Coach (The Sit-Com)

mwitt · 08-02-2007, 02:04 AM

Maybe I'm the only person in the world who didn't know this, but did you all know that the theme song for the sit-com starring Craig T. Nelson was performed by the ISU marching band? Apparently we won a contest to perform it.

I knew that the creator of the show was a Hawkeye and created the character after Hayden Fry, and the short clips on episodes of campus or at a football stadium were the University of Iowa and Kinnick Stadium.

I don't know, I just thought it was kind of cool.

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theshadow · 08-02-2007, 02:12 AM

One episode even featured Roger Cichy (band director at the time of the contest) as a plant waterer in the office of the AD, over the ending credits.

I remember when the band spelled out "Hayden" at halftime of a game in the early 90s, and also remember being thoroughly confused about the reason for it until the news of the contest came out.

Also, the theme itself wasn't performed by the ISUCF"V"MB, but rather an arrangement of the theme. Ask anyone who was in band from about '93 to '03 if they have any "Coach Tapes"...chances are they have several. Thousands of promotional cassette tapes were created featuring only Fights and the theme from Coach on both sides, and they were still giving them out to band members (mostly as a joke) until at least a few years ago.

mwitt · 08-02-2007, 02:19 AM

That's really cool that they had the band director in an episode. Where was the show taped?

theshadow · 08-02-2007, 02:58 AM

Probably at Universal Studios in California.

Cybone · 08-02-2007, 06:40 AM

The band spelled out "Coach" on the field during the Nebraska game that year so the stands would look full. The chart and the arrangement were done by our grad assistant at the time, Matt Hovey.

It was pretty cool at the time. Now it is trivia...awesome.