Drum & Bugle Corps wows crowd at Eugene

He was right.

The 20-member group’s four-minute mini-concert Saturday afternoon was so rousing, in fact, that one fan who has been watching basketball games at the University of Oregon arena for half a century called it the best he’s ever seen.

“It was just great, and I loved it,” Endicott said. “Just being in that building. . . . the acoustics are really amazing there.”

The history is pretty impressive, too.

The Pit is the nickname for McArthur Court, which has been the home floor for the Ducks basketball teams for a considerable span of time.

Next season the Ducks will move from the 83-year-old Mac Court into a new arena that’s being built just east of campus.

Which means this year is Endicott’s last chance to fulfill his dream.

“We did this all for Vic,” said Cherrie Carlson-Conklin, whose husband, Darrell Conklin, plays contrabass in the Drum and Bugle Corps.

“It was about eight years ago we started talking about this, and it finally came to fruition,” Carlson-Conklin said.

The Drum and Bugle Corps’ performance even merited mention on an Internet message board devoted to Duck basketball.

That’s a rare recognition, and possibly even an unprecedented one, for a halftime performer.

Here’s how one poster headlined the message:

“How about that halftime entertainment? Wow!”

The message itself (misspelling intact) read: “By the Baker City Elks Club Drum and Buggle corps. The best halftime show at Mac Court I have seen in 50 years of watching.”

Another message board member responded to that original post by writing that the Drum and Bugle Corps “kept everyone in their seats and energized for the second half.  I liked the big drummer “dancing” to “rock around the clock.”

That big drummer was Endicott himself, who stood inside the huge “O” painted at midcourt and pounded on his bass drum during the Bill Haley and the Comets classic.

“He had a grin from ear to ear,” Carlson-Conklin said of Endicott. “People were dancing in the aisles.”

In an e-mail to the Baker City Herald, Gloria Graven of Springfield wrote: “Your city is so lucky to have the Baker City Drum and Bugle Corps sponsored by the Elks Lodge.

“All of us at the game enjoyed their performance so much and hope they will perform sometime again next basketball season.”

Endicott would like that, too.

He is, he admits, “quite a Duck fan” — he has season tickets for Oregon football.

And although the Drum and Bugle Corps’ members had to pay their travel expenses Saturday, Endicott said the trip was even better than he anticipated.

After the halftime show, the group performed at the Springfield Elks Lodge during a benefit to honor veterans.

Even the Ducks players, who were in the locker room during the halftime show, seemed to take heart.

They beat Southern Cal 67-57.