KING CITY — Miguel Aguirre and his daughter Karina Aguirre of King City performed together in the largest University of Southern California (USC) Trojan Marching Band ever to take the field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in late October.
Nearly 900 alumni joined 250 current band members for a tribute to recently retired director Arthur C. Bartner for his final halftime show on Oct. 30 after 51 years. The massive collaboration was originally supposed to take place during USC’s Homecoming in 2020, but it was postponed due to the pandemic.
“This was even a bigger band than the All-American Olympic Band of the ’84 Olympics — 800 — of which I was also a participant,” Miguel Aguirre said.
The Aguirres were one of only a few parent-student participants to perform in the halftime show.
“Karina and I, and only very few others, shared a bit more of a special event,” Miguel Aguirre said, “a once-in-a-lifetime moment as a father/alum and daughter/current Trojan Marching Band members.”
Miguel Aguirre is a USC alum who played trumpet in the marching band in the 1980s.
Following in her father’s footsteps, Karina Aguirre, a graduate of King City High School in 2019, is currently a junior at the university and also part of the Trojan Marching Band.
