who entertained the fans at home football games, according to records on file in the University archives.

In 1919, Frederic L. Reynolds '20 abandoned the banjos and founded the Harvard University Band. He became the band's first director.

Harvard band members and directors are generally credited with establishing the marching band style used by many colleges around the country.

"Harvard formed its own style in the 1950's," says Anne Q. Eakin '95, band manager. "Today, all of the Ivy League schools except Cornell copy it."