In 1938, a committee including a school board member, a Crestview doctor, the county tax collector and four other gentlemen, decided Crestview needed some culture and a band would bring it. They persuaded DeFuniak Spring's assistant band director, Romulus Thompson, to head west and take over the as-yet unformed Okaloosa School Band.
In the true spirit of Professor Harold Hill from the Broadway musical "The Music Man," Thompson put out the call for "students interested in learning how to play band instruments." However, unlike Prof. Hill, once he drummed up enthusiasm and had garnered an eager troupe of musicians, Thompson proved his prowess as not just a band leader but a music teacher as well. Within a few short weeks, the new band proudly performed in public for the first time on June 4, 1938, according to a story by James L. Connor in the "Heritage of Okaloosa County."
In 1938, Mr. Connor tells us, the band also became the county's first band booster organization after it persuaded the principal of Crestview High School and the football coach to give the band half the gate receipts if it built the team a stadium suitable for a halftime show performance.
The first football field was filled with sandspurs and had no lighting at all. Director Thompson used his organizational skills to rally the community. A farmer donated sod. A sawmill operator provided lumber. City leaders found funds—always tight in those late-Depression years—for lighting. The Baker Future Farmers of America laid the sod. In the fall of 1938, 600 fans flocked to the new Sandspur Field and paid $1 each to attend the first nighttime football game in Okaloosa County, enjoying a lavish halftime show that was, after all, the whole reason the stadium was built.
[Above excerpt from the Sep 30, 2009 Crestview News Bulletin article by Brian Hughes]
In 1940, he became the first band director on the faculty of Leon High School, Tallahassee, Florida. Not long after, with significant help from local merchants and residents, he was able to order new instruments and uniforms and the "Marching Redcoats" were performing at football game half-times.
He designed the current uniforms for the Leon HS Band. Styled after the West Point cadets' uniform, a rich red was substituted for the gray coat of the cadets. Then, the uniforms were ordered from the Fitchheimer Company, the company that made the West Point Cadet Uniforms.
In the mid-1950s, he was hired as the band director at Jefferson County High School in Monticello, Florida. He retired from teaching in the 1970s. He was posthumously chosen as a Great Floridian in 2000. His Great Floridian plaque is located at Leon High School, Tennessee Street and Meridian Road, Tallahassee.
In 1998, during their 60th anniversary celebration, the Crestview HS Band instituted The Romulus Thompson Founders Award. It is given yearly to a member of the community who has impacted the band during the school year.
1940-1950 Leon High School Bandmaster
1947-1948 Fla. Bandmasters Asso. Pres.
195?-197? Jefferson Co. HS Band Director
2000 Great Floridian
In the true spirit of Professor Harold Hill from the Broadway musical "The Music Man," Thompson put out the call for "students interested in learning how to play band instruments." However, unlike Prof. Hill, once he drummed up enthusiasm and had garnered an eager troupe of musicians, Thompson proved his prowess as not just a band leader but a music teacher as well. Within a few short weeks, the new band proudly performed in public for the first time on June 4, 1938, according to a story by James L. Connor in the "Heritage of Okaloosa County."
In 1938, Mr. Connor tells us, the band also became the county's first band booster organization after it persuaded the principal of Crestview High School and the football coach to give the band half the gate receipts if it built the team a stadium suitable for a halftime show performance.
The first football field was filled with sandspurs and had no lighting at all. Director Thompson used his organizational skills to rally the community. A farmer donated sod. A sawmill operator provided lumber. City leaders found funds—always tight in those late-Depression years—for lighting. The Baker Future Farmers of America laid the sod. In the fall of 1938, 600 fans flocked to the new Sandspur Field and paid $1 each to attend the first nighttime football game in Okaloosa County, enjoying a lavish halftime show that was, after all, the whole reason the stadium was built.
[Above excerpt from the Sep 30, 2009 Crestview News Bulletin article by Brian Hughes]
In 1940, he became the first band director on the faculty of Leon High School, Tallahassee, Florida. Not long after, with significant help from local merchants and residents, he was able to order new instruments and uniforms and the "Marching Redcoats" were performing at football game half-times.
He designed the current uniforms for the Leon HS Band. Styled after the West Point cadets' uniform, a rich red was substituted for the gray coat of the cadets. Then, the uniforms were ordered from the Fitchheimer Company, the company that made the West Point Cadet Uniforms.
In the mid-1950s, he was hired as the band director at Jefferson County High School in Monticello, Florida. He retired from teaching in the 1970s. He was posthumously chosen as a Great Floridian in 2000. His Great Floridian plaque is located at Leon High School, Tennessee Street and Meridian Road, Tallahassee.
In 1998, during their 60th anniversary celebration, the Crestview HS Band instituted The Romulus Thompson Founders Award. It is given yearly to a member of the community who has impacted the band during the school year.
1940-1950 Leon High School Bandmaster
1947-1948 Fla. Bandmasters Asso. Pres.
195?-197? Jefferson Co. HS Band Director
2000 Great Floridian
In 1938, a committee including a school board member, a Crestview doctor, the county tax collector and four other gentlemen, decided Crestview needed some culture and a band would bring it. They persuaded DeFuniak Spring's assistant band director, Romulus Thompson, to head west and take over the as-yet unformed Okaloosa School Band.
In the true spirit of Professor Harold Hill from the Broadway musical "The Music Man," Thompson put out the call for "students interested in learning how to play band instruments." However, unlike Prof. Hill, once he drummed up enthusiasm and had garnered an eager troupe of musicians, Thompson proved his prowess as not just a band leader but a music teacher as well. Within a few short weeks, the new band proudly performed in public for the first time on June 4, 1938, according to a story by James L. Connor in the "Heritage of Okaloosa County."
In 1938, Mr. Connor tells us, the band also became the county's first band booster organization after it persuaded the principal of Crestview High School and the football coach to give the band half the gate receipts if it built the team a stadium suitable for a halftime show performance.
The first football field was filled with sandspurs and had no lighting at all. Director Thompson used his organizational skills to rally the community. A farmer donated sod. A sawmill operator provided lumber. City leaders found funds—always tight in those late-Depression years—for lighting. The Baker Future Farmers of America laid the sod. In the fall of 1938, 600 fans flocked to the new Sandspur Field and paid $1 each to attend the first nighttime football game in Okaloosa County, enjoying a lavish halftime show that was, after all, the whole reason the stadium was built.
[Above excerpt from the Sep 30, 2009 Crestview News Bulletin article by Brian Hughes]
In 1940, he became the first band director on the faculty of Leon High School, Tallahassee, Florida. Not long after, with significant help from local merchants and residents, he was able to order new instruments and uniforms and the "Marching Redcoats" were performing at football game half-times.
He designed the current uniforms for the Leon HS Band. Styled after the West Point cadets' uniform, a rich red was substituted for the gray coat of the cadets. Then, the uniforms were ordered from the Fitchheimer Company, the company that made the West Point Cadet Uniforms.
In the mid-1950s, he was hired as the band director at Jefferson County High School in Monticello, Florida. He retired from teaching in the 1970s. He was posthumously chosen as a Great Floridian in 2000. His Great Floridian plaque is located at Leon High School, Tennessee Street and Meridian Road, Tallahassee.
In 1998, during their 60th anniversary celebration, the Crestview HS Band instituted The Romulus Thompson Founders Award. It is given yearly to a member of the community who has impacted the band during the school year.
1940-1950 Leon High School Bandmaster
1947-1948 Fla. Bandmasters Asso. Pres.
195?-197? Jefferson Co. HS Band Director
2000 Great Floridian
In the true spirit of Professor Harold Hill from the Broadway musical "The Music Man," Thompson put out the call for "students interested in learning how to play band instruments." However, unlike Prof. Hill, once he drummed up enthusiasm and had garnered an eager troupe of musicians, Thompson proved his prowess as not just a band leader but a music teacher as well. Within a few short weeks, the new band proudly performed in public for the first time on June 4, 1938, according to a story by James L. Connor in the "Heritage of Okaloosa County."
In 1938, Mr. Connor tells us, the band also became the county's first band booster organization after it persuaded the principal of Crestview High School and the football coach to give the band half the gate receipts if it built the team a stadium suitable for a halftime show performance.
The first football field was filled with sandspurs and had no lighting at all. Director Thompson used his organizational skills to rally the community. A farmer donated sod. A sawmill operator provided lumber. City leaders found funds—always tight in those late-Depression years—for lighting. The Baker Future Farmers of America laid the sod. In the fall of 1938, 600 fans flocked to the new Sandspur Field and paid $1 each to attend the first nighttime football game in Okaloosa County, enjoying a lavish halftime show that was, after all, the whole reason the stadium was built.
[Above excerpt from the Sep 30, 2009 Crestview News Bulletin article by Brian Hughes]
In 1940, he became the first band director on the faculty of Leon High School, Tallahassee, Florida. Not long after, with significant help from local merchants and residents, he was able to order new instruments and uniforms and the "Marching Redcoats" were performing at football game half-times.
He designed the current uniforms for the Leon HS Band. Styled after the West Point cadets' uniform, a rich red was substituted for the gray coat of the cadets. Then, the uniforms were ordered from the Fitchheimer Company, the company that made the West Point Cadet Uniforms.
In the mid-1950s, he was hired as the band director at Jefferson County High School in Monticello, Florida. He retired from teaching in the 1970s. He was posthumously chosen as a Great Floridian in 2000. His Great Floridian plaque is located at Leon High School, Tennessee Street and Meridian Road, Tallahassee.
In 1998, during their 60th anniversary celebration, the Crestview HS Band instituted The Romulus Thompson Founders Award. It is given yearly to a member of the community who has impacted the band during the school year.
1940-1950 Leon High School Bandmaster
1947-1948 Fla. Bandmasters Asso. Pres.
195?-197? Jefferson Co. HS Band Director
2000 Great Floridian
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
