For generations of Galion students, Friday nights have come with a familiar soundtrack. The drums begin. Brass and sometimes woodwinds join in. The Galion Tiger Marching Band makes its way toward the field, and another night of football in Galion is underway.
This Friday, that tradition will carry considerably more history with it. Galion City Schools is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Galion High School Marching Band this year, marking a century of student musicians who have represented the school and community. The district is also offering commemorative centennial apparel as part of the observance.
One of the anniversary’s most fitting moments will come before Friday night’s Galion-Shelby football game, when the Galion Tiger Marching Band and Shelby Whippet Band combine to perform the National Anthem.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 PM Friday, September 11 at Galion’s Unckrich Stadium in Heise Park.
A Tradition Reaching Back to 1926
A 100th anniversary places the beginnings of Galion’s marching band tradition in 1926, a period when high school bands were becoming an increasingly visible part of school and community life across Ohio.
The Galion High School Band was outfitted in new uniforms, the cost of which was raised by Galion Kiwanis at one meeting in October of that year.
Much of that first century survives not simply in memory, but in photographs, recordings and stories handed down by generations of Galion musicians. Earlier this year, a program on Galion’s musical history at the Gill House included a look at the history of Galion High School bands and what organizers described as the earliest known film of the marching band, dating from around 1950. By the middle decades of the century, the band had become firmly established as one of Galion High School’s most visible representatives.
And during one memorable era, its reach extended far beyond Heise Park.
When the Tiger Band Went on the Road
Jack Arlen served as Galion’s band director from 1966 through 1987, years remembered by many former students as a high point in the program’s history. His musicians became known as “Arlen’s Army,” and the band traveled to appearances that included the Indianapolis 500, American Legion National Convention and state fair competitions. Galion was also selected as a featured band for an NFL Hall of Fame Game in Canton.
One performance in particular illustrates the scale that the Galion band tradition could reach. Arlen later recalled a Galion Alumni Band halftime performance of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” that brought together a 125-member Tiger Marching Band and 175 alumni musicians. Cannons supplied by the Marion Army National Guard provided the appropriate ending. Those alumni appearances became a tradition of their own.
The instruments and uniforms have changed over the decades, as have the students carrying them, but the idea behind those gatherings has remained remarkably constant: once someone has marched with the Tiger Band, the connection tends to last.
The Next Generation Takes the Field
Today’s program is directed by Theresa O’Deens, who is listed by Galion City Schools as director of the marching, pep and jazz bands, with Anthony Stout serving as marching band assistant. O’Deens took over the Galion program in 2023. In her first year, the high school band earned a top rating in Class C competition at the Ohio Music Education Association District 2 Large Group Adjudicated Event.
The band is also looking ahead. Galion school officials have approved an April 2027 Walt Disney World trip for high school band students, and fundraising for that trip has been underway throughout the year. At the same time, the district says the marching band is raising money toward the purchase of new uniforms.
There is something particularly appropriate about those two efforts taking place during the centennial year. A program celebrating its past is simultaneously preparing what the next generation will wear and where it will perform.
Two Bands and One Anthem
Friday’s celebration will unfold around an important football game as well. Galion and Shelby meet in the Tigers’ Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference opener, with Shelby traveling to Galion for the 7:00 PM kickoff.
But before the teams take over the field, the two schools’ musicians will have it. For a few minutes, there will be no Tigers and Whippets on opposite sides. The two marching bands will come together for the National Anthem, with Galion’s musicians performing in a season that connects them directly with students who first began building the school’s band tradition a century ago.
Thousands of students have carried instruments, learned music, practiced formations, played in cold weather and provided the soundtrack to Galion Friday nights during those 100 years. On Friday, today’s band gets its turn. And for one song before kickoff, Shelby will help Galion celebrate the century.