By
Ryan Finley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
I hate the UA band sometimes.
Last Saturday, the so-called "Pride of Arizona" was performing its halftime show - a tribute to the band Oingo Boingo - just before the UA Athletic Department was to retire the late Damon Terrell's jersey.
Terrell, a former UA tight end, collapsed and died at practice in training camp prior to the 1995 season.
Terrell's family was there Saturday. So was UA head coach Dick Tomey, who opted to memorialize his former player instead of talking to his team during the break.
So what Oingo Boingo song does our band break out with just minutes before the emotional ceremony?
"Dead Man's Party." Oh. My. God.
C'mon, band - I hope that this was an unfortunate mistake instead of some cruel joke. If it was a joke, though, it was a terrible one. Get some class...
...It gets worse. In the final minutes of UA's 27-24 loss to UCLA, the band played the theme from "Gladiator," y'know, the one that gets ripped off in that Puff Daddy song?
Great song choice ... again.
Turns out this "Gladiator" song is UCLA's unofficial team anthem.
Upon hearing our band play it, Bruins players reportedly started to believe that the team could overcome a Wildcat lead.
Inspired by OUR band, the Bruins did just that, driving the length of the field in the game's final minutes to defeat UA by a field goal.
"That just pumped our team up," UCLA head coach Bob Toledo said after the game.
Great. First the band insults our own program and then they inspire the other team to beat us. And they call themselves the Pride of Arizona? Hey band, here's some advice from an outsider: try to make your own fans happy. Inspire your own players. I hope the fact that you contributed to your own team's loss keeps you up at night...
...For a lot of students, today will mark a return to school following yesterday's unofficial "hangover holiday," which gave some UA students a chance to recover from Halloween. So here's my Halloween recap:
...My girlfriend dressed up as 'pregnant,' which sure scared the hell out of me...
...I heard that Darryl Strawberry dressed up as Dumbo, which would make some sense. You could drive a golf cart through that guy's cocaine chute...
...Marv Albert dressed up as a woman. Granted, he didn't know it was Halloween. It was just his Tuesday night outfit...
...Rae Carruth dressed up as a woman, but I think that may have been more of a prison thing than a Halloween thing...
...What did I do on Halloween? Well, for awhile, I actually sat around and watched a NBA game on Halloween night. I saw Latrell Spreewell go up against Allen Iverson in a season-opening tilt at New York's Madison Square Garden. In a related story, crime is down 50 percent since the season opened...
...I also watched a movie about a blood-sucking creature that is hated and feared by all. That's right, Count Ryan Leaf-ula.
