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The Golden Band from Tiger Land, the legendary marching band for the LSU Tigers, has a new member for the 2025 college football season. But this new member doesn’t look much like the rest of his peers in the 300-plus-member ensemble.
That’s because Kent Broussard, the band’s newest sousaphone player, isn’t anything like any of his peers. Broussard, 66, is a retired accountant is now living out his dream of playing in the marching band of one of the country’s best football programs.
LSU band member Kent Broussard shows it’s never too late to make your dreams come true 🥹💜 pic.twitter.com/nEcenBaAZb
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) September 7, 2025
Broussard is a longtime LSU fan who grew up going to Tigers games in Baton Rouge. But he never imagined he’d find himself not only in the band, but also on the big screen of Tiger Stadium, as he did during Saturday’s home opener against Louisiana Tech.
“It caught me by surprise,” Broussard told Ira Gorawara of The Athletic. “Then (the crowd) starts cheering … and then they cut away, and then they’re back on me, and I’m still dancing.”
But how did he wind up in this situation?
Kent Broussard Enrolled In LSU To Live Out A Lifelong Dream
Broussard retired in 2023 after serving as secretary and treasurer at Sazerac, which owns major companies such as Fireball Whiskey and Buffalo Trace.
Afterward, he decided to go after a dream that he says he’d had since 1968: becoming a member of the LSU marching band.
“It’s not just a commitment for me — it’s a commitment from my family as well,” Broussard said. “My wife, I tell her, ‘You’re a semester widow this semester,’ so she has to do everything herself because I’m at school from 9 to 6 every day.”
But Broussard faced adversity. First, he had to acquire a tuba and re-learn how to read music. Then, shortly before auditions, he slipped and cracked a rib while loading a boat onto a trailer.
Despite those, Broussard made the cut when the band was announced in August, and now he’s living out his dream.
“I may be the oldest person ever to join Tiger Band, but I don’t look at it like that,” he said. “Everybody I’ve ever spoken to says, ‘You’re my inspiration.’ And if I can help one person do that, that’s an awesome thing.”