It's not every day you see a 66-year-old retiree playing in a major college football marching band. But that's exactly how Kent Broussard, a former accountant of 30 years, has decided to spend his retirement.
You may have caught this photo of him on LSU's Jumbotron during the Tigers' home opener against Louisiana Tech last Saturday:
Kent Broussard for MVP 😂 pic.twitter.com/yM8Jmg3BcK
— DraftKings (@DraftKings) September 7, 2025
But Broussard donning the iconic purple-and-gold of LSU's Tiger Band—colloquially known as the "Golden Band from Tigerland"—isn’t just a random hobby. It’s the fulfillment of a decades-long dream, one he’s been able to chase with his family’s support by his side.
The Sporting News spoke exclusively with Broussard about his lifelong dream of joining the LSU band.
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Did Kent Broussard go to school at LSU?
Broussard is a native of LaPlace, La., about 60 miles southeast of Baton Rouge. He grew up attending LSU football games in the 1960s. While he went initially to watch the action on the field, it was there that he first heard the Tiger Band.
"Something that struck me was the sound of the band," Broussard told The Sporting News in a phone interview. "And it always stuck with me. Through all the years and the hundreds of games I attended at Tiger Stadium, it never left me—the sound never left me."
Playing instruments had always been a big part of Broussard's life. In fact, he played the sousaphone (a tuba that's designed specifically for marching) and trumpet both in high school and at Southeastern Louisiana University in the 1980s.
How old is Kent Broussard?
He is 66 years old. But his dream of retiring and joining the LSU band came decades earlier.
When Broussard reached his 30s, he established a career as a CPA with the Sazerac Company—a large alcoholic beverage company based in New Orleans. Although he was decades away from retiring, he hatched his plan of joining the Tiger Band after his career days were over. As long as he was physically healthy, that was how he'd choose to spend his golden years.
But he didn't tell his family, including his wife Cheryl and two daughters, Lauren and Jennifer until five years ago at a family dinner.
"Their eyes kind of bugged out of their heads," Broussard said. "They said 'You want to do what?' Because I never told anybody about this."
"As I kept talking about it, they got to the point where they realized that I was really serious about it," Broussard continued. "And I told them 'I've been thinking about this for 30 years. I just never told you guys, because I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it physically.'"
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How did Kent Broussard join the LSU band?
He retired from Sazerac in September 2023, but there were still a few hurdles he had to clear before his dream could become a reality. For starters, he had to relocate from LaPlace to Baton Rouge. Broussard admits his family's home in LaPlace flooding twice moved the process along a bit quicker.
"We were able to get situated in the new home," Broussard said. "And I told my wife Cheryl, 'Okay, it's time for me for the Tiger Band thing.' And she looked at me, she said, 'You sure you want to do this?' I said, 'Yep, I'm doing it.' "
While Broussard says how blessed he is to be healthy enough to still play the sousaphone, the training he had to do to be fit for the band was extensive. His training routine consisted of running 20 to 25 miles per week and wearing a weighted vest while walking and doing yard work. He also added weight training for his arms, including shoulder pull exercises, bench presses and crunches.
Oh yeah, and did we mention Broussard is also a full-time student taking 13 credit hours at 66 years old? Yep, a requirement of being an active band member is being a full-time student. He was able to dig up his Southeastern Louisiana transcripts from the 1970s, and despite being told there were 70,000 applicants for just 7,200 spots, Broussard was given one.
He's currently taking courses in Louisiana history, music and emergency management fundamentals, classified as a transfer, non-matriculated student since he already has graduated twice.
And then there was the process of trying out for the Tiger Band itself. After working with his teacher Matthew Thompson, in addition to re-learning how to read music, Broussard sent in an initial application for the band. The first step is submitting a piece of music which you then perform. The performance is recorded and sent in for submission.
"I was lucky enough to be selected to make it past the first round with the musical selection that I had made,” Broussard said. "Then came, 'oh my God, this is getting real.'"
Step two, the band's preseason camp, sounds just as arduous.
"[It's] a comprehensive four day program that happens toward the end of August that all newcomers go through," said Broussard. "They learn the LSU way of marching, of playing, you start to learn the songs. You have to have all of the fight songs memorized before you even get there, which is what I did."
Broussard was one of what he believes to be 125 other newcomers to audition for the band. On a Thursday evening in August, he learned that his dream had been realized—he made it. He was officially a member of the Tiger Band.
"The next name [on the list] was mine," Broussard recalled of the moment. "I didn't know if I was more in shock, or [if it was] just a culmination of all the hard work and the effort that I put in for the previous year. The physical aspect, the mental aspect, all the support—it just kind of all hit at the same time."
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Kent Broussard's big moment on campus
Since making his debut on LSU's Jumbotron last Saturday, Broussard has gone viral. As you'd suspect, the 66-year-old retiree moonlighting as an LSU band member is a popular guy on campus nowadays.
"It just happened yesterday," Broussard said. "I was walking around campus and people were looking at me. It's finally hit these students of who I am. Many of them come up to me, [and say] 'Can I have a selfie, do you mind if I chat with you a little bit?' And I've been just humbled by all the attention. And I didn't do it for this, right? But I get that the story is resonating."
While Broussard's unique story makes him the focus, he wants people to realize that he is one person in a 400-person band.
"I'm just one of almost 401," Broussard said. "I'm just one tiny little piece of this. It's about the group, it's about the band."
But he hopes that his journey to get here can inspire older folks like himself, as well as younger ones.
"Hopefully what I'm doing is going to help people fulfill something that they've thought about or wanted to do and just never had the opportunity," said Broussard. "Or just didn't think they could. Because you have to try. My saying is, 'Your only failure is not trying.' And that's the key. Because if I wouldn't have tried this, I would have always thought 'What if?'"
While going from an accountant to a band member may seem like a complete 180, Broussard adds the attention to detail one has to have for both is a big plus.
"That has really helped to understand and dig down into what I need to do to be successful from a musical perspective," Broussard said. "Looking at the notes, understanding the rhythms. And then understanding how we do things, which is extremely important as well."
As for what's next for Broussard and his Tiger Band journey, for now, he is enjoying the ride he is on for this season. He hopes to travel with the Tigers to a College Football Playoff game this season, and said he'll assess whether or not he wants to recommit physically to the band in the spring, in addition to re-enrolling in classes.
"I'm just trying to prove a point to myself," Broussard said. "I needed to challenge myself. I was always a Type-A personality at work, always a big, action-oriented guy. I just didn't want to sit home and do nothing, I wanted to be active."
Broussard stresses that achieving his dream wouldn't have been possible without the unwavering backing of his family.
"Without their support, none of this would have happened," he said. "And it means the world to me to have them backing me and to be 100 percent supportive of what I'm doing. And they're huge cheerleaders for me. And they, as much as me, have been kind of taken aback by all of the attention that this is getting."
His family is just as proud of him.
"My sister and I are so proud of him," Jennifer and Lauren said of their father. "He was the dad that never missed a swim meet growing up, and our parents sacrificed so much raising us, so this feels like his moment to shine and for us to support him during his sport. He worked so hard to make the band, and it's incredible seeing him realize that dream after so many years of working in the silence when no one was watching. He is the most determined person we know, and we're his biggest fans."
March on, Kent.