“They should come out here and join us,” said Assistant Director of Bands Mark Olson.

And why so early, wouldn’t it be more convenient for everyone if the march took place closer to gametime?

“We’d love to do an 11 a.m. march down,” Drill Master Clark Rosensweig ’05 said. “But it’s more difficult to get permits for later in the morning, because by 11 a.m. the traffic is a lot more hectic.”

The route calls for a sharp left onto Plympton Street, taking the band past Adams. Another left onto Massachusetts Avenue takes the marching orchestra past Wigglesworth as it belts out the Latin verse to “Ten Thousand Men of Harvard.”

“Illegitimum non Carborundum; Domine salvum fac,” the band sang, probably to the stunned consternation of the residents of the south yard.

A quick U-turn at Out of Town News turns the band in the direction of the river. Rosensweig runs up and down the line holding up signs to indicate which song is next on the list.

“It’s pretty tiring,” Rosensweig said. “I’m not in shape enough for a band of this size.”

The walking wakeup call rounds the bend at Brattle and Mount Auburn Streets taking it directly by the Harvard Square Hotel and The Charles Hotel. A morning runner halts his jog to get a glimpse of the sea of crimson and brass which has executed a hostile takeover of the highly-trafficked street.

Finally, the band makes its way past Kirkland and Eliot Houses, across the JFK Bridge and down North Harvard Street to the stadium. A line of cars extending back across the bridge into Cambridge follows closely behind.

What would a traffic helicopter call this quagmire?

“A band bottleneck,” Rosensweig joked.

As the band heads out to the practice football fields to prepare for the day’s festivities, a few members grab chunks of ice discarded from Bright Hockey Arena and make a run at Drum Major Matthew Dewitz ’05.

“You have to sacrifice the drum major to ensure good weather,” Rosensweig said.

“It used to be water,” added former drum major Becky Strong ’99. “I’d have been much happier with snow or ice.”

THE GRAND ENTRANCE