Marching Mocs Archives

‘My entire life happened here’: Chello Gardner’s path to purpose at UTC

April 27, 2025Peyton Schultz

With 36 acceptance letters and full-ride scholarships from schools across the country and beyond—including an Ivy League institution—Chello Gardner had an important decision to make. Gardner will graduate with a degree in communication on Saturday, May 3. She tacked on minors in both criminal justice and women, gender and sexuality studies—and was a Brock Scholar in the Honors College—during her time at UTC.

Starting the school year right with the 2024 edition of Convocation

August 16, 2024Carter Graham

Convocation—the annual celebration of incoming students at UTC—was held on Friday, Aug. 16, at McKenzie Arena for the class of 2028. With the help of the Marching Mocs, Ladies of Gold and Spirit Squad, UTC welcomed its new students in style as music and dancing filled the arena throughout the program.

Two solo acts: Music, Theatre to operate own departments

January 5, 2024Chuck Wasserstrom

Thanks to programmatic innovations in both divisions, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Performing Arts is being dissolved and replaced with a pair of autonomous units. When students return to campus for the spring 2024 semester, they will come back to the Department of Theatre and the Department of Music.

Marching Mocs travel to London for New Year’s Day parade

January 1, 2024Shawn Ryan

Ninety-two Marching Mocs band members will travel to London on Wednesday, Dec. 27, to participate in the London New Year’s Day Parade. The parade will be broadcast in the U.S. on PBS stations starting at 7 a.m. EST.

Music to their ears: Funding raised for Marching Mocs members to travel to London for New Year’s Day Parade

November 2, 2023Shawn Ryan

The Division of Advancement helped raise $120,000 for the Marching Mocs’ New Year’s Day Parade trip, making it possible for the students—musicians, color guard, drum majors and majorettes—as well as some faculty members and administrative staff to spend a week in London.

100 years and counting: Marching Mocs hit the century mark

October 12, 2023Shawn Ryan

The unofficial birth of the Marching Mocs band is thought to have begun when eight students from the University of Chattanooga got together to play music for a student body meeting. What may have cemented the band’s future happened the next day, though, when the eight played at a football game between UC and Cumberland College. The dates were Oct. 12-13, 1923, making this year the band’s 100th birthday.