It all started when then-senior Devon Williams began dragging “artifacts” out of the depths of the Mt Lebanon band room storage areas. As the social media manager for the marching band, he was looking for interesting tidbits to post and share online. What he found led to him writing an entire book.

“Devon’s been incredible,” Marching Band Director Brett McCutcheon said. McCutcheon, then in his first year of teaching, said watching Williams go out of his way to educate his peers was inspiring. 

“It was really nice having him in class, learning about the histories and traditions of the program,” McCutcheon said.

When the Historical Society of Mt Lebanon came looking for football-related memorabilia for their upcoming Friday Night Lights exhibit, Williams was prepared, with newly digitized documents revealing the rich story of the marching band in its nearly 100-year history.

“The timing of everything was perfect,” McCutcheon said. “He was there to be the historian.”

As well as being named the Band Historian in 2025, Williams became the historical society’s Marching Band Curator for the Friday Night Lights exhibit. When he’s able to carve time out of his busy college schedule, he spends Saturdays educating exhibit visitors about the band’s history.

Scott Township resident Joyce Patter-Felkel, a 1985 Mt Lebanon graduate, reminisced about her time in the color guard during her visit with Williams at the exhibit. 

“I felt like it was a huge family,” Patter-Felkel said. “I’m still friends with people who were in the marching band with me.”

Patter-Felkel recalled having to be on the field by 6:30 a.m. for practice before school, even though they weren’t allowed to start playing instruments until 7 a.m. due to the municipality noise ordinance. Practice ended at 8 a.m., and they all had to run inside and be seated in their homerooms by 8:15 a.m. 

“It was kinda very rushed,” she recalled. “It was all so much fun.”  

Williams’ research revealed that the 1954 Mt. Lebanon band was the first high school band east of the Mississippi to march in the Rose Bowl Parade. This parade happened to be a landmark event — the first coast-to-coast color television broadcast in the United States. 

“I’ve had a lifelong passion for local history,” William said. “It was a sense of community and pride. I started to realize how much this means to me.”

It was historical society Vice President Jenny Wood, along with board member David Frankowski, who encouraged Williams to turn his research into a book. He wrote, designed and self-published “The Definitive History of the Mount Lebanon Blue Devil Marching Band” during his freshman year at Slippery Rock University.

“It started as a passion project to give back to the program that has given me so much,” Williams said. “A great band program needs the support of its alumni.”

Wood said she went from curating the Friday Night Lights exhibit to becoming a band mom herself. 

“My kid came home three weeks ago and said ‘I wanna be in color guard’,” Wood said. After attending her first band meeting, where the upcoming season theme was revealed, she understands the draw. “I said, ‘these are your people.’ It’s more than just football.”

“It all comes back to that tradition,” McCutcheon said, citing how he has pulled inspiration from the marching band’s past to influence the present. The upcoming 2026 show season, titled “Paint It Black,” will blend music from the Rolling Stones with classical pieces from Mozart. He said this is a callback to a show from several years ago called “Blackbird Rising,” which riffed off the classic Beatles song “Blackbird.”

“There’s a big push to make sure the Friday Nights experience is one big thing,” McCutcheon explained. “We are making sure that we are super intentional in everything we do. It’s been cool to see the community come together and see how tight knit it is.”

Proceeds from the book benefit the Mt Lebanon Senior High School Band Builders, helping to support the continued success of the marching band program for future generations.

Copies of “The Definitive History Of The Mount Lebanon Blue Devil Marching Band” are available now at the historical society and online at: https://tinyurl.com/MTLBandHistoryBook