"The Iowa State College Band was organized in its present form in the Fall of 1920 under the direction of Oscar Hatch Hawley, who has been the conductor since that time. Admission to the Band is by competitive examination. Normally, the band consists of eighty players and about twenty-five vacancies occur at the end of each year. To fill these vacancies, there are from one hundred to one hundred fifty applicants and the players accepted must be very good musicians, or else they are not accepted whether the vacancies are filled or not. The band gives one concert for which an admission is charged each year. In addition, many free concerts are played on the campus in pleasant weather, in the gymnasium during the winter, in the radio room for broadcasting.
The band usually makes two or three trips to other cities for games during the season. During the years of 1924-1925, the band made two trips to Des Moines and one trip to Minneapolis. The band plays as a military organization at many functions during the year, such as parades and inspections of the military unit. It is called on frequently for music, for the Little International, the Military Circus, the Veishea, the Engineers picnic, the Industrial Science picnic, Memorial Day services, all games whether indoor or outdoor, and winds up the year with a special concert on the President's lawn on the evening of Baccalaureate Sunday."