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30 Years Ago Tonight--Garfield Cadets Tumble At Whitewater


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The date was August 4, 1984. The scene was the DCI Midwest finals in Whitewater. The Cadets were in the closing moments of their spectacular 50th anniversary West Side Story show, when a horn player caught a heel, creating what is still the single most unusual thing I've personally seen on the drum corps field. A group of about 12 horn players domino tumbled at the Z-pull climax of the show (with several suffering severe leg injuries). What had been an almost perfect performance ended in the most unbelievable way, with crowd members staring at each other in reaction to what they had just witnessed.

Santa Clara beat Garfield that night, (after the Cadets had edged SCV by 0.3 at prelims). But exactly two weeks later Garfield would edge both the Blue Devils and SCV by less than a point to win its second consecutive DCI title.

By the way......the most interesting thing about Garfield's "fall" at Whitewater.......they earned a perfect score in ensemble visual.

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No, they earned a 0.2 spread better than SCV in Visual Ensemble. In prelims, they were 0.3 better. Perhaps Frank Morris saw them really as 3 or 4 tenths better (they were phenomenal all season) but couldn't break the ceiling; that fall was such an obvious thing that everyone saw. What if he'd given them a 9.9? "So close to perfection," blahblahblah....

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Several of us from SCV were watching from the end zone as the Z-pull came straight towards us and the first member faltered; after that it was an end over end train wreck in slow motion I can still see in my mind. I remember thinking "I hope the members aren't hurt too bad" but seeing shoes where shakos were supposed to be was quite a sight, kind of like when I drag raced my Buick: you want the rubber side down and the shiny side up, not the other way around.

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I remember thinking "I hope the members aren't hurt too bad"

I guess there were some broken bones. Miraculously the people were able to hobble off the field when it was all over.

And you guys in Vanguard were pretty awesome yourselves that year! Come to think of it.....SCV has ALWAYS been awesome!

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So since they scored perfect in visual ensemble, I'll assume that means the domino effect went pretty smooth. I've only read about it, but it sounds like quite a site to behold. Great show that year!

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  • 4 months later...

Ah, yes....Whitewater '84.....one of the now-legendary tales in This Thing Of Ours......

Being on the field that night was rather interesting. No, I wasn't one of the "dominoes", but it (literally) happened right behind me. It was a blind backup at a 2-step interval at 190-ish. One of the sops let the guy in front of him get too close, and those that were there know the rest. I didn't see the mayhem ensue, but marched right past the pile of bodies - about 8 of them.

At that moment, I had absolutely no idea what was happening, but what I can remember is seeing Donnie & Shorty side-by-side on the track "givin' it up" (a pretty good show up to that point), and then suddenly simultaneously putting hands to face (what I always called the "Home Alone Gesture"), and then sprinting down the track in the direction of the crash. That's when I was able to see what had happened out of the corner of my eye.

I've only ever seen one photo of the crash, and it was pretty horrifying...one of our sops in midair, arms & legs stretched directly out in front of him, almost as though he was sitting on a recliner.

The one positive thing that did come from that was that, for the rest of the season, we would set up a 2X2 block & march backward at 190-ish as part of our visual block every day. Everybody learned how to march a blind backup at a 2-step interval, suffice it to say!!

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