K-State band hall a dream come true
When Frank Tracz walks through the doors of K-State’s completed marching band hall
for the very first time next year, he knows that he’s going to be hit by an overwhelming
flood of emotion.
This is a facility that band members have been dreaming about for 50 years, and with
a projected finish date of April 2023, they won’t have much longer to wait.
“It’s getting more real,” says Tracz, professor of music and director of bands at
K-State. “I go over there a lot, and I keep joking that I got the truck up here loaded
with instruments, can I move in yet? It’s gonna happen. It’s pretty satisfying, it’s
pretty humbling. It’s just awesome.”
The Tracz Family Band Hall, as it will be formally called, will serve as a place that
band members can call their own on campus.
“The feeling of having a home is the biggest issue, it is the biggest positive for
us,” Tracz said. “It’s ours. It’s the marching band hall, it’s where our equipment
is. We’re just grateful for all of the people that donated to make this happen. Just
the love and respect that people have for the band just blew me away.”
The Tracz Family Band Hall will be located in the renovated northwest side of World
War I Memorial Stadium. The band already uses the field at Memorial Stadium to practice
for football game performances.
In the past, before rehearsal students would have to pick up instruments from McCain
Auditorium, carry them to Memorial Stadium to rehearse on the field, and then carry
them back after the end of practice. That extra walking made it challenging for students
trying to fit band practice into tight class schedules, and carrying heavy, expensive
instruments like tubas over that distance increased the risk for damage.
The new facility will allow the band to store all their equipment in one place vs.
scattered across campus, and if there’s rain or lightning during a rehearsal they
can go inside the band hall to wait out the storm.
The band will now be able to park their truck across the street, and the band hall
will have a garage door that will enable the truck to back up for easy loading/unloading.
This will especially come in handy for times such as getting back from a bowl game
at 2-3 a.m. in the morning, when everyone is tired, cold and ready to go home, and
now they can unload more quickly.
Tracz also is excited to announce that the band hall will have a food pantry for band
members, similar to Cats' Cupboard on campus. Students can grab canned items and packaged
meals if they need them. Tracz sees it as a way to give back to students in need,
who have given so much to the university.
“They spend so much time, they give so much effort,” he said of the students’ involvement
in band.
The new band hall will have a variety of other features, including:
- A built-in repair room with soldering and welding equipment, as well as washing stations for instruments, so that a repair tech can fix instruments on-site.
- A changing room for members of the Classy Cats, Color Guard and Twirlers, as well as a wall of mirrors for rehearsing.
- TV screens for video evaluations.
- A kitchen area, office with an ice maker and drinking fountains capable of filling bottles, so band members can stay hydrated during practice.
- A brick patio in the front with pavers purchased by band supporters.
There also will be a memorabilia room with trophies and artifacts such as smashed,
burnt trumpets recovered from the 1965 McCain fire. Tracz sees this display as an important record of the band’s history, something
students will now be reminded of every time they walk through the building.
“They need to understand where we’ve been,” Tracz said. “The best way to appreciate
what you have is to know where you’ve come from. This band is a great, great story
— very proud of where it’s come from and where it’s going.”
All this progress on the construction of the band hall comes at a busy and exciting
time for the band. They’re still riding the high from the football team’s 2022 Big
12 Championship win.
“The Big 12 Championship was a classic victory,” Tracz said. “It felt so good, the
kids were so excited. It was a great experience. We stopped them on that fourth down,
and I turned to my assistant and said, we’re going to win this on a field goal, watch.
And when they lined up to kick the field goal, I just faced the band and one finger
means ‘Fight Song.’ I watched their faces, and it exploded.”
They’re also eager to travel to the upcoming Allstate Sugar Bowl. Years later, Tracz
said these students will be able to look back and realize they played a part in these
significant moments in K-State history.
“You look back at those things and think, wow, that was pretty cool,” he said.
Stay tuned for more information about a celebration of the new band hall in spring
with an open house. You can keep track of the construction progress on the band’s
website.