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Band Celebrates 80 Years with Weekend of Festivities

Everett called Robert Tonis, who was the Harard Police Chief at the time, to report the crime. Tonis was "a Dartmouth grad and a big band and jazz fan," according to Everett.

With the Dartmouth game just days away and the Yale game still over a month away, the most logical perpetrators were Dartmouth Band members. "But Dartmouth students aren't that smart," Everett says.

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Tonis put out a four-state police alert and within 30 minutes the highway patrol had pulled over two students with Brown University identification driving a van with the drum towards Providence, R.I. The Harvard Band did not press charges, but the highway patrol did.

The Providence judge who heard the case happened to be a Harvard graduate. After giving the perpetrators a hard time, he let them off with a few hours of community service.

Two weeks later at the Brown game, the big cheer was, "Not only are you losing, but you're under indictment!"

The band is known not only for its cheers, but also for its funny, often eccentric half-time shows.

Although the band plays for football, hockey and basketball games every year, it has played for a swim meet only once.

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