Senior Jeremiah Boes spent Tuesday night running down the streets of downtown Indianapolis with a handful of school mascots and a singing Jimmy Fallon.
Boes was one of 10 Ball State marching and basketball band members given the opportunity to be featured in the pre-taping of clips for Fallon's Super Bowl Sunday show. The music education major said he also gets to return and be a part of the filming of the live show Sunday night.
"It's perfect," Boes said of the experience. "I've been in band all four of my years here and this is just a cool way to cap it off."
Boes said the band's director received a call last Friday inviting them to participate. The filming took place from 7:30 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday, Boes said, and the band members chosen to go were selected because they had accumulated leadership experience and seniority.
They were joined by Charlie Cardinal and other university mascots such as Purdue Pete, as well as some Colts cheerleaders, Boes said.
The group was taught a choreographed dance routine, which they performed on the steps of Monument Circle. Boes also said they were told to act as if they were having the time of their lives while running along the sidewalks.
He went dressed in his band uniform dug out from winter storage, and said seeming happy didn't require much pretending.
"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity," Boes said. "There's decorations and advertising and stuff for the Super Bowl everywhere. And I was surprised because I never thought I would be starstruck by somebody, but actually seeing Jimmy Fallon — he was right there walking by us the whole time."
Boes said he's been a fan of the comedian for a while, but hadn't been planning to head down to any of the Super Bowl Village festivities this week due to class and the business of everyday life. Now that he has this opportunity, he gets to go twice.
"There's no doubt that I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Boes said.
Another Ball State student attending the Fallon show Sunday night, senior Donelle Henderlong, was ecstatic when she found out that Ball State band members would be participating.
"We were all going to wear Ball State shirts, and I guess now we'll have to," Henderlong said. "That's super exciting."
The English studies major said she started screaming when her friend called to say she'd won tickets to the show. She said four of her friends submitted four ticket requests each, never thinking one of them might win.
"I'm expecting to laugh a lot," Henderlong said. "I'm nervous because I think it's going to be crazy, but I'm super pumped. And I'm just excited and blessed be lucky enough to have a friend who won tickets."
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