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40th Anniversary of 1977 Oakland Crusaders Winning DCI Top Drums ( Sort Of )


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10 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

any video of the show?

It would be GREAT to have videos of virtually the top 21 from '77!!  (I should say non-finalist corps.)

I had to include the 21st place Royal Crusaders, just to be able to see Patty Beggy dance during the Chorus Line feature.  The crowd went nuts!

Anaheim, Oakland, Guardsmen, Boston, North Star all had that Boulder crowd going wild!

Edited by Northern Thunder
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1 hour ago, Northern Thunder said:

It would be GREAT to have videos of virtually the top 21 from '77!!  (I should say non-finalist corps.)

I had to include the 21st place Royal Crusaders, just to be able to see Patty Beggy dance during the Chorus Line feature.  The crowd went nuts!

Anaheim, Oakland, Guardsmen, Boston, North Star all had that Boulder crowd going wild!

It is odd that there is so much video out there of corps that didn't make finals from just about every year but 77. I've corresponded with DCI on this a few times. I work in television and find it hilarious (not really) that they rolled up all the mobile equipment, didn't do a rehearsal run for the television crew during prelims - and didn't roll tape on that. With any crew I have been in charge of rehearsal is mandatory and taping it is as well - just in case say something happened to the finals tape of say Blue Devils and you had to go to the back up. 

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5 hours ago, Northern Thunder said:

It would be GREAT to have videos of virtually the top 21 from '77!!  (I should say non-finalist corps.)

I had to include the 21st place Royal Crusaders, just to be able to see Patty Beggy dance during the Chorus Line feature.  The crowd went nuts!

Anaheim, Oakland, Guardsmen, Boston, North Star all had that Boulder crowd going wild!

I thank you for our inclusion :laughing:  ... for Prelims we added us shouting "God, I hope I get it!" (a Chorus Line reference) at the end of the show...

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Posted this a few years back.  Seemed appropriate to repost here.

In 1977 the Sacramento Freelancers percussion section emerged as a force in the West marching 11 snares and competing neck and neck with the Blue Devils for most of the western tour. As corps began to move toward Boulder, Colorado for prelims, we had heard that the Oakland Crusaders had already taken high drums at DCI North, even though the corps took 5th a full 13 points behind Phantom. At the time, I was marching with the Knight Raiders under the direction of Steve Chorazy and Mike Ferreira. The first opportunity we had of seeing the drumline was in a show just before Prelims in Greeley, Colorado. The Crusaders drumline were performing their drum solo during warmups. The 2nd time through the solo, Tom Float told them to dance around while they played. The solo had some intricate tuplet patterns decreasing and increasing in dynamics with RRR LLL sticking. We did not hear a single error through the entire solo. A friend of mine Dennis Mancini (KN 77, SCV 78 Snare) and I both witnessed this and our jaws dropped.  At DCI prelims, I snuck inside the stadium to see them again. As most know they took 1st in drums at Prelims on both judges (Blair, Wojtena) sheets but the corps finished 15th. The only recording I have ever come across of the 1977 Oakland Crusaders is of the drum solo. It's found on a Diceman Radio podacast of the De La Salle Oaklands (Episode 013), not sure when or where it was recorded.

 http://dicemanradio.com/dhp/?p=228

1977 info starts at 38:30 in the podcast.

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I was there at 77 prelims. As with 1983 Bridgemen,  watching the drumline's skill kinda made you mad at the program staff, since it also made you aware of how awful every other aspect of the show was. 

Ach, life.

Edited by Slingerland
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Thanks for the great story!...I don't remember that but that sure sounds like something Float would have us do -- He knew exactly when to put the hammer down and when to lighten things up...That was one of his many great strengths... 

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My hat's off to the '77 Crusaders. All of us on the Garfield staff were certain it would be one or the other of us who made finals, and we just squeaked in on the strength of our horn line.

I remember thinking as I watched them in Prelims from the back sideline, "Jeez. If our two corps merged we'd win Nationals by 5 points." That was a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.

That drum line absolutely blew my doors off, and when I listen to the recording today, it still does. Those cats wailed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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