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Just How Young Were Those Early DCI Champion Corps?


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I decided to check to see just what the average marching member ages of some of those early DCI champion corps were. Luckily the Blue Devils kept complete records in their yearbooks, which I proudly own. Unfortunately the data from their 1976 corps was not complete, so I haven't included it.

In 1977 the average age was 18.173. They had some real young "kids" that year with 28 members being 16-years-old or younger (including two 14-year-olds).

BD didn't publish a yearbook from their championship 1979 year. The next DCI champ corps from 1980 had an average age of 18.656. That 1980 BD corps still had 22 members age 16 or younger.

The unbeaten 1982 Blue Devils had an average age of 19.414. The number of members age 16 or younger had dropped to 9, but there was still one 14-year-old.

It would be interesting to compare these ages with today's corps, especially from open class.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sometimes it's not easy to guess age in the early DVD's due to hairstyles and in some cases facial hair, but younger members do stick out. I watched the 1975 DVD a few weeks ago and you could see young people, probably about 14 or 15 in Oakland Crusaders (keep an eye on the cymbal line) and Finleyville Royal Crusaders which I believe was always a local corps. In 1980, Garfield Cadets had a "mock" soloist in "Elk's Parade." I believe he was only 13. In the 1981 27th Lancers had a couple of boys on cymbals who look pretty young as do a few of the girls in the color guard.

I know today Surf has had members as young as 14 and I think there were a few kids as young as 16 in BAC in 2013 (I thought I recalled a kid at Yocco's after Allentown celebrating his 17th birthday which would have made him 16 when he joined).

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My son was the youngest at Impulse this year; he was 13 and in middle school at the time he joined their trumpet section. He is easy to spot as he is the shortest by far! :)

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My son was the youngest at Impulse this year; he was 13 and in middle school at the time he joined their trumpet section. He is easy to spot as he is the shortest by far! :)

Sounds about right! I had a 13 yr old, who is starting 8th grade this year marching for me in the Columbus Saints, our Sound Sport team. He was our Flugelhorn soloist!

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He still is !

I wonder how many people realize the little blonde kid in the "No More War " poster from 1972 and JR on the podium playing the mock solo are one in the same.

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