Toddler Nails Ohio State Marching Band Routine In Video

CLEVELAND, OH — A video of 2½-year-old Nolan Martin marching around his parents’ yard in Cleveland may just be the best thing on the internet right now. His parents, Pete and Kate Nolan, shot the video Sunday for family members who know how much the little boy loves listening — and marching to — the legendary Ohio State University marching band.

Kate Martin says she never figured she would be a “momager,” the portmanteau to describe the mothers of children in show business, but once the video hit her Facebook page, there was no stopping it. Nolan became an instant celebrity.

“Ever since he could walk, Nolan has loved marching to the Ohio State band,” she told Patch. “He didn’t start walking, he started marching,”

While sitting with his dad watching the Buckeyes play football on television, “he would be just glued to the screen” when the band took to the field for the halftime performance, Kate said. His parents played YouTube videos of the band for the little boy on an iPhone and he would carry it around, marching, “studying their every move.”

“He dots the ‘i’ at the exact time,” Kate said, referring to the long-standing tradition in which a sousaphone player slips out of line to add the diacritic when the band members spell out the state name. “He marches on beat. His timing is impeccable.”

Marching has always been Nolan’s idea, not his parents’.

“It’s Nolan who wanted to do this,” his mom said. “We didn’t train him. It’s purely his love.”

That’s a surprise to Pete, a social studies teacher, and Kate, a speech pathologist. Neither has a musical background, she said.

In the video, Nolan is playing a toy trumpet and wearing a pilot costume that his dad altered to look like the uniform worn by the “Pride of the Buckeyes” marching band. Predictably, he wanted to dress up as an Ohio State band member for Halloween.

The video, first shared on social media by the Ohio State band and Ohio State University and then by “random people I don’t know,” had been viewed more than 1.5 million times by noon Wednesday, Kate said.

Response to the video, also shared by news organizations, has been positive, which is a big relief to his mom.

“I’m so thankful,” she said, adding she worried the viral nature of the video might attract negative comments. “In a world where there is so much sadness and meanness, I’m glad that Nolan is able to bring an ounce of happiness to people.”

His celebrity status seems to be lost on Nolan.

“I don’t think he even gets it,” Kate said. “We DVR’d a news account and replayed it. He said, ‘Who is that?’ That’s Nolan.”

The news story had a clip of the marching band, and when Nolan heard it, “he started marching again,” she said. “He just got excited.”

When he grows up, Nolan wants to be a real member of the famous Ohio State band. That would please his grandfather, Steve Nolan, who has said he always wanted a grandchild who would be part of the all-brass-and-percussion group.

But if his early audition doesn’t win him a spot, that’s OK, his mom said. For now, she just hopes the video “keeps spreading happiness.”

You can watch Nolan marching below. Warning, you’re guaranteed to smile.

Photo courtesy of Kate Martin