Viral University of Idaho marching band story is just what Idaho needed right now | Opinion

Scott McIntosh
·2 min read
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Call it a palate cleanser.

The story that the University of Idaho marching band stepped in to perform on behalf of the Yale men’s basketball team during the NCAA Tournament went viral this weekend.

It couldn’t have come at a better time.

Last week, Idaho found itself in the national headlines for an embarrassing incident in which two white supremacists (did they have to be white supremacists?) went on the lam after, according to police, one of the white supremacists shot two corrections officers to spring his fellow Aryan Knights gang member from custody while he was being transferred from the Saint Alphonsus hospital in Boise back to prison. A Boise police officer apparently mistakenly thought one of the corrections officers was one of the shooters and shot him.

They’re suspected of traveling to North Idaho where police say they shot and killed two more people before finally being apprehended in Twin Falls.

The story, rightly, made national news. Even my dad in upstate New York texted me expressing his relief that we were safe in Idaho.

Safe, if embarrassed and saddened by the tragedy.

Then came the post over the weekend from ESPN that the Yale pep band couldn’t make the trip to Spokane, where the men’s basketball team was playing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Auburn, so the nearby University of Idaho pep band stepped up and stepped in, even wearing Yale T-shirts and having to learn the Yale fight song on short notice. They called themselves the “Vandogs,” a mashup of Idaho Vandals and Yale Bulldogs.

Even better, Yale, the underdog with a 13th seed, ended up beating heavily favored Auburn, the 4th seed. So the “Vandogs” were scheduled to do it again Sunday when Yale faced San Diego State.

Talk about a Cinderella story. (Unfortunately, the Cinderella story came to an end Sunday night, when San Diego State beat Yale, 85-57.)

The post went viral, and proud University of Idaho alums came out of the woodwork expressing their pride for their alma mater.

But really, all Idahoans can be proud of that story. That kind of showing up to help out someone else in need truly is The Idaho Way.

We are all Vandals this week.

So thank you to the University of Idaho pep band for giving us a break from the bad viral news.

It’s just what we all needed right now.