The Spartan Marching Band (SMB) is the marching band of Michigan State University. The band has over 300 members and is the second oldest in the Big Ten Conference, with its founding in 1870. Notable music educator Leonard Falcone directed the band from 1927 through 1967. The band performs every year at home football games, travels to some away games, as well as various events held by the university. The band has also performed for five U.S. Presidents, performed at five Rose Bowls, two World's Fairs, and one World Series. History Beginnings and MAC military band The band was founded in 1870 as a 10-member student-led group, shortly after the founding of the Michigan Agricultural College (presently Michigan State University). Ransom McDonough Brooks was a student and former civil war veteran who first led the band. The band operated informally during this time. In 1885, an ROTC was formed on campus and the band was reorganized as a cadet military band. During this time the band was led by students and military officers, including cornetist I.E. Hill, and Professor B.G. Edgerton, who was the first to lead the band in performance before a President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. Other directors in this period included A.J. Clark, Frederick Abel, J.S. Taylor, and Carl Kuhlman. Taylor would lead the first band to perform the new college fight song, written by cheerleader Francis Lankey. That performance would come shortly after young Lankey's death in 1919. The Falcone years In 1927, Leonard Falcone started as director of the band. Falcone was an Italian immigrant and the brother of University of Michigan band director Nicholas Falcone. Many of the band's traditions were established during his 40-year tenure and the band changed from a 65-member ROTC auxiliary into an adjunct of the new department that would become today's College of Music. When the career of Nicholas came to a premature end due to illness in 1935, Leonard agreed to shoulder the burden of directing the bands at both of the rival schools concurrently while his brother sought treatment. MSU began playing Big Ten Conference football in 1952 and during this time the band received its first green and white uniforms. The SMB made their first appearance in the Rose Bowl in 1954. Falcone was a baritone horn virtuoso, professor of baritone and euphonium, and a prolific transcriber and arranger of music for concert band. He arranged