The Iowa State Cyclone Football ‘Varsity’ Marching Band is the official marching band for Iowa State.

The Iowa State Cyclone Football ‘Varsity’ Marching Band is about 138 years old in some capacity or another. The marching band has famously played at the opening of the Ferris Wheel at the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, earning its place in a novelistic biography of H.H. Holmes titled “Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson, which was set at the Exposition.

The Iowa State Cyclone Football ‘Varsity’ Marching Band has been a symbol of Iowa State football game days for decades, even earning part of its name from a moment of conflict between past band members and football team administration.

The anecdote is often told to the band and by the band as the origin story of the ‘Varsity’ band. In short, the football staff claimed the shower facilities were for “varsity players only,” to which the band members retorted by claiming that they were “in the varsity band.”

The ‘Varsity’ band gained national attention for a variety of events since 2015. The band was awarded the “Heisman of Marching Bands” and the Sudler Trophy in 2017 during a halftime ceremony with the John Philip Sousa Foundation.

The band has also had halftime performances that have gone viral, including a performance which involved inflatable T-Rex costumes worn by another one of the athletic bands, State Storm, and a dance routine set to the music of Jurassic Park.

The Iowa State Cyclone Football ‘Varsity’ Marching Band is an audition-only band, with auditions for newcomers occurring in the days leading up to the band’s August band camp, which takes place about a week before classes officially start.

Anybody, regardless of marching experience, is encouraged to try out for both the ‘Varsity’ and ‘State Storm’ bands.

The audition sessions begin with team-building exercises as well as the teaching and practice of the audition material.

There is a marching and music section for the audition. The music portion is an etude and then the fight song, “ISU Fights!” The latter piece must be memorized.

All 300+ members of the bands must audition every year they participate, including additional auditions for pep bands for other sports and leadership positions.