How HBCU marching bands built the Super Bowl halftime show before the stars arrived originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Super Bowl halftime show did not start as a cultural event. It was a practical one.
When professional football staged its first championship game in the late 1960s, halftime could not be empty space. The league needed something that could fill a huge stadium, keep fans engaged, and work on television. There was no blueprint. No star power to lean on. What mattered was presence. Marching bands already understood all of that.
From the start, Historically Black Colleges and Universities were part of the solution.
At the first Super Bowl in 1967, Grambling State University’s World Famed Tiger Marching Band took the field. It was not a novelty. It was a statement about what halftime could be. Grambling did not show up once and disappear. The band kept returning over the years, eventually performing six times, more than any other HBCU. As the Tigers celebrate their 100th year, those appearances feel less like isolated moments and more like chapters in the Super Bowl’s early story.
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They were not alone. Florida A&M University’s Marching 100 brought its precision and confidence to the Super Bowl 3 stage in 1969. Decades later, the band returned during a modern halftime show, quietly connecting generations.
Southern University’s Human Jukebox shared the stage with Carol Channing, Doc Severinsen, Al Hirt, Lionel Hampton, and Marguerite Piazza at Super Bowl IV’s halftime show. The only footage available looks like it was from 100 years ago. It’s safe to say, Southern’s pregame concert last year was one that will be remembered for a very long time.
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As halftime shows shifted toward pop driven productions, HBCU bands still found room. Texas Southern University’s Ocean of Soul appeared in the 2004 halftime alongside Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. More recently, Jackson State University’s Sonic Boom of the South stepped onto the halftime stage with Usher in Las Vegas, a reminder that HBCU bands are not relics.
Across nearly six decades, these performances share one thing in common. Before halftime became a headline moment, HBCU marching bands showed the Super Bowl how to hold attention, fill space, and move a crowd.
That influence is still there. You just have to know where to look.
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