I am a Freshman Baritone player in the Marching Illini and a resident of Garner Hall.

In the early hours on gameday (for day games) a portion of the fully uniformed Marching Illini made a stop at the Gregory Drive and Peabody Drive residence halls and encouraged residents to participate in the motto on our orange caps: “Gameday Spirit.”

We would play a rousing selection of tunes and then sing Oskee Wow-Wow before moving on to the next hall.

Afterwards, we would report on time to our 7 a.m. rehearsal in Memorial Stadium.

The only experiences I had with this tradition were positive reception and increased band morale.

Some students (who may have prepared for game day in a different way) have yelled at us, but even they generally accept this routine.

Talking to my friends in the hall, it seems to be fun for them to sway to ‘Hey Baby’ and ‘What is Hip?’ before nodding back off to sleep.

With rumors circulating earlier this week, Marching Band Director Peter Griffin informed us that we can no longer do what has come to be known as “Six Pack Wake Up.”

Without any explanation, there is a lot of room for conjecture, but I can’t personally explain it. How much different is this than being woken up by the Stadium announcer a few hours later?

How about the people who have roommates in the Marching Illini who have to hear an alarm go off at 5:30?

I may not be the best source on the history of this tradition and I know that I don’t speak for everyone when I say that it seems to have been a good thing – but why is yet another tradition being killed with no explanation and seemingly no opposition?