On Saturday, the Harvard Crimson played against the Cornell Big Red. Yeah, I didn’t know about the game, either. (I was originally going to make a joke about Ivy League football, but I guess the Harvard Crimson is actually a pretty good team, so pooh on me.)
Also pretty good: both universities’ marching bands. After Harvard’s band’s performance of the Ghostbusters theme—it’s part of their set during football games—an older gentleman in salmon-colored pants approached them in the bleachers.
“Hey, play that song again,” the man said.
Why, the man in questionable pants was none other than freaking Bill Murray, who had been hiding in plain sight all along. Harvard’s newspaper, The Crimson, has most of the story (via the Huffington Post:
Once Murray returned to his seat to watch the last quarter of the game, the trombone section pointed itself in his direction and played the theme song for him one more time. At the end of the game, Murray reappeared and treated the band to a special performance. “We were playing our fight songs, and he came over and started mock-conducting us,” [Band Manager Rachel L. Hawkins] said.
There’s a little dispute in The Crimson‘s comments section over whether Cornell University’s marching band also played “Ghostbusters” during the game; turns out, Cornell played along with Harvard during both performances of the song. Human sacrifice! Cornell and Harvard playing songs together! Mass hysteria!
The Huffington Post account of the football game gets a little murky, since Murray actually hung out with both schools’ marching bands after the football game [insert cute, witty joke about Bill Murray “playing for both teams,” ha, ha]. But we do know there was an unofficial victor in the Ghostbuster song-off. …Cornell!
“Harvard won the game, but you kicked their band’s ass,” Murray hooted from the conductor’s platform, after applauding Cornell for their rousing post-game rendition of The Who’s “Pinball Wizard.” The students cheered.
Image of Bill Murray posing with Harvard’s marching band via IvyGate.
