DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With BCUathletics.com having launched the social media campaign “#24kCountdown to Kickoff”, every Monday we will feature a little known history fact about our founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, and how she helped to mold the Maroon and Gold into the program that it is today.
What would Bethune-Cookman football be without the band?
The university's namesake not only saw the importance of athletics as part the institution she founded, but played a major role in the genesis of the band program that has evolved into the "The Marching Wildcats".
The Marching Wildcats are as much as the show as the football team is during the fall.
Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune knew that her college needed a marching band during the early days. And she got some help to get it started from a source that seems a tad far-fetched given the rivalry: the Florida A&M band.
You can get back in your chairs, now.
When the first Bethune-Cookman band formed in 1930, it had 30 members. The instruments came from our sister school in Tallahassee. It was a simple continuation of helping each other out: FAMU donated uniforms to help the baseball team get started in 1924 and helped out with football equipment as well.
Dr. Bethune showed her appreciation down the road, using her influence with the National Negro Council of Women and her close working relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt to help Florida A&M obtain funding for new buildings on the Tallahassee campus in addition to money for her campus in Daytona Beach.
The Florida A&M-Bethune-Cookman connection has a couple of other bright notes: Congresswoman Carrie Pittman Meek, a former FAMU graduate, the “Kittens” [the Lady Wildcats of that era] to a conference championship before embarking on her political career. And there is the legendary Samuel Berry, a former Marching “100” member who came to B-CC and laid the foundation for today's Marching Wildcats.
Even back in the day, Dr. Bethune appreciated one simple truth...except for one Saturday afternoon in the fall, Rattlers and Wildcats have each other's back.
MONDAY: #MaryMemories
Each Monday BCUathletics.com will reveal an archived photo of our founder, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, along with a little-known fact relating Dr. Bethune to the Wildcats football program. Fans are also encouraged to tweet their own facts about Dr. Bethune as they relate to B-CU football.
Please use the hashtag #MaryMemories when tweeting photos, and/or sharing your facts to Twitter. We'll add the photo and facts to Facebook as well.
Be sure to interact with us on all social media channels. Fans are encouraged to follow @BCUathletics on Twitter, @BCUathletics on Instagram, and “Like” BCUathletics on Facebook to enter their daily submissions for participation. Fans should also follow BCUathletics on Pinterest for that special tailgating recipe yet to be discovered by the rest of the world.
In addition, Bethune-Cookman recently announced the official social media directory for the department of athletics. CLICK HERE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTORY. All 17 sports teams at Bethune-Cookman have a unique twitter handle, and fans are encouraged to follow the student-athletes and coaches of those teams as each will have special tweets, photos and information unique to that program.
Bethune-Cookman is #NeverSatisfied.
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