Doug Moe was vacationing in Florida in early 2022 when he received an email from Mike Leckrone, who spent 50 years as director of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band: Help me tell my story.
“I called him right from Florida,” Moe says now, in advance of the publication of Moments of Happiness: A Wisconsin Band Story (University of Wisconsin Press) — Leckrone’s charming, candid and nostalgic memoir that Moe co-authored. “Of all the projects out there, this one really interested me. To help Mike preserve his incredible 50-year career, and his life before and after, is a privilege.”
When asked why he chose to collaborate with Moe, who has chronicled Wisconsin and its people for decades, Leckrone says, “Can you think of anyone better?”
Both men will celebrate the book’s launch at the Central Library on Sept. 10 at 6 p.m.
Over the years, Moe — who also co-authored a book with four-term Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and is currently working with former state Sen. Fred Risser and Capitol City Band director Jim Latimer on their memoirs — interviewed Leckrone for the Wisconsin State Journal and Madison Magazine. But the two did not know each other well. Now, it’s safe to say, they do.
The project moved quickly, with Moe visiting Leckrone’s Middleton home approximately every two weeks for the next year or so, beginning in February 2022. The pair would chat for 60 or 90 minutes, with Moe’s recorder running. Then he would do research based on their discussions, write up about 6,000 words (30 double-spaced pages) and share each installment with Leckrone.
“He was very conscientious about reading it carefully and certainly wasn’t shy about saying, ‘This doesn’t sound like me,’” Moe says, then laughs. “I began to understand how his band members who missed a step must have felt.”
In Moments of Happiness, Leckrone recounts his childhood in Indiana — including meeting legendary trumpeter Louis Armstrong — plus his early professional years at Butler University and his decision to come to Wisconsin. He reveals the origins of the Fifth Quarter, how he broke gender barriers in the band, the joy of performing at Rose Bowls and the evolution of his signature showmanship. Leckrone’s wife, Phyllis (known as “band mom” and who passed away in 2017), is a presence throughout.
Also striking is Leckrone’s candor, whether referring to the Don Morton era in the late 1980s, when Badgers football teams went 6-27 over three years (“We had to…pick up the slack and do our best to retain a festive atmosphere at Camp Randall”), or band misbehavior on bus trips in 2006 and 2007, some of which led to member suspensions (“They felt like I’d hit them between the eyes with a sledgehammer”).
“I had a number of conversations with Doug: ‘Should this be in there? Do people really care about things that were not all that pleasant?’” Leckrone says. “He left it up to me, but I could tell he wanted me to let people know what really happened, what was going through my mind.”
After all, Leckrone reasons, as long as he was sharing so many “moments of happiness” — a phrase he coined at the 1994 Rose Bowl in an attempt to encourage band members to preserve good memories — he should include moments of sadness, too.
Leckrone retired in 2019 but, at age 88, has no plans to retreat from the spotlight. He will reprise his popular Four Seasons Theatre one-man show from October 2022, Mike Leckrone: Moments of Happiness, for a single performance on Oct. 19 at The Playhouse at Overture, and he hosts Listening with Leckrone, a podcast in which he pairs music with historical context. Leckrone also is active in the arts education group, Community Organizations Promoting the Arts (COPA).
“I just enjoy what I’m doing,” he says, “and I’m a lot busier than I ever thought I would be in retirement.”
