Paul D. H. Leman in ca. 1933

First Bandmaster, CUA

Composer of "The Flying Cardinals March" (Official Fight Song), "Entrance Call" & "Call of the Cardinals" (Game Fanfares), 1933

From Paul Scimonelli's 2003 Ph.D. dissertation, "A History of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music of The Catholic University of America 1950-2002," p.17: “The Catholic University of America Flying Cardinal Marching Band was officially started in 1932 with Mr. Paul Leman as the first director. Mr. Leman was a music teacher at nearby St. John's College High School on Military Road, N.W. With a budget of $2000, Mr. Leman outfitted the band with double-bell euphoniums, herald trumpets, and military style uniforms. The band marched in homecoming parades and performed during half time for the then nationally-ranked CUA football team.

In the 1940s, Mr. Leman began the CUA Concert Band, an ensemble of approximately sixty students that performed music from the standard repertoire. A former member of the 1940 band, Mr. Joseph Rinaldi, remembers Mr. Leman as "an excellent conductor and a real task master." Mr. Rinaldi further stated that Mr. Leman regularly took a small contingent of the band to play for Washington's minor league hockey team, the Washington Lions, at the Uline Arena in northwest Washington, D.C.