The band ‘Doctor, Doctor’ is still performing for crowds nine years after it was created. The original band of all faculty members was created to perform at Texas A&M University – Commerce.
According to Director of the Center for Applied Leadership Rick Miller they were trying to make a point for first year students to see what it would be like for people to get out of their comfort zone.
“At that point ‘Doctor, Doctor’ was very out of their comfort zone, they only knew like one song,” he said. “It was a band made up of primarily professors and they were put together for basically one or two Lion Camps,” Miller said. “It was to show students if you get up and stand up and you try something you never tried before, it just might work. They were all PhDs (except one), so we said a good old song is ‘Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News’, it was spur of the moment.”
Although not all of the band members stuck, the name ‘Doctor, Doctor’ did. Miller put Dr. William Thompson, Professor and Director of Mayo College, and the only original member left in the band, in charge of assembling the band. According to Dr. Thompson, the group had not practiced before the first performance and only knew one song, ‘Old Time Rock and Roll.’
“He (Miller) had 500 to 600 college freshman there,” Thompson said. “The kids jumped up, danced, clapped and had the time of their lives. We finished the song and they started yelling ‘Encore, encore’, so we played the same song again.”
According to Thompson, they average one performance a month. All the band members have day jobs and perform for fun. The five members in the band at this time are Dr. Thompson, Joe Gilliam, Terry Harris, Dr. Robert Cozart, and fellow A&M – Commerce faculty member Jency Holbert, Director of Educator Certification and Academic Services.
Many of Thompson and Holbert’s students know they are in a band and Thompson will occasionally bring up the band in class to use as an example, but said he doesn’t talk about it very much. According to Thompson, a lot of his students have seen him perform on campus, but some don’t know and some don’t even put it together.
“We just played last week at the recreation center,” Thompson said. “Students would be coming out and see me and be in shock. They just couldn’t believe I was a human being and could do something other than lecture sociology. Some of them think it’s really cool.”
According to Holbert, Thompson recruited her during his wife’s surprise birthday party. Although Holbret now sings for the band, she started on the keyboard. Her first performance with the band was at an A&M – Commerce student orientation.
“I never sang as an adult, I was much too shy. I always regretted not having sang and been in a band,” Holbert said. “I had the opportunity to join a band, and I did. I have been singing and playing ever since.”