Stanford Muzzles Its Marching Band : College football: The school suspends the unit after its halftime show in Oregon focused on the plight of the spotted owl.

Stanford’s marching band has been banned from the football field as punishment for offending fans in Oregon last weekend.

The suspension was announced Tuesday by Alan Cummings, Stanford’s acting athletic director. The band’s activities will resume this season only if it presents an “agreeable show format” to govern its performances.

Cummings said the band “displayed an insensitivity and disrespect to the Oregon community.”

“It is certainly a low point to think the band was booed off the field,” Cummings said.

During the band’s halftime show, its announcer said the band “has decided to shift its attention from the Oregon state lottery to an atrocity worse than the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Trees and spotted owls are disappearing like crazy and everybody wants to know why.”

The show continued: “Mr. Spotted Owl! Mr. Spotted Owl! Your environment has been destroyed, your home is now a roll of Brawny, and your family has flown the coop. What are you going to do? ‘Me, I’m going to Disneyland!’ ”

Band members then marched to spell out “pot” while the announcer said: “Does marijuana cure glaucoma? Some doctors think so. Some people don’t care. Some may front certain causes in order to protect their back yard cash crop. This puts a little twist on Ben Franklin’s saying: ‘Just remember kids, an owl a day keeps the DEA away.’ ”

Trouble is nothing new to the Stanford band.

On one occasion, the band rushed onto the field before the clock ran out, inadvertently helping the University of California score a game-winning touchdown.