Marching their way through the Rose Bowl Stadium, Terry and Jerry Fitzer kicked off the 1965 UCLA football season as the first female members of the UCLA Bruin Marching Band.
Terry and Jerry, who are twins and UCLA alumni, were baton twirlers at their high school in Joliet, Illinois, before coming to UCLA, said Devon Bream, Terry’s son. Bream, a UCLA alumnus, added that Terry and Jerry both went on to become high school state champions in baton twirling.
In their first year at UCLA, Terry and Jerry were invited to join the UCLA Bruin Marching Band – which was then an all male group – to perform as feature baton twirlers for the upcoming football season, Terry said.
“They reached out to us to say, ‘Are you interested in doing this with the band?’” she said. “It didn’t seem like it was so special, but it was unique.”
Terry and Jerry later worked in the band for four years, Bream said. Many of their performances came during halftime shows, where they would twirl alongside the band on the field at each home game, Terry said.
Despite being the only women in the band, Terry said her and her sister did not feel that they were treated any differently than their male counterparts. She added that she did not fully realize the precedent they set for future women in the band until after their tenure.
“It just seemed like it was routine because of having a sister that was a twin,” Terry said. “It didn’t seem so unique in terms of a special role – it just seemed that it was an experience that we did with an all male band at the time.”
Marilee Harvey, who became close friends with Terry while pursuing her graduate studies at UCLA, said she was initially unaware of Terry’s experience in the band. But, when she learned that Terry was one of the first female baton twirlers in the band, Harvey immediately believed it, she added.
“She was a very fine, creative, loving and giving person,” Harvey said.
Sixty years after Terry and Jerry’s time in the UCLA Bruin Marching Band, Olivia Pacheco, a fourth-year public health student, said she joined the marching band after dreaming of baton twirling for UCLA since she was eight years old.
Now, she credits Terry and Jerry for paving the way for other female baton twirlers. Pacheco added that she looks up to former UCLA baton twirlers like Michelle Glymph, who was in the UCLA Marching Band and graduated in 2015.
“I’ve always said I was going to be the UCLA twirler,” Pacheco said. “I did a third grade passion project, and it’s all about baton twirling and there’s poems about being the UCLA twirler one day.”
Terry and Jerry’s impact is still felt throughout the band, Pacheco said. Pacheco’s own pride stems from their legacy that she continues to carry, she added.
“It really warms my heart to be part of something like that, and to know that that is the way that women got into the band,” Pacheco said.
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