Zach Gannam read the tweet to the other RPI Pep Band members on the bus home from the game last weekend.

It was from Luke Curadi, a freshman defenseman for the RPI men's hockey team.

"Also a shout out to the RPI pep band. Heard they took some abuse from Clarkson but they stayed strong for us. I'll stand by those kids any day."

Yeah, Clarkson. That place is rough for a pep band member, says Gannam, the band's conductor and an RPI junior. Fans were yelling "truffle shuffle" — a reference to Chunk on "The Goonies" — in an effort to pick on Gannam's weight. Others yelled that the band "sucked." Some guy with a vuvuzela blared away every time the RPI band played.

But that's OK. Better them than the goalie.

"That just tells us that we're doing our job," Gannam says. "If they feel the need to yell at us and not the team, then we are changing the arena at least somewhat in our favor."

A hockey team is only as strong as its weakest pep band member.

And this band is strong. Only 25 members get to travel to away games, Gannam says. But when they're at home for the men's hockey team, 40 musicians fill the stands. When alumni come back for special events, the numbers swell to 100. No one has a copy of the article, but band members have heard that during the '80s, Sports Illustrated wrote about college pep bands and called RPI's "the most spirited band in America." The band has a copy of SI from 1985, when the Engineers won the NCAA championship, that noted the pep band "played 'Rock Around the Clock' more times than Bill Haley and the Comets ever did."

They're funded by RPI's student union, which means they're not only playing at home for football games and women's and men's ice hockey, but they go on the road sometimes, too.

They'll be there for the ECAC Hockey quarterfinal series at Union College this week, bringing their best versions of "Carry on Wayward Son" and "Hey! Baby."

But it's more than just music. Band members shiver as they stand outside after the game, cheering the hockey players as they board the buses.

They work with the athletic department to print up T-shirts that they toss to the crowd right after they play "Here's to Old RPI." They get so loud sometimes, says Kevin Beattie, RPI associate athletic director for communications and compliance, that opposing coaches complain they can't hear themselves or their players on the bench. The coaches are told it's home-ice advantage.

"We had a meeting with Coach (Seth) Appert at the beginning of the semester, and he said to us, 'It really means a lot to us that you come out and support us. The atmosphere is completely different when you're here,' " says Amy Lovell, a junior who plays flute with the band and serves as one of its managers. "We love playing. We love going to the games, but just knowing that we mean something to them, it's really great that they know we're there."

Parents of some of the women's ice hockey players — in appreciation for getting to hear "Hail Dear Old Rensselaer" when their daughters come out for warm-ups — bring brownies, cupcakes and fudge for band members.

Earlier this season, the women's team didn't realize the band was traveling to Clarkson. When the band walked in during pregame stretches, the team started cheering.

The band also counts Curadi's mother among fans. That's why, after the men's game at Clarkson this weekend, Denise Curadi used a few expletives when she described the abuse the band took to her son.

"Once I heard that, I thought that was really cool of them," Luke Curadi says. "They're just college kids. They're taking time out of their life. It's a Sunday night, and this is midterm week and stuff like that. That really means a lot to us to see that, because even though they're not playing with us, they still go to RPI, they're still on our team."

And he may be a hockey player, but he's with the band.

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