Rather than wear traditional marching band attire, The MOB instead dons pinstriped three-piece suits, ties, sunglasses, fedoras, and (in the case of Show Assistants) tommy gun props.
The group is known for satirical football halftime shows which, as MOB director Chuck Throckmorton says, poke fun at rival universities' sacred cows.
Other staples include "Bonnet" (adapted from "Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet", 1909), the Rice University Fight Song (played after every Rice touchdown at football games), and "Turning it Loose" (a variation of the Otis Redding and Steve Cropper blues hit "I Can't Turn You Loose" similar to the one used as The Blues Brothers' theme song).
With their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks, the band parodied politics, life at Rice, and other members of the Southwest Conference.
This type of entertainment proved popular with band members, since the rehearsal time necessary to learn a show was greatly reduced, thus becoming more manageable in conjunction with a full academic course load.
During his time as MOB director, the band accompanied the football team to places as far afield as Tulane, Notre Dame, and the campuses of all three military service academies.
However, even with all of these notable accomplishments during his term at the helm, Dr. Dye's greatest legacy continues to be the library of musical arrangements that he has left to the band.
In the spring of 1995, a fire in the Rice Memorial Center gutted much of the MOB band hall, as well as campus hang-out Willy's Pub and other parts of the RMC.
Still, the MOB was forced to rebuild, working from a new band hall and purchasing new instruments, new uniforms, new equipment, new computers, and new office supplies all in time for the fall 1995 football season.
Mr. Sean Williams was hired in the summer of 1997 to serve the MOB and the Rice Band Department as interim director until a permanent replacement for Dye could be found.
Despite considerable membership turnover in C-USA in the early 2010s, the league still brings Rice into contact with opponents from Texas to the Eastern Seaboard.
Using this move as justification, the school's athletics department chose to create a new pep band for basketball and volleyball games without consulting members of The MOB.