URBANA — The Illinois marching band has changed plenty in 150 years.
For starters, band members didn't play at halftime of football games — Illinois didn't even have a team until 1890. They played mostly marches and for military and school functions, like when buildings opened.
"It started off kind of a rag-tag group," Director Barry Houser said. "Back when it first started, it was very heavily devoted to military science here on campus, so they would play for a lot of military reviews, ROTC and a lot of school functions. It didn't start playing for football because football hadn't started yet.