If the Green Bay Packers win the Western Division Championship game Dec. 23, the WSU-L marching band, the Marching Cheifs, will be performing during half-time at the NFL championship game on Dec. 31, 1967. The game will be played in Green Bay, WI.

The CBS network will telecast the game in color nationwide. 100 million people are expected to view the game.

The band will perform a five minute pre-game show which may be telecast and the 12-minute half-time show. They will present a modification of the sports spectacular routine they performed at the Homecoming game this year. "The routine," states director Mr. Ralph Wahl, "will have to be reduced due to the amount of time alloted for the performance."

The pre-game show will consist of the "Broadway Fanfare #6", "Pride of the Illini", "Marching Ambassadors," and "Let Me Entertain You". Tunes for the half-time show include the National Anthem, the "Stripper", "Gillette Look Sharp March", "Olympic Fanfare", "Hail, Hail", "The Gang's All Here", "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", "Mr. Touchdown USA", "To Look Sharp", and "Sabre Dance". "A Champagne Glass" and the audience singing "Auld Lang Syne" may be added to the routine.

Members of the band and Pom Pon Squad will have to forfeit five days of their Christmas vacation to prepare for the show, returning to campus Dec. 27. "I was skeptical at first about students being willing to give up five days of  their vacation," said Wahl, "but this is an opportunity that we couldn't turn down."

The total band, Pom Pon squad  and chaperones will consist of 180-190 people. The Packers and the CBS network are paying approximately $95 per person to cover expenses. This includes opening dorms and food service here for the three day workout, accomodations at the Howard Johnson's motel in Oshkosh prior to the game, and a banquet following the game at the motel. They also chartered five Greyhound buses for transportation.

The group will leave for Oshkosh at noon on Sat. Dec. 30. There,  they will have a banquet and a pre-New Year's Eve party. They will eat breakfast as a group at Johnson's and arrive at the arena, where they will run through the routine with CBS cameramen at 10 am. The game begins at 1 p.m. Central Standard time. Following the game, the group will proceed back to the motel for a post-game banquet, then return to campus.

"The difficulties in preparation for the trip and show are numerous," continued Wahl. "Members of the band are from ten different states which will involve transportation to and from home and communication. The only way they will know if they should come back is by watching the televised game Dec. 23."

Housing and food, clearing a drill field of snow and ice, winterizing the band members, fuel oil for the brass instruments to keep them from freezing, the re-issuing of music and marching charts, the charting of all music arrangements to be played through CBS, and the use of an indoor gym are among the major problems, too.

Sponsors for national television air time pay between $50,000 and $74,000 per minute. Thus the 12 minute show will cost the sponsors almost a million dollars.

"They are asking the impossible of a band," states Wahl, "under the circumstances, but if a band can do it, this one can as shown by their performances in the past four years."

The Marching Chiefs have performed at previous Packers' and Chicago Bears' games.