It was 1987, and USC had just suffered a heartbreaking loss on the road to Michigan State. When the team returned home, coach Larry Smith told Dr. Bartner he would never travel again without the band. And with that, the Trojan Marching Band began a 33-year streak of attending 415 consecutive football games. Dr. Bartner recounts the Larry Smith era and how that streak began in this week’s ARTCAST, along with memories of the band’s first appearance at Arizona in 1980, which helped convince a young Rodney Peete to attend USC.

The broadcast also relives Peete’s memorable 1989 “Measles Game” against UCLA and the nail-biting 1990 thriller against the Bruins, with 42 points scored in the last quarter. Dr. Bartner looks at the “logistical nightmare” of the band’s travel arrangements, and how the 2012 trip to New York City for the Syracuse game fulfilled his lifelong dream of playing – or at least conducting – on Broadway.

Tune in and sing along to this week’s Classic Spirit of Troy halftime show, a karaoke-themed video featuring a A compilation of numbers from various halftime shoes through the years, including “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Sweet Caroline” and “Don’t Stop Believing.”

You’ll find these and previous videos on the TMB YouTube page. Fight On!