The University of Chicago Band is a pep band and a marching band (of the scramble band variety) for The University of Chicago. The Band was founded in 1898, five years after the university opened.The University of Chicago (U of C, UC, UChicago, or simply Chicago) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890. William Rainey Harper became the university's first president, in 1891, and the first classes were held in 1892. It has a reputation of devotion to academic scholarship and intellectualism and is affiliated with scores of Rhodes Scholars and 85 Nobel Prize laureates. The university is considered an "Ivy Plus" institution, denoting a school that competes academically among Ivy League universities.