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Kenneth Ruff thinks N.C. A&T bested Prairie View A&M two weeks ago before an estimated crowd of 32,000 spectators in the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Hold on!

Prairie View's football team beat the Aggies 22-7 in the Angel City Classic.

Ruff means the halftime battle of the bands. He directs A&T's Blue and Gold Marching Machine.

"I think so," he says as to who out-tooted, out-high-stepped whom. "It's all in the minds of the listener, but I think our group did a great job."

Here may be the reason:

If you live downtown or in the Aycock or Dudley neighborhoods near A&T, your ears confirm — almost every night during football season — how hard the band works to perfect routines meant to look spontaneous.

Starting at 7 p.m., bass drums boom, snare drums roll and Sousa horns snort. The beat goes on and on. One night last week, the band played for four hours.

"It's not always four hours," Ruff says, "but it's at least two."

All of this takes place after students have endured a long day in classes. But what's heard is music, not groans and moans about the late hour.

"They are very dedicated students, very disciplined," Ruff says.

"The band is an enhancement to the football program. Fans stay in their seats at halftime."

The same ardor takes place on practice fields at Prairie View, Florida A&M, N.C. Central and more than 40 other historically black colleges and universities, frequently referred to as HBCUs.

The New York Times, in an article Sept. 8, summed it up:

"The joke about black-college football games in the South is that the crowd patterns are the reverse of the norm. The fans talk, flirt and eat during the first two quarters, then return to their seats to scrutinize the marching bands through their eight-minute shows at halftime."

Ruff says he has heard people say they come to Aggie football games just for the band — or bands, when the visiting school brings theirs.

But A&T has not yet participated in the annual Honda Battle of the Bands, which involves HBCU schools.

The event draws 65,000 spectators to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

Since the battle began in 2003, the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference, of which A&T is a member, has tended to send two Florida schools: Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman. Norfolk State joined Bethune-Cookman at the event in January.

A&T did win three trophies in another contest: Defeat the Beat/Battle of the Bands in Charlotte in 2003. It took away three trophies, including for best band and best flags, majorettes and dancers. Bands from four other HBCU schools competed, including the renowned Florida A&M.

Holding its own or outplaying Prairie View's band in Los Angeles was impressive considering the Texas school usually is a Southwestern Athletic Conference pick for the Honda battle.

The Prairie View band numbers 250, compared with A&T's 170.

All the hard work at nightly practice sessions has rewards, such as the trip to Los Angeles, paid for by the game sponsors.

"It was a great opportunity for them," Ruff says of the band members. "Most had never been to Los Angeles before. I had only been there once."

It was a thrill, too, for the band to perform in the Los Angeles Coliseum, site of the 1932 and 1984 summer Olympics.

Those who know college bands recognize the change HBCU bands have brought to collegiate marching bands. Bands at predominantly white schools have dropped military-stiff marching and martial music routines in favor of the high-stepping, sashaying, peppy music styles of HBCU bands.

The popularity of the HBCU bands got a boost with the 2002 movie "Drumline," about the fictitious Atlanta A&T University.

Oh, why couldn't the movie's makers have called it Greensboro A&T?

Applications to A&T would have soared.

If many people do go to A&T games for the band, perhaps the same can be said for Greensboro's holiday parade. Crowds along the curbs buzz with anticipation as the blue and gold uniforms of the Aggie band marches toward them, with majorettes in Santa elf outfits.

To borrow a slogan from the PGA Tour: "These guys are good."

Contact Jim Schlosser at 373-7081 or jschlosser@news-record.com