Professor Harold Hill and Jon Waters have two things in common.

First, they both want to lead a band.

Waters, who is the marching band director at Bowling Green State University, has far exceeded the fictional Hill.

He started at BGSU last year with 99 players. This fall, he has 300 picking up their instruments and taking the field, the largest in school history.

“My goal has been to go from excellence to eminence,” he said, adding that the band was like a blank canvas, allowing him to innovate and try new things.

He was the guest speaker at Thursday’s Bowling Green Kiwanis Club meeting.

For the 100th anniversary of the marching band, he promised color and pageantry.

On Sept. 23, the band will debut a new fanfare, perform some marches from 100 years ago as well a piece called “Frontiers” that was written for the BGSU marching band. There will be a percussion feature and the finale will include band alumni playing the “1812 Overture” with canons and fireworks.

“You’ll not want to miss that game,” Waters said, and added the band also has a new pregame show.

He recruits high school juniors to sign up for the band and has contacts with most of the high school band directors in the state.

“We recruit for the program with the experience rather than with money,” Waters said.

He said the band has been invited to represent the United States at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland, in 2025.

Waters was a delegate to Buckeye Boys State and was a member of the band. He stepped up to do the piccolo solo on tuba for “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

“That was truly the start of my musical journey,” he said.

The first marching band he saw was at BGSU, which was led at the time by Mark Kelly.

He enrolled at Ohio State University with the intent to be in the marching band. He got accepted, then was cut the first year.

He changed his major, was accepted back into the and had the honor of dotting the “i” at a game.

He earned a bachelor of music education and master’s in music education and conducting from OSU.

He returned to OSU as assistant director of the marching band from 2002-2011 and served as director from 2012-2014.

Waters started the band at Heidelberg University in Tiffin and served as professor of music education and director of bands from 2016 until he joined BGSU in 2022.

He explained how he takes an idea and makes it into a halftime show.

Ideas at the start of the year included ABBA, musicals, video games and cowboys and falcons.

“When the students are involved, they’re more invested,” he said.

He was excited when one student said “oldies,” only to learn they meant the year 2000.

Waters said he welcomes visitors to watch practice and added he’s even had some OSU graduates stop by.

“We have an opportunity here with the BGSU Falcon Marching Band to be beyond football and that will be my goal,” Waters said.

Hill, in his final scene of “The Music Man,” is told there isn’t a band.

He replies, “Kid, for me, there’s always a band out there somewhere.”

He and Waters have that in common, too.