El Pasoan Who Led Notre Dame Band Years Ago Will Host Band This Year
For seven years, El Pasoan Linda Lawson has gladly served as a host for one of the visiting Sun Bowl marching bands.
As much as she has enjoyed working with each team she just couldn’t stay assigned to Miami.
She doesn’t have anything against Miami, she just has a deeper connection to the Fighting Irish. Lawson once led the Notre Dame band.
“I was like, ‘Oh no! This is a whole bowl of wrong,'” Lawson said. “We were on the phone. I was texting. I was like, ‘Please, let me switch!””
The Sun Bowl committee quickly relented and now the chief nursing officer at Sierra Medical Center is hustling to get ready for the arrival of the band.
In 1980, Lawson served as the first female and the first Hispanic drum major for the Notre Dame Marching Band.
“It was 200 strong when I was there. And that was strong!” Lawson said. “They’re 400 now. I’m going to have nine buses and an 18-wheeler full of equipment, so i’m going to have to figure out how to maneuver them through town.”
During Lawson’s junior and senior years in high school, she served as the drum major for Austin High School. She said her mother encouraged her to try out for the same position her first year at Notre Dame.
After stealing a few moves from her sister, a state champion twirler, and putting on a solid performance at tryouts, band officials told her that she had won the coveted position. Lawson almost didn’t believe it.
“They were like, ‘We’ve never done this before. This has never happened before,'” Lawson said. “And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? Well, you’re gonna be our drum major, and we’ve never had a woman before. I don’t even think we have a uniform to fit you.'”
Lawson said her favorite memory is the very first time she took the field in a game against Purdue.
“It was nationally televised. My parents and my family came out,” Lawson said. “It was just so cool.”
She did, however, have a few very big concerns.
“You have the Irish Guard and I’m thinking, they’re never going to see me! These guys are six feet tall and they’re wearing kilts and then they have these huge shakos,” Lawson said. “I’m like five foot four and they’re never going to see me!”
Lawson said the experience of the Notre Dame Marching Band is impossible to describe.
“For people who have never seen anything like this before, it’ll certainly leave a memorable impression,” Lawson said. “And to have LIVED it, and then relive it 30 years later, here we are.”
The Notre Dame Marching Band is expected to fly in on Dec. 29th. They will take part in a pep rally on Dec. 30th.