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Pitt was in its 22nd football season when the first Pitt Band appeared at Forbes Field on October 14, 1911, at the Pitt-Ohio Northern game. The band was organized by Dr. Earl Miller and James G. Oliver with Carl Sabad as the student leader and Don Kirk as the manager. The eight-man contingent wore "uniforms" of scarlet felt caps with blue tassels and played seven instruments borrowed from Becker's Music Store. Funds from students, alumni and friends of the University were given to buy the caps and tassels. In 1912 E.V. Babcock, former mayor of Pittsburgh and well known industrialist, bought the first real uniforms, including mackinaws as protection against bad weather.