Here Comes the Boom: The Keepers of the Gator Band Drum
Before the sun is fully up on game day, David Snedeker and Richard Steirer secure their tailgate spot near The Swamp. But soon, they’re off to the Steinbrenner Band Hall. Inside, their pride and joy rests on three wheels, a giant drum with faded cowhide drumheads that read “Gator Band University of Florida.”
After a moment of admiration, it’s time to show it off.
Snedeker, 76, and Steirer, 66, grip the handles and start pulling. They take the relic from 1953, the same year Century Tower was built, through the streets of the University of Florida.
“He likes to call them ‘trips,’” Steirer said. “We’ll walk up and down stadium road, by Steinbrenner, up and down the streets and have people take their picture with the drum, and David gives them buttons.”
For most men over the age of 65, lugging a drum around before a college football game isn’t the most thrilling idea. Here, though, the “Big Boom” is the best representation of the history behind the Gator Band and the joy it brings to fans. So these men are willing to carry (or pull) the burden.
At every home game since 2012, the Big Boom has been the leader of the band’s march into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Before then, it appeared at every Homecoming game. But what remains the same, for 51 years, is that Snedeker pulls it.
Snedeker was a member of the Gator Band from 1968-1971. As a junior and senior, he was selected to be Big Boom’s caretaker. After college, Snedeker became a school administrator and environmentalist. When the Gator Alumni Band started in 1973, Snedeker started to notice a gap in the crew. “Where’s the drum?” he said. Then in 1976, he asked to un-retire the antique and get it back on the field.
These days, after a few hours of trips, Snedeker and Steirer meetup with the band to march to the stadium and perform its pregame routine. After that, they race to return the drum to Steinbrenner, which has a room dedicated to the instrument.
Then the two return to the stadium, missing part of the first quarter, to watch the show. Steirer has become a massive Gators fan through representing the Alumni Band, despite, unlike Snedeker, never attending the University of Florida.
In 1998, Snedeker needed help with his drum duties. He was quick to call Steirer, who was the band director at a middle school in Kissimmee, where Snedeker was the principal.
“He goes ‘I’m not an alumni,’” Snedker said. “And I said, ‘After this game, you will be.’” Steirer hasn’t missed a game since.
The two have developed a strong bond through the experiences they’ve shared with Big Boom. Handing out pins, taking people’s pictures, spending time with the band and watching Gators football has made the pair so much closer than just old coworkers.
“David is my best friend,” Steirer said. “He’s the older brother I never had.”
Since he wasn’t a graduate, Steirer always made sure to not get too involved with the conversations surrounding the Alumni Band. He was always just doing it for Snedeker. But after receiving a certificate denoting him as an official member of the Florida Alumni Band, Steirer realized what everyone else knew: He’d become a Gator for life.
“It’s great to be a Florida Gator,” he said. No one knows more about what that means than Snedeker.
At his core, Snedeker is just a passionate historian. He was a history major in college and walking through his home, that’s obvious. He owns every Florida football program since 1946, UF report cards from 1936, ticket stubs of UF vs. Harvard from 1922, and much more.
As Snedeker flips through his binder of pictures of Albert the Alligator, he stops on a page from 1982. He chuckles and explains that the Albert from that year was supposedly designed by Disney. He looks away from the page and says, “Guess what I have?” One walk to his garage later, and he’s holding the head of the UF mascot from 44 years ago.
A few feet over, lie the mallets for the drum. Snedeker points out they weren’t always so fancy. In fact, the mallets used to be a roll of toilet paper on the end of a broomstick, wrapped in duct tape and covered with a sock.
The orange and blue spray paint on the old mallets left marks on the heads of the drum, which can still be found today. Snedeker explained that the cowhide drumheads have never been replaced or cleaned and are incredibly sensitive to heat and humidity. It’s a miracle they’ve survived 73 years.
If a history professor walked in his door tomorrow, his house would probably be declared a museum. One that Jay Watkins, the Gator Band director, knew could help his program when he arrived in 2006.
“When I first got here, I noticed there was no archive or history of the band program. David works to track down old uniforms, pictures, parts and anything,” Watkins said. “He’s the unofficial historian.”
Snedeker uses that title to maintain his favorite artifact of all: Big Boom. Watkins said Snedeker maintained Big Boom out of his own pocket until a few years ago when the Gator Band Alumni Association started to provide funding. But it’s still Snedeker’s responsibility, one that he doesn’t take lightly.
“He checks on it pretty regularly,” said Watkins. Every picture day, band members pose in front of the drum that is an iconic symbol of not only Florida band history, but Florida history.
And on Saturday, the Big Boom will get its old friends back in town. Every homecoming, the words of The Blues Brothers come to life in Gainesville: “We’re putting the band back together.”
Snedeker and Steirer will be joined by 340 alumni Saturday for Florida’s matchup against South Carolina. Receptions, meetings and rehearsals precede the big day, including a scholarship reception where Snedeker’s “Big Boom Scholarship” is given to outstanding members of the drum line.
For one week a year, Snedeker and Steirer aren’t the only alumni on the field. The University of Florida Alumni Band will march on Steve Spurrier Field with the Gator Band, as the history that Snedeker cherishes comes to life.
Category: Feature Sports News, Gator Sports
