Brooklyn high school band continues tradition of playing 'Rocky' theme song for TCS NYC Marathon
FORT GREENE, Brooklyn (WABC) -- This weekend, the band from Brooklyn's Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School will play the "Rocky" theme song for three hours straight.
It's a tradition that dates back more than 40 years to inspire runners of the TCS New York City Marathon as they reach Mile 8.
"They offer us the finish line every year, but we don't take it because we are here for the school," said Louis Maffei.
Their performance is like a marathon within a marathon.
"When the music hits, we are playing music nonstop for hours, until we can't do it anymore," Mark Payne said.
Payne graduated from Loughlin in 1980 and along with other alumni, plays right alongside students.
"The kids nowadays are so motivated by the history of what happened here at Loughlin, they get excited like we are," Payne said.
In 1979, before this all started, Maffei, the school's performing arts director, said a colleague had a preposterous idea: what if the band played the iconic song for runners.
"Bishop Loughlin was a water station but when the music came everything started," Maffei said.
Payne and 11 other students were right there.
"We thought we were going to be stars back then, 16, 17 years old," Payne said. "He told us listen, this thing is going to be big because we are going to do it every year, we didn't know if was going to be what it is today."
They are now more than 200 strong and capturing the hearts and attention of everyone.
"It's kind of like in my blood, something we always look forward to, and it's a homecoming for us," Payne said.
The 2024 TCS New York City Marathon takes place Sunday, November 3, drawing more than 50,000 runners and will be televised in the New York area live on WABC-TV Channel 7 beginning with pre-race coverage at 7:00 a.m.
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