A military color guard often traveled with a band, who would play patriotic songs. This way of performing continued into the civilian marching bands, and today a marching band's color guard is usually found carrying equipment descending from those of military color guard: flags,
banners, wooden or plastic
rifles, and plastic or metal
sabres. Modern guards use real sabers as well, but without the sharpened point. One tradition that contributed to color guards in American marching bands is the Swiss art of flag swinging or Fahnenschwingen. The 1936 Olympian Franz Hug of Lucern, Switzerland, came to America and introduced flag swinging in 1937. Leonard Haug, an assistant band director at the
University of Wisconsin, was intrigued. Haug created ten flags representing the schools of the
Big Ten Conference. When Haug came to the
University of Oklahoma the following year, he became the first to introduce the technique in the Southwest and formed a corps of
Big Six Conference flag swingers for the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band. The 1938 squad was all male, but the group was co-ed within two years. By 1940, O.U. flag swingers were participating at basketball games and creating innovative routines with two flags. The OU color guard may be the oldest existing unit of its kind in American marching bands. As Director of the
OU band, Haug wrote a training guide for flag swinging and an article for a swing flag brochure, assisting the spread of the trend to other marching bands. In 1965, Haug succeeded in combining the swing flag with a baton. It was an idea on which he had worked for years. He called his invention the "twirl-flag" baton. He wrote that it was "a truly American flag baton idea suitable for solo and corps exhibition." It was a 32" baton with a colored flag at each end that rotated around the shaft to prevent fouling. The invention was first featured by the
University of Arkansas marching band at the
Cotton Bowl on January 1, 1966, and later manufactured by Kraskin Batons of Minneapolis. For all of Haug's efforts, however, the "twirl-flag" baton never caught on, but regular flags and batons remained standard for most marching bands. During the 1950s and 1960s, much of the impetus for the evolution of the modern color guard came from the arena of competitive drum and bugle corps. Pioneers from these corps traveled to other areas of the country to teach, introducing color guards to more traditional bands. In 1962, Vincent R. DiNino, Director of the Longhorn Band, "The Showband of the Southwest", at the University of Texas began the use big 4'x6' flags in the school colors (orange and white) as a group marching with the band at halftime shows at football games. Since flags of that type were not then available from any commercial vendors, his wife, Jane DiNino, sewed the flags. The flag poles were made of lightweight dowel wood purchased at a local lumber yard with flag holders purchased from a local army-navy surplus store. Movies of the Longhorn Band taken by the Athletic Department at the University of Texas captured the first use of big flags by a college marching band. Director DiNino charged a band member, Larry Cullison, with the duty of charting movements of the flags and working the flags into the performance of the band during halftime performances. By 1972, there were 16 big flags in use as a part of the Longhorn Marching Band at the University of Texas. The use of big flags spread throughout the Southwest Conference. The band directors at the
University of Memphis (Memphis State), Dr. Tom Ferguson and Art Theil, recruited music major Sam Shaw to start one of the first collegiate color guards in the South, the "Bengal Lancers" in 1974. Director of Bands at Northwestern University, John Paynter, was also one of the first to add a color guard to the marching band when he hired Bugle Corp specialist George Parks in 1976. Consequently, color guards spread quickly throughout the country. The visual effect of spinning and shaking flags drew the attention of crowds and quickly caught on. Having visual impact for pieces played when the band stood still added a whole new dimension to the performance. By the late 1970s and into the mid-1980s color guards had been added to most Southwest Conference, Big Ten and Big 8 (Currently Big 12) bands. Once these prominent university bands had color guards, there was widespread inclusion of guards at high schools across the nation in the 1980s and 1990s. The popularity of color guard has grown such that winter guard has gained widespread membership and attention. Color guard was not always accepted among marching band organizations. As Arthur Williams stated in his 1958 book,
The College and University Band, "If it actually made no difference to your high school or community whether or not you fronted your band with girl majorettes, baton twirlers, flag swingers, pompom girls, and so on, what would you prefer? Favor use of girl majorettes and so on: 52 percent. Prefer no use of girl majorettes and so on: 48 percent." The University of Wisconsin, where Leonard Haug first introduced conference flags, has since discontinued the practice of having a color guard. == Marching band ==