The uniforms worn from 2001 through 2017 featured distinctive pins on the jacket collars.
The Collar Pins
When did this tradition begin?
Each December, at the Band Banquet celebrating the fall season, graduating seniors received a set of these pins as a small memento of their time in the Minuteman Marching Band. That tradition came to an end when the current uniform debuted for the 2018 Rose Parade and the jacket collar pins were no longer part of the uniform design.
Fortunately, a new tradition was already taking shape. In 2017, the Band Alumni Network commissioned a commemorative pin for members of that year’s Alumni Band. As plans for the 2018 Band Banquet came together, UMMB and Band Alumni Network leaders realized there would be no collar pins to present to graduating seniors. Because the Band Alumni Network had ordered more Alumni Band pins than were needed, they found the perfect solution: present the remaining commemorative pins to the Class of 2018, ensuring every graduating senior still received a meaningful keepsake to mark their time in the band.
Since then, the Band Alumni Network has continued providing commemorative pins for graduating seniors, preserving the Senior Pinning tradition while also symbolically welcoming each new class into the larger Minuteman Band Alumni family.
The Alumni Pins
