1 South Carolina General Assembly 2 118th Session, 2009-2010 3 4 H. 3893 5 6 STATUS INFORMATION 7 8 House Resolution 9 Sponsors: Reps. CobbHunter, Agnew, Alexander, Allen, Allison, Anderson, Anthony, Bales, Ballentine, 10 Bannister, Barfield, Battle, Bedingfield, Bingham, Bowen, Bowers, Brady, Branham, Brantley, 11 G.A. Brown, H.B. Brown, R.L. Brown, Cato, Chalk, Clemmons, Clyburn, Cole, Cooper, Crawford, 12 Daning, Delleney, Dillard, Duncan, Edge, Erickson, Forrester, Frye, Funderburk, Gambrell, Gilliard, 13 Govan, Gullick, Gunn, Haley, Hamilton, Hardwick, Harrell, Harrison, Hart, Harvin, Hayes, Hearn, 14 Herbkersman, Hiott, Hodges, Horne, Hosey, Howard, Huggins, Hutto, Jefferson, Jennings, Kelly, 15 Kennedy, King, Kirsh, Knight, Limehouse, Littlejohn, Loftis, Long, Lowe, Lucas, Mack, McEachern, 16 McLeod, Merrill, Miller, Millwood, Mitchell, D.C. Moss, Nanney, J.H. Neal, J.M. Neal, Neilson, Ott, 17 Owens, Parker, Parks, Pinson, E.H. Pitts, M.A. Pitts, Rice, Rutherford, Sandifer, Scott, Sellers, Simrill, 18 Skelton, D.C. Smith, G.M. Smith, G.R. Smith, J.E. Smith, J.R. Smith, Sottile, Spires, Stavrinakis, 19 Stewart, Stringer, Thompson, Toole, Umphlett, Vick, Viers, Weeks, Whipper, White, Whitmire, 20 Williams, Willis, Wylie, A.D. Young and T.R. Young 21 Document Path: l:\council\bills\gm\24340ahb09.docx 22 23 Introduced in the House on April 21, 2009 24 Adopted by the House on April 21, 2009 25 26 Summary: Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University Marching Band 27 28 29 HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS 30 31 Date Body Action Description with journal page number 32 4/21/2009 House Introduced and adopted HJ9 33 34 35 VERSIONS OF THIS BILL 36 37 4/21/2009 38 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A HOUSE RESOLUTION 10 11 TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR DR. WILLIAM P. FOSTER 12 AND THE FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL 13 UNIVERSITY MARCHING BAND FOR THEIR 14 EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH STANDARDS FOR MUSICAL AND 15 PERFORMING EXCELLENCE. 16 17 Whereas, organized in 1892 with only sixteen instruments, the 18 Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University Marching Band 19 grew into a performing wonder called the Marching 100 and today 20 boasts over four hundred twenty members, the second largest 21 marching band in the world; and 22 23 Whereas, in 1946, Dr. William P. Foster became the director of the 24 band and led it from seventyfive members to its current dazzling 25 musical and marching wonder, and his textbook entitled “Band 26 Pageantry” is considered the authority for all marching bands; and 27 28 Whereas, through the years, the band added many innovative 29 aspects to the marching routine that became standard to other 30 collegiate and even secondary bands, including the addition of a 31 dance routine as early as 1953 and a flag corps in 1971; and 32 33 Whereas, the band made its television debut in 1963 and began 34 national television commercials in 1975 for companies such as 35 CocaCola; and 36 37 Whereas, in 1971, the band integrated its first white marching 38 member and followed in 1974 with its first three female members; 39 and 40 41 Whereas, by 1984, the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical 42 University Marching Band received the prestigious Sudler

[3893] 2 1 Intercollegiate Marching Band Trophy, the first and still the only 2 Sudler recognition of an historically AfricanAmerican university 3 and the first of a Southern band; and 4 5 Whereas, the university’s band room alone accommodates more 6 than six hundred musicians and along with the practice field 7 provides stateoftheart amenities; and 8 9 Whereas, after fiftytwo years of nationally acclaimed service, Dr. 10 Foster retired in 1998, and in the same year, he was elected to the 11 National Band Association Hall of Fame for Distinguished Band 12 Conductors; a former student, Dr. Julian White, was named to 13 replace him as director of bands; and 14 15 Whereas, among its many illustrious graduates around the world 16 are South Carolina’s own Representative Gilda CobbHunter and 17 her husband, Dr. Terry K. Hunter, both proud alumni of the class 18 of 1973 of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, and 19 they attest the thrill and awe of hearing and seeing the Marching 20 100 perform; and 21 22 Whereas, the members of the South Carolina House of 23 Representatives take great pleasure in joining the myriad of 24 accolades bestowed on the Marching 100 and their illustrious 25 director emeritus, Dr. William P. Foster. Now, therefore, 26 27 Be it resolved by the House of Representatives: 28 29 That the members of the House of Representatives of the State of 30 South Carolina, by this resolution, recognize and honor Dr. 31 William P. Foster and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical 32 University Marching Band for their exceptionally high standards 33 for musical and performing excellence. 34 35 Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to 36 Dr. William P. Foster, director of bands, emeritus, of the Florida 37 Agricultural and Mechanical University Marching Band. 38 XX 39

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