COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State has named an associate marching band director as the replacement for Jonathan Waters, who was fired for turning a blind eye to a “sexualized culture.”
Christopher Hoch was announced Thursday as the interim replacement. The possibility he’ll stay on permanently as leader of the celebrated band known to fans as the Best Damn Band in the Land will be evaluated after the upcoming season.
“The university will continue its consideration of the director vacancy at the end of the coming season,” Executive Vice President and Provost Joseph Steinmetz said in a statement released by the university’s public and media relations office.
Hoch is a veteran music educator who is credited with helping to design some of the band’s eye-catching halftime shows, including its 2012 Tribute to the Classic Video Games, which became the band’s first show to get more than 15 million hits on YouTube.
Waters was fired last year after an internal investigation concluded he ignored raunchy, suggestive and inappropriate band rituals and traditions. Waters disputes the findings.
He’s pursuing a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging gender discrimination and has filed a defamation suit alleging the flap rendered him unemployable.