Doug London, MC ‘06

A native of the beautiful southern state of New Jersey, Doug led the YPMB as an avid fan of all Yale sports. Despite a perennially great showing for the home crowd, the band enjoyed some of its biggest highlights of Doug’s year as Drum Major came away from Yale. Back-to-back spring break road-trips saw a pair of overtime hockey thrillers: an “extravaganza” of sorts at Dartmouth for the men’s team and the YPMB’s first travel for a women’s team in recent memory, to the ECACHL semifinals in Schenectady. Also, no one can forget the time that Doug single-handedly overpowered the entire hahvahd home basketball crowd, shouting actual quotes about the drudgeries of the cantabridgian collegiate experience as Yale’s opponents attempted their free throws.

When fall rolled around and visiting director Dr. Jim Chesebrough came to town, the YPMB picked up where it left off, taking to the skies for the beaches, In-n-Out burgers, and football fields of sunny San Diego. As the weather chilled and the leaves turned, the band trekked to Doug’s home state for a come-from-behind victory at p-ton that must have been inspired by the YPMB’s own sans-instrument pregame soccer match, complete with Spanish narration. ¡Gooooooooal!

Back in New Haven, the YPMB made its Spring Fling debut under Doug’s watch at the selection of Magnificent Mugsy Rangoon as Handsome Dan XVI, Yale’s new mascot. Football season saw its share of great halftime shows, none grander than the spectacle at The Game: a smoking tank that shot down an observation balloon, three biplanes, five triplanes, and a rush of twelve college flags over the top.

Outside of the YPMB, Doug’s interests at Yale included Hebrew, home brews, the history of S&M (science and medicine), and clowns. He spent a year as saxophone section leader before leading the band in its moments of glory.

Past Drum Majors