NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — Hundreds of University of Missouri alumni and supporters flocked to the Big Apple for Thanksgiving to cheer on the one and only Marching Mizzou band at the 96th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Marching Mizzou has been waiting for years to perform at this year's parade and not only did they perform they lead the parade.
Roughly 350 Marching Mizzou students took 8 buses and a few planes to be one of 12 bands that were part of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
They kicked off their TV performances starting with a fun feature on the TODAY Show where they got to march through the studio playing the Mizzou fight song.
Mizzou’s Director of the School of Music Julia Gaines said after that they practiced for the big parade performance.
“They had a dress rehearsal at Herald Square at three in the morning last night. You only get 10 minutes to try it,” Gaines said.
As it turns out, that was just enough in addition to weeks of practice, of course.
They were featured at the very beginning of the parade in a number with Leah Michelle and the cast of Funny Girl.
“They were a tunnel that she came through kind of. So then there was the parade and the parade was super fast-paced,” Gaines said.
They marched two and a half miles playing the Mizzou fight song right behind Tom, the turkey, at the very front of the parade where they ended with an arrangement of Mizzou alumna Sheryl Crow’s song, ‘All I want to do.’
“I'm just so proud of our students. They have just worked so hard for seven straight days for the university. To give the university this kind of exposure with a music unit is just thrilling,” Gaines said.
After the parade, the group quickly packed up the buses and started their journey back to Columbia for a rivalry game against Arkansas on Friday.