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So says Jimmy Cheek.  Sousa put out to pasture temporarily, and most likely to be made permanent. 

http://www.utk.edu/tntoday/2013/10/14/ut-places-gary-sousa-leave-names-interim-band-director/

Best thing to happen to the Pride in a LONG, LONG time!

A-freaking-men. Kudos to Cheek for taking a hard line. When you're in a leadership position you can't just be allowed to tarnish the institution's image and divide its alumni by publicly lying about it.

(You shouldn't be allowed to suck, either.)

Dave "The Hitman" Hart.

Given the way things transpired, I don't think there was any other option.

Although I'm sure Cheek will find some way to screw everything up.

Na na na na na na na na na goood byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Na na na na na na na na na goood byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Na na na na na na na na na goood byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Na na na na na na na na na goood byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So Long.....

So who believes Cheek has never told a fib running this university?  I for one believe every administrator on campus tells fibs weekly.  Not outright lies, but the truth as the UT leaders say it is.

Cheek just could not stand being showed up and called out as a pansy. But one thing I learned over the years, do not publicly call your boss a liar.  Even if he is one.  He can still fire you.

OK I get you people do not like the band director.  But UT has overreacted to this and has circled their wagons.  My experience with UT says Sousa spoke the truth and UT did not like it.  This would interrupt a money stream and money is more important than tradition. Cheek just does not want anyone to realize what an ineffectual leader he really is.

I dont know what Sousa was thinking. He screwed up. Right or wrong, you can't take on your boss in public. That gets you fired for insubordination and that's a firing with cause. I think that even trumps tenure.

disagree, Sousa overacted big time, after overreaching in the first place.

As to your last point, I can't disagree

I think Cheek is a lying, conniving, cheating SOB, and the day he and the university depart company will be a day I'll celebrate. And, frankly, you're probably right that Cheek couldn't stand being showed up.

But I sincerely doubt that everything Sousa said was the truth. Based on what WE know, Sousa seemed to be grossly exaggerating the details and appeared to have some sort of agenda. You just don't do what he did and expect there to be no repercussions. The university cannot allow that sort of thing to happen.

I harbor no ill feelings towards Sousa. I've always liked the guy...not the least because he has a name that has band director written all over it.  :biggrin: But I know nothing about bands like some of these fellas who actually spent time in the band. My experience in band was limited to about 2 months on the trombone in 6th grade. So he may very well have been a hindrance to the POTS.

I am calling it now-----Gruden!

 :dielaughing: :dielaughing: :dielaughing:

http://www.tnsportsradio.com/2013/10/15/reasons-sousa-director-bands-tennessee/ (http://www.tnsportsradio.com/2013/10/15/reasons-sousa-director-bands-tennessee/)

A Quote:
For comparison’s sake, I looked up band budgets for Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin in 2012. Their budgets were roughly $1,270,000.

Combined.

Don't laugh, Vinnie. I heard Hyams report Gruden was seen playing a tuba in Cherokee Hills park last week!


G    :biggrin:

playing Love is Blue?

While I agree with the gist of that article, I'm not buying that number.  That's an average of 300k and change.  You can't maintain a decent high school band for that.  I don't know where he came up with that- maybe it's just their budget for travel, but no way that's their entire annual budget.

He means for EACH SCHOOL...it doesn't sound unreasonable to me. It may or may not include travel expenses, which is probably the biggest part of it.

No, it said "combined".  I would guess that staff salaries alone would exceed that.

Oh okay...maybe it means only the grant in aid to the students, which is usually pretty paltry.  Something like 2K maybe, for 200 band members at each school?  If so, that would be around 2$K x ~ 600 and would roughly match the number.  Staff salaries would be considered part of the regular school budget, perhaps, since it's possible that Sousa and other band directors also teach classes? (I don't know if they do or not).

Like I said, I don't know.  But when he throws out numbers like 1.2M for UT vs. 300K for those schools, I'm almost positive that's not an apples to apples comparison.  I think he's probably looking at the entire budget for the Pride vs. a portion of the budget for those schools.  Especially OSU and Michigan- I know that those schools spare no expense on their bands, and take them to nearly every conference road game. 

I also found it interesting that he picked the schools he picked. Why not other SEC schools? I don't think that was a very honest comparison under any circumstance although, like you, I agreed with the general premise of the article.

I find most of the TSR "reporting" to be largely of the amateur variety anyway.  IMO, they're more entertainment than news.  I know the only reason I really listen is when I have nothing better to do on my commute to and from work.

I find it particularly funny when these TSR guys try to guilt trip the students into attending the home games.   :rolleyes:

In the case of Wisconsin and Nebraska, I don't know.  But historically, OSU's and Michigan's bands are regarded as peers with ours.  As far as "big schools" go, there is a handful of bands that are historically considered to be the top tier.  Namely: Tennessee, OSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, and USC.  Now Sousa has done so much damage that I'm not sure we deserve to be grouped with those guys anymore, but historically speaking, we certainly do.

I don't like this comment in the article:

His entitled attitude is a cancer that Dave Hart has already had to deal with and will continue to have to deal with as he tries to catch our athletic department up with the rest of the competing universities in our conference and across the country.

Sousa is not likely to be around anymore, so he's not a "cancer" that has to be dealt with...or I guess, his entitled attitude.  This may come close to implying that the band has "an entitled attitude", which I would hopefully think is not true.  The budget for the band, if it all comes from the AD, is pretty large, over 1% of the total AD budget.  As such, they should be happy with what they have, but I think most UT fans, probably the overwhelming majority, want the POSL band to be around and a big part of Tennessee football.  So hopefully the changes will not impact the band that much.  And if their budget has to take some reasonable cuts, so be it, but I hope there are no drastic changes.

The residual effect of his rotting cancer are still present - see red head with tall hat as but one example.

I think combined is accurate.  OSU just raised their budget this year to $1MM from $220K.  And the article said they now far exceed the budget of the other Big Ten schools.  So up until recently, 4 combined could easily fit that number.

Still don't buy it.  I think he got that number from somewhere, but there's no way that's the entire budget.  I wasn't in the Pride in my time at UT, but I was in the UTC band my first two years of college (90-91).  And I'm certain that OUR budget exceeded 300k, even back then.  We employed 4 fulltime staffers, and our director had been on the job for over 20 years, so I'm certain that he wasn't making chump change.  Uniforms had to be purchased, cleaned (weekly), and maintained for 150 players, 30 color guard members, and 10 majorettes.  Instruments had to be purchased and maintained for the entire percussion section and a large chunk of the brass section, including every sousaphone (1 sousaphone= $3K, at LEAST).  We paid for the upkeep of our bandroom and practice field.  We only traveled to one away game per season, but when we did, we stayed in nice hotels and got a generous per diem.  And sheet music for 30 or so songs (for pregame, halftime, and stands) for an entire band isn't cheap. 

Now translate that to 2013 dollars, for a band at least twice as big, that travels much more often. 

Here is a link to the article, band members were paying drycleaning and buying gloves and spats out of pocket.  But you are right about entire budget, that amount is school contribution only, they also raise money from private sources.  Still, woefully underfunded when you ask members to dig into their own pockets.

Gotta news flash:  I was doing the same in 1973 as a member of the Pride!

True story.  Late in the year we were playing Ole Miss in Jackson.  ABC picked up the game and Chris Schinkel, who was broadcasting the game, called Dr. J up and promised him coverage of the half time show.  Dr. J spent many hours convincing the AD to let us go and we were allowed to.  Now we were putting in a new show that week for the KY/Cincinnati Bengals weekend the next week.  So we had just Tues/Thurs to put it in and it was raining on Tuesday.  Dr. J walked down the TU aisle to the center of the field and held his arms up - it stopped raining! :wow:  We got the show in and drove down to Memphis Friday.  And yes we received per diem.

If you remember, we played Auburn at home that year.  As we came off the field at halftime it began to pour.  By the time we got back to our seats I had gained 20+ pounds, of water in the wool uniform.
It was raining so hard in the 2nd half only about a yard or two was not under water in down the center of Doug's rug.  On one punt the ball hit at the 25, bounced to the 15 and floated to the five, towards the old section X.  The General would have been proud of the number of times that Battle had us punt on first down in the 2nd half.

BTW, Claude, the cat, Tomlinson was the Pride's announcer when I was in the Pride.  He had a GREAT voice for the role, unlike the grade school voice that is currently the announcer.
Claude's day job was at WIVK.

According to the article you posted, Sousa is a full time faculty member, a professor.  So he is likely paid out of regular University funds.  Can't say how the rest of the operation is funded.

Red head with tall hat...you lost me on that one.  Another member of the band staff? 

What band member wears a different hat (and was part of the issue last week)?

Ohhh Ohhhhh ohhhhhhh would the identity of this person be tied to self same public protest of the Athletic Department with same person coming off looking like a bad missile Sousa Dronette named Jessica?   :naughty: :naughty: :naughty: :dielaughing:

I suppose you mean the drum major...who I assume is a senior.