Boom! Seahawks drum finds new home in Renton

500-pound bass drum shipped from Lumen Field to the Renton History Museum.

By Cameron Sheppard • November 13, 2023 5:00 pm

The massive bass drum that boomed and bellowed across the Seahawks’ stadium during the peak of the Legion of Boom era was recently donated the Renton History Museum to be celebrated and remembered as a token of the best venues and environments to enjoy a football game anywhere in the country.

On Nov. 9, the roughly 500-pound bass drum was put on a flatbed truck and shipped from Lumen Field to the Renton History Museum. When it arrived in the back alleyway behind the museum, a crew of nearly one dozen Seattle Seahawks staff worked together to hoist it down from the flatbed and onto its specially-designed wheeling base.

Keith Rousu, director of the Blue Thunder marching band, was there to oversee the handover of the drum that he helped advocate for as a unique feature of the Seattle Seahawks game day through an era of their franchise’s best years.

After being beat on by celebrity guests and local musicians alike, the drum was retired around 2016, and no longer has a place in the stadium after renovations to the venue erased its almost ceremonial space in the stadium, Rousu said.

Administrators of the Renton History Museum and local leaders came to see the daunting size of the drum in person. Rousu gave the drum one last beat with his hand, and the bassy vibrations boomed throughout the space of the museum.

Rousu explained to Renton Mayor Armondo Pavone that if you stand about three-and-a-half feet in front of the drum, you can feel its sound vibrations radiate through your body.