Glover pays to bring “Battle of the Bands” to FAMU despite Mangum’s refusal to do the same for TSU

A total of 18,202 people filled Bragg Memorial Stadium for last weekend’s home opener game. That was a great start to the football season considering the average home game numbers from the past three years. According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the average home game attendance for the Rattlers was 14,261 in 2012, 11,169 in 2013, and 11,172 in 2014.

The 0-3 record of the Rattler football didn’t help bring those fans to the campus. But the return of the “Battle of the Bands” between FAMU and Tennessee State University (TSU) did.

The Marching 100 and the Aristocrat of Bands faced off twice during the TSU visit to Tallahassee. On Friday, September 25, the bands met in Gaither Gymnasium for a “Battle on the Hill.” FAMU sold $10 general admission tickets for the event on Ticketmaster.com.

At the Saturday football game, the two bands battled again at halftime and in the stands.

TSU President Glenda Baskin Glover paid to bring that “Battle of the Bands” to the FAMU campus despite FAMU President Elmira Mangum’s refusal to do the same for TSU last year.

Back in 2014, Mangum declined to let the Marching 100 travel to Nashville, Tenn. to perform at the TSU Homecoming game. She even rebuffed Glover’s offers to provide FAMU with financial assistance for the $60,000 travel cost. Glover wrote the following in a 2014 letter to Mangum:

We extended two offers to you to assist with FAMU band travel. These were: (1) TSU would pay the $60,000 cost for the FAMU band to travel to TSU this year, and FAMU would, in return, pay the same amount for the TSU band to travel to FAMU next year; or (2) TSU would extend a loan to FAMU in the amount of $30,000 to be paid back over the course of the 2014-2015 academic year.

You declined both offers. Instead, you made an absolutely one-sided offer and stated that FAMU could not afford to come to TSU, and that TSU had to pay all expenses for FAMU to travel to Nashville this year. You further stated that even if TSU paid the expenses this year, FAMU could not reciprocate and pay for TSU to travel to Tallahassee next year.

Afterwards, Magnum paid to take the Marching 100 to away games at Howard and NC A&T, despite neither of those teams or bands being big draws in Tallahassee.  This weekend Mangum will pay to take the Marching 100 to Savannah State University.

Glenda Baskin Glover proved that she was the bigger person when she still sent the Aristocrat of Bands to Tallahassee despite the way that Mangum treated TSU last year. Rattler Country owes Glover a big “thank you” for helping FAMU to attract a big turnout for its home opener despite the winless start to its 2015 football season.