When no one claimed responsibility, band mom Alice "Mom" Tondel, a small lady who was in her sixties, stepped out and shouted "I am in charge!" The police officer made an about face, sat down on the curb behind his car, and started laughing. "Go, get out of here," he shooed them through tears.

The band's antics don't end there. Until it became impossible for the band to get ice time at Brighton Hockey center, the Harvard and Yale bands engaged in an annual 2 a.m. hockey game. Two minutes before the end of one now-historic game, the Harvard side was down by several goals. Finally, they sent out their secret weapon: a band members who also started for the hockey team.

In Everett's memory, by the final whistle Harvard had won by six goals. The Yale Band, outraged, demanded that Harvard's star player was a ringer.

"Somebody gave him a trumpet and he stood up and played 'Ten Thousand Men of Harvard,'" Everett said.

Everett assumed his current role of band director in 1971 after many years of musical accomplishment as a bass trombonist with several jazz bands and ensembles, as well as the Bolshoi Ballet, the Boston Pops and the Portland (Maine) Symphony.

Many feared a clash between the band's casual style and Everett's professionalism. But the band members soon found he was accepting and unpretentious, welcoming the fun-loving spirit of the group.

One of the trademarks of the group is its "scramble" performance style, meaning they run, rather than march, between formations.

"One of the great things about a 'scatter band' is that it is such a contrast to what people expect from Harvard," says Morgan A. Goulet '00.