To state the obvious: The NCAA Tournament is a massive operation. 67 games in 14 cities, hundreds of student-athletes and hundreds of thousands of fans zig-zagging across the country for a month to crown one winner. But behind the scenes and often off the screen, there are thousands more supporting cast members who make March Madness the best postseason in American sports. From the arena crew who prepare the building and maintain it on game day, to the team trainers who keep the athletes in peak health to compete.
As the buzzer sounded at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena on Friday and Yale’s August Mahoney jumped on the scorer’s table to celebrate the 13th-seeded Bulldogs upsetting 4th-seeded Auburn, the Yale band tore through a rendition of its “Bulldog” fight song . It wasn’t until after the game that many learned the truth: the musicians who had just rallied the Ivy League champions to perhaps their biggest victory in school history were actually from the University of Idaho.
The call came to Idaho band director Spencer Martin on Selection Sunday. Yale had double-booked its bracket, with the Bulldogs only advancing to the tournament thanks to some March magic in the Ivy League championship game. Since Idaho was the host school for the Spokane games, they were asked to pitch in. “It was the perfect storm because we had just come back from the Big Sky Tournament in Boise where we were rooting for our teams,” Martin told SB Nation “I said, ‘I think we can do it.'” So I just reached out to [the band]. There were 29 of them that were available.
Idaho hasn’t reached the men’s NCAA tournament in 34 years, and the women’s team has made it just three times in the last 40. For most of the Vandals’ group, it was their only chance to see March Madness up close. “I saw the Google Doc email that was like, ‘Hey, sign up for this,'” said tenor saxophonist Misty Smith, “and I was like, ‘Yeah! I want to travel again. I love traveling with the band.”
The Vandals (or Vandogs, as they came to be known) learned the Yale fight song an hour before they boarded the bus to Spokane on game day. The rest of their repertoire – pumping their instruments like weights while shouting “Get swole!” and singing the entire SpongeBob SquarePants theme during opponent penalty kicks – that was all Idaho. “We’ve been secretly weaving in a lot of vandal stuff and just changing it to Bulldogs or making some bows and things like that,” Martin said.
Then came the upset: Behind a massive 28-point game from junior John Poulakidas, Yale defeated a potential title contender in Auburn. A frantic final possession gave the Tigers four opportunities to tie or win, but Yale prevailed to earn just its second NCAA Tournament victory in school history and its biggest upset. “My first reaction was I’d better count out this fight song real quick,” Martin said. “It was just amazing. It was just surreal. After the game, Yale head coach James Jones acknowledged the effect the group had on the game: “Having that atmosphere and people coming out to support us, there’s nothing better than that and we couldn’t appreciate them more than being Bulldog fans.”
Asked if the U of I group has plans to accompany Yale to the Sweet Sixteen if they beat San Diego State, Spencer said their residency ends in Spokane: “Our goal is to win, not just to send the team to the Sweet Sixteen, but to to be able to send the Yale group to the Sweet Sixteen so they can experience that too.”
In the end, Yale couldn’t keep the magic going and fell to last year’s national title runner-up Aztecs 85-57. But for Mysti Smith and the rest of the Vandal gang, becoming honorary Ivy League players for a weekend was the experience of a lifetime: “It was really exciting and also a little terrifying because we’re in the public eye. This has never happened to me before. It’s just really fun.”
