John Phillip Sousa

[Alfred Houde]

One of the reasons I wanted his two L.C. Smith guns held in the collection placed on display, was to show visitors that he was much more than the "March King" and long-time Director of the Marine Band.

As posted earlier, he was a world-class Trap Shooter who also enjoyed hunting quail on his private property. His other sporting pursuits included horseback riding. In fact, he rode a horse to many trap shooting events.

In addition, he boxed some, and was the Pitcher for the Marine Band baseball team.

Quite the man.

[mobirdhunter]

I had a School of Art musician colleague who had done his doctoral thesis on Sousa. He was surprised when I told him about Sousa's shooting accomplishments and that Ithaca named a high grade of their guns after him. Needless to say he was chagrinned to learn this. He took lots of teasing from me about having to rewrite his thesis or returning his Ph.D.

The world was so different then.