The Band That Wouldn't Die

Baltimore's Marching Ravens in November 2009.

The Band That Wouldn't Die is a film documentary released in 2009 and created and directed by Barry Levinson as apart of ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series.

The film shows the story of the Baltimore Colts' Marching Band, now known as the Baltimore's Marching Ravens. The Baltimore Colts' Marching Band was founded on September 7, 1947 and has been in action since that date. When the original All-American Football Conference Baltimore Colts left Baltimore, the band continued to play until the newer Baltimore Colts found a home at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Baltimore Colts would leave once again to Indianapolis on March 29, 1984, leaving the Baltimore Colts' Marching Band without a team once again. During the twelve year period in which Baltimore had no team, the marching band stayed together, still practicing every week in hopes that a new team would arrive. The band went to other stadiums to play, the first ironically being Art Modell's Cleveland Browns, or the future Baltimore Ravens, and also participated in events such as parades, playing the Baltimore Colts' Fight Song. When the Baltimore Ravens arrived in Baltimore, the Baltimore Colts' Marching Band retained their name until 1998, when they renamed themselves Baltimore's Marching Ravens.

The Band That Wouldn't Die tells the story of the moving of the Baltimore Colts through the eyes of the Colts' Marching Band. According to the documentary, band leaders got advance warning that the team was being moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis overnight and were able to remove their equipment from team headquarters before the moving vans arrived. At the time of the move, the band's uniforms were being dry-cleaned. Band President John Ziemann contacted the owner of the dry cleaners, who told Ziemann that legally they could not release the uniforms to Ziemann, but told him that that evening, he should take the company van "for a walk."[1] Ziemann and some associates then hid the uniforms in a nearby cemetery until the wife of then-Colts owner Robert Irsay said they could keep them.

From 1984 until the Cleveland Browns relocated to Baltimore in 1996, the band stayed together, playing at football halftime shows and marching in parades, eventually becoming well-known as "Baltimore's Pro-Football Musical Ambassadors".[1] The band remained an all-volunteer band as it is today and supported itself. At one point, John Ziemann pawned his wife's wedding ring for the money to buy new equipment.[1] Ironically, one of the band's first gigs after the Colts left was an invitation from then-Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell to play during the halftime show of a Browns game. "They were cheap," Modell said.Twelve years later Modell would move the Browns to Baltimore and they would become the Baltimore Ravens.

When Baltimore was in the running for a National Football League franchise in the 1990's, Ziemann enlisted the band's help in convincing the Maryland General Assembly, the state legislature, to approve funding for a new football stadium.[1] The band played on the steps of the Maryland State House while the legislature was in session one evening, causing a crowd to gather, including then-Governor William Donald Schaefer, who had been pushing hard for a team and a football stadium. Eventually, the legislature approved the funding. Until the NFL returned the band performed at NFL games out of town as well as at home games for the CFL's Baltimore Stallions.

For the Ravens' first two seasons, the band retained its name as The Baltimore Colts Marching Band. At the start of the 1998 season, it assumed its current name, The Marching Ravens, coinciding with the opening of Baltimore's new football stadium.

References

1.^ a b c "The Band That Wouldn't Die". Directed by Barry Levinson, Severn River Productions

External links

• Baltimore's Marching Ravens website
• ESPN 30 for 30 Series