Motto

The following is excerpted from Natalie Ochmann's THY LOYAL CHILDREN: A History of the University of Cincinnati Bearcat Bands (2023), pg. 166:

The band’s motto—“The UC Band is Damn Good—is not explicitly stated as a tradition in “The Words to Live By.” But the phrase, developed long before the age of social media hashtags, has been used since Hornyak’s era in the 1960s. In fact, it originated from his own family.

When the band traveled to Memphis in 1966 for a football game and the band was practicing outside the stadium, members of the Memphis crowd started chanting, “Go to hell, UC, go to hell” at the marchers.

Without skipping a beat, UC drum major Sam Velasquez started the band chanting back, “We’re here, Memphis, we’re here.”

Once in the stadium, the crowds at Memphis continued shouting and hurling hateful comments toward the band members. Finally, out of frustration, Hornyak’s wife, Mary, got up and shouted into a megaphone at the fans:

“THE UC BAND IS DAMN GOOD.”

“Hornyak was appalled,” says Sue Brown DeFoor. “Under his regime, he wanted no slack coming back from our trip. So when an appropriate time came he said, ‘I want to know the person who did such a disservice to this band.’ And Mary raises her hand.

“He says, ‘There will be severe consequences,’ and was shaking his head. He was blaming the band members, and they would have gotten whatever punishment—could have been lights out at 6 o’clock or whatever. He took away Mary’s rights to a megaphone for the season.”

But pretty soon, the band became fond of the phrase and didn’t want to give it up. And so, “The UC Band is Damn Good” became shorthand for the band program and its pride.