The Marching Southerners

Marching band of Jacksonville State University in Alabama

The Marching Southerners is the marching band of Jacksonville State University in Alabama. Composed of students from all over the country, the Southerners and Marching Ballerinas perform for thousands each season.

The first band at Jacksonville State Normal School was formed in 1923–24. At that time, students only attended the school for two years and there was no full time director, which hindered growth of the band in the early years. In 1930, the college was renamed Jacksonville State Teachers College, reflecting an increased role in higher education for the institution. The Great Depression and World War II put development of the band on hold. After the war, Walter A. Mason became head of the music department at the college. A veteran, he turned to fellow Army musician J. Eugene Duncan who he asked to become the band's first full time director in 1948. The Marching Southerners were the 2021 recipients of the Sudler Trophy, the highest award for collegiate marching band.

John T. Finley took over the director position in 1951 and immediately made changes to the band's musical and visual style. Finley removed the sousaphones, cornets and small bore trombones, and replaced them with trumpets and bass trombones: instruments more usually associated with orchestras. The most radical instrumental change was the adoption of the C. G. Conn 20 J upright recording bass as the band's lead tuba, and Jacksonville State remains the only university marching band to use this heavy concert tuba on the field. Other musical changes included a departure from military style marches in favor of slower, more dynamic, orchestral and symphonic, Broadway and Latin jazz pieces. Visually, the band abandoned military style block drill in favor of precision marching and wide open company front formations: designed to achieve uniformity in step height and body carriage, whilst the company front formation helped to project the sound of the band. Finley also adopted a dance line as a visual focus instead of the majorette lines seen in more traditional marching bands, christening them the Marching Ballerinas in 1956. Primary music arrangers for the Southerners include David L. Walters (1960s early 1990s), Mark Fifer (1995–2004), and Justin Williams (2005–present), as well as percussion program head Clint Gillespie (1998–present).

In 1956 the band began attracting more attention and received its name, the "Southerners", in 1958. Incidentally, Norman L. Padgett is credited with naming the band. The band's charter president, Harold Summerville, class of '60, of Bowden, Ga., recalls, "On April 21, 1958, I presented a letter of appreciation to Norman L. Padgett. It was signed by Dr. Finley and [me] at the beginning of band rehearsal that day thanking [Mr. Padgett] for his submission of the name The Southerners." Despite the commonly used name ("The Marching Southerners"), according to the JSU Manual of Style and Usage, Point 7, the official name of the band at Jacksonville State is simply "The Southerners": the "Marching" title only being applied to the Marching Ballerinas.

There are no organized competitions for college marching bands in the Southeast, so the Marching Southerners do not engage in direct competition with other college bands. However, Jacksonville State University sponsors several competitive marching and pageantry units that draw their membership in whole, or in part, from the marching band:

JSU Center Stage winter guard, a member of Winter Guard International and the Southeastern Color Guard Circuit competing in the Independent Open class. JSU Diamond Girls, a dance team that competes throughout the Southeast. An indoor drumline that regularly competes in the marching percussion competition at Percussive Arts Society's annual convention (PASIC), which they won in 1999.