MUSIC MADNESS: The road to Syracuse’s 2003 victory through the eyes of the Sour Sitrus Society

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n 2003, John Brennan carried a pair of dirty socks with him as Syracuse battled Auburn to earn a spot in the Elite Eight. After watching the Orange squeeze by with a one-point win, Brennan decided it must’ve been because of the socks.

“At that point, I said no, I’m just holding on to the socks,” said Brennan, a member of the Sour Sitrus Pep Band. “These seem to be a good luck charm. So for the Albany games and the New Orleans games, I had these dirty socks in my pocket.” 

The Sour Sitrus Society, Syracuse’s pep band, plays at the men’s and women’s basketball games. In the 2002-2003 season, the organization had 177 members and was run by students. Brennan, then a senior trumpet player, was one of the 30 members chosen by the band’s executive board to make the trip to the 2003 NCAA Tournament. 

The student board was also in charge of organizing music, meeting with NCAA officials and even booking hotels. Two of these board members, Chairman John MacNair and Secretary Alyson Wasko, helped organize and traveled for the championship tournament. 

“It’s so difficult to look at your peers that you’re friends with and be like, ‘you know, you’re doing something wrong,’ or ‘this the reason why you can’t travel,’” MacNair said. 

Members of the band said they were selected to travel based on a point system, playing ability and overall availability. Points could be accrued throughout the semester by playing at optional service events, serving on a committee or attending women’s basketball games. 

This point system was also based on seniority, band members said, with older students starting the season with more points than their younger counterparts. Brian Young, a freshman at the time, felt lucky to be selected for the roster. Young grew up in Syracuse, so getting to go to the national championship game was a surreal experience. 

“I’ve been a Syracuse fan for as long as I can remember,” Young said. “I was fortunate my freshman year, there were not a lot of upperclassmen in my section…but by going to a bunch of women’s basketball games and all the extra events…I had the opportunity to travel.” 

The band traveled to each tournament game, from Boston, then Albany and eventually New Orleans. The few days between games were spent back in Syracuse going to class. The travel schedule was hectic but exciting, then-senior sousaphone player Kevin Upcraft said.

“When you’re at a tournament location, you play a game, you have a day off and another game and then we bus back,” Upcraft said. “It was tough though, because you’d go from a weekend of spring break party-party to back to class.”

Despite troubles getting to the games, including navigating class schedules, several wrong turns and even a car accident, the tournament was something every member of the band remembers distinctly. 

Brennan remembered the feeling of walking into the Superdome for the Final Four game, saying it was a surreal experience as they were escorted through the bowels and then out onto the court before the game. Upcraft said in comparison to the then-Carrier Dome, this was something else entirely. 

The band escapes the ice storm that hit Syracuse the weekend of the Final Four and lands in warm and sunny New Orleans, Louisiana, where SU won its title. Courtesy of Alyson Wasko

Claire Sprague, Alyson Wasko, Meredith Bulkley Lewis, Rebecca Titus stood before the 2003 Final Four banner in the Superdome prior to the game against the Texas Longhorns. Courtesy of Alyson Wasko

“Just looking up and seeing how big it was — we had all been in the Dome hundreds of times, and this just made the Dome look small to see it from that perspective.” Upcraft said.

Every game brought a large crowd of Orange fans who helped the band’s energy and momentum, said Jason Ladd, a graduate baritone player. As part of the spirit squad, the band is responsible for helping to keep the crowd cheering even through difficult moments in the game. 

The band’s performance of “The Hey Song” — actually “Rock and Roll (Part 2)” by Gary Glitter — got the entire stadium singing in the championship game, members of the band said. Throughout the season, they said the song became one of their most popular, and would always spark a chorus of obscene chants from the student section.

“It didn’t matter that we didn’t play it because the students just started it on their own,” Wasko said. “They just sang it at the top of their lungs because they heard it the entire season.” 

Because band members are representing the university when performing in uniform, they’re expected to maintain a level of sportsmanship and professionalism. To Young’s dismay, this meant the band couldn’t rush the court with the rest of the Syracuse fans when the buzzer sounded at the end of the championship game.

Young first traveled with the band to the Big East Tournament in New York City, but did not travel again until the Final Four. When the games started in New Orleans, he had to flip the switch from watching as a student fan to being a band member.

“When you get the rugby (the band uniform) on, you have to edit your language a bit. You’re front and center, you’re right with microphones and the cameras,” Young said. “But I also didn’t care, because we had great seats for some amazing basketball. It was well worth the tradeoff.”

The band members sat courtside for every game throughout the tournament. Being so close to Hakim Warrick’s famous game-saving block against Kansas is something that MacNair still remembers in slow motion. 

“​​I remember seeing Michael Lee open, I remember the ball getting kicked out to him. It was almost like NBA Jam, where someone would come and block the ball out of nowhere,” MacNair said. “It was superhuman.”

As soon as the buzzer sounded to end the game, the band immediately kicked off the fight song followed by a chorus of other songs. 

“When the game’s over, you’re supposed to play the fight song. And I’m choking back tears trying to play my horn as I’m pumping my fist,” Young said. “My team just won it all, the team I’ve been rooting for literally my entire life. And I’m there for it, front row.”  

After the game, most of the Syracuse crowd in New Orleans took to Bourbon Street to celebrate the win. Some of the band members, along with head coach Jim Boeheim and the Syracuse players, joined the festivities. Choruses of “The Hey Song,” a sign that Syracuse was there, could be heard floating down through the streets of downtown New Orleans. 

“People were doing all sorts of Syracuse chants. The “Let’s go Orange!” and just having a great time,” Brennan said. “All of the fans that were there just went to go celebrate, and Bourbon Street was a sea of orange.”

Photograph courtesy of Brian Young