Nothing says college football quite like the marching band.

The very words evoke images of school fight songs, complex drumline rhythms and the sousaphone player “dotting the ‘I'” at Ohio State.

When NIU football takes the field on Saturdays, they’re backed up by the NIU Huskie Marching Band, which becomes an integral part of game day.

“We want to be a part of the game day atmosphere,” said Thomas Bough, director of athletic bands. “We really want to stay involved in the game.”

When NIU travels to Soldier Field to play Wisconsin Saturday, the band will be going along for the ride, and Bough said the band is excited for the opportunity.

“Soldier Field is a great venue,” Bough said. “We’ve performed down there almost every year for the last seven years.”

When the band takes the field to perform at halftime, it will play its “funk show.”

The routine, featuring the music of James Brown, Eath, Wind & Fire and Kool & the gang, was designed by NIU alumnus Brandon Brown.

“It really is designed to be a crowd pleaser,” Bough said. “It’s just fun music, and we hope the audience enjoys it.”

And it won’t just be the music that pleases the crowd. When the band does take the field, they’ll be debuting brand new uniforms.

“It’s a custom uniform designed exclusively for us by one of the top designers in the marching band world,” Bough said. “We have a very stylish, snazzy, modern uniform.”

Besides being aesthetically modernized, the uniforms have been upgraded from wool to a more breathable material.

“It’s made of lightweight polyester, a more modern fabric,” Bough said. “In these early season games, like the Labor Day weekend game against Army, we would have been melting.”

Bough, who has been NIU’s director of athletic bands since 2005, previously served as assistant band director at Southern Illinois University and has worked in some capacity as a band director for almost 20 years.

Bough said marching band performance has not changed very much since he has been involved.

“We still step off the left foot; We’re still horn-strong,” he said. “But on the whole, I think marching bands are better [now]. People are playing better, people are marching better and that’s a tribute to the generation of band directors and teachers that went before me.”

It’s this type of high skill level that allows the band to perform a complex routine like the funk show.

Including Saturday’s game against Wisconsin, the band will be performing the funk show three more times this season, so when you hear James Brown’s “Get Up,” get on up and give them a hand.