The Mighty Sound of the South is the marching band that represents and performs for the

University of Memphis } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...

in Memphis, TN. The band plays at Memphis Tigers

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

games as a

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, ofte ...

and at Tigers

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

games as a pep band.

History

At the end of the 1962-1963 basketball season, the Tiger team had the distinction of being the only southern team to be invited to play in the

National Invitational Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

. Thomas C. Ferguson, in only his second year as band director, was a big basketball fan, and furnished a pep band for every home game, which was not a given as it is today. He decided that his pep band should go to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and he called the tournament committee for permission. They had to check into it, because a pep band had never before played for a basketball game in the Garden. They were given the green light to become the first. Nineteen pep band members boarded a bus for New York City. They were determined to make a name for themselves - literally. Using markers and an old bed sheet, they fashioned a makeshift sign with the words "The Mighty Sound of the South" to humorously describe their modestly sized band. The basketball team went on to an impressive showing, and the name "The Mighty Sound of the South" is still used, in a more literal sense, for the 200+ member marching band. A history of previous-thru-current directors / assistant directors of The Mighty Sound of The South is as follows: The Mighty Sound of the South is officially charged with preserving the traditions of the Memphis Tigers and for performing “ Go! Tigers! Go!” the University of Memphis Tigers’

fight song A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLKs3V2XL6Q Go! Tigers! Go! Lyrics and Performance The fight song was written by Tom Ferguson, former Director of Bands at Memphis State University during the 1960-1970s.

References

External links

Mighty Sound of the South websiteUniversity of Memphis website
University of Memphis American Athletic Conference marching bands Musical groups established in 1940 1940 establishments in Tennessee {{Marching-band-stub