Dayton band steps in for FDU in men's tourney

COLUMBUS, Ohio — While the 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson Knights have been the Cinderella story of this NCAA tournament, the school doesn’t have a band. The University of Dayton, however, does. And the UD band, whose campus is only a little over an hour’s drive from Nationwide Arena, has stepped in to cheer for the Knights and play their fight song.

According to junior trombone student Cole Joniak, the UD band learned the FDU fight song — yes, the official name is “FDU fight song” — only minutes before the Knights tipped off Friday against the top-seeded Purdue Boilermakers. FDU went on to become just the second 16-seed ever to advance past the round of 64.

The UD band members were back in FDU’s corner Sunday night, still wearing their red, white and blue “Flyer Pep Band” hats, but donning white FDU “Going Dancing” T-shirts, chanting “Let’s go Knights” and waving plastic swords that they’d picked up at Party City.

FDU was attempting to become the first 16-seed to advance to the Sweet 16, but fell to the 9-seed Florida Atlantic Owls 78-70 on Sunday.