Sparty replicas to benefit Spartan Marching Band

Aug. 28, 2007

MSU retiree Dick Best with a miniature    Sparty. Photo by Wayne Bowers.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Spartan Marching Band, respecting a long-standing tradition, has protected Michigan State University’s “The Spartan” statue from vandalism for many years. Now, MSU retiree Dick Best has found a way to use Sparty to pay back the band for its dedication.

Best has created University Replicas and is producing museum-quality 12-inch-high bronze replicas of “Sparty.” The statues are limited edition and $250 of each of the 2,000 sold will benefit the Spartan Marching Band. Each statue is numbered and is priced at $2,495.

Best, who played the clarinet at MSU in the 1960s and had produced features on the band through his work as a field photographer and studio director at WKAR-TV, got the idea for the project last fall when he observed the band doing “Sparty watch.”

“I saw the band and wished I was rich enough to donate a decent amount of money to the marching band,” Best said. “Then I realized I knew of the foundry and the people there, and the idea came to me. Eight months and a lot of back-and-forth work later, and I was able to start the company.”

The replicas are mounted on a black granite base just like the real one, and the mold was miniaturized by sculptor Dale Smith. Smith is the same artist who made the mold from which the full-size statue was cast in 2005, when the original ceramic statue was replaced with a bronze figure. The replicas are cast in bronze at the same foundry that cast the large “Sparty” and are finished in the same patina. Each one is individually handcrafted by artisans at the foundry, where it takes 12 weeks to produce.

John Madden, director of the Spartan Marching Band, is thrilled to have the project benefit the band.

“When Dick approached me with the idea, we were both amazed that nothing like these replicas had ever been done before,” Madden said. “It’s really great that they’ll benefit the band fund that goes to support a variety of things like travel, equipment and scholarship funds.”

For more information about the replicas, visit the Web site at www.universityreplicas.com.

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