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All time shows: Troopers


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For those who have various corps music of the 60's, compare the Troopers drum lines with others.  Every once in awhile, you'd here other corps drum lines yell out to the Troopers "do something".  BRASSO is spot on with their marching.  With the VFW and AL the big contests for many years before the other larger contests starting up,  marching was a big point getter in those Nationals, so corps wrote their routines for them.  The AL Nationals allowed more GE, but Tony S., who ran the VFW, liked good marching without the frills.

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1 hour ago, BRASSO said:

 In the 60's, in the pre DCI years, a lot of emphasis on the judging sheets was really on performance execution. This was an era before highly creative and elaborate drill designs came into being that accelerated in the DCI years. As such, how one marched and played, really was what got Corps high scores. This was the era of the " Tick System ", where a tenth ( a " tick ") was deducted off the sheets by judges for bad execution by individual marchers in Brass playing, Drums playing, Color Guard Equipment work, and Marching ( called" M & M"... Marching & Maneuvering ).

 The reason I mention this on this thread re. the Troopers is because while the Troopers really were 1st rate for much of the decade from the mid 60's to the early 70's in Drums, Brass, Color Guard, they had quite a few show performances at the National Championships in the 60's, and pre DCI, ( VFW, American Legion, CYO, World Open, American Open, etc ) where their outstanding execution performance in M& M ( Marching ) was what put them over the top. They really could  March  in these years better than a lot of the Corps in their top tier placement range. One of their signature drill moves back then ( legacy fans here would know this ) was called " The Sunburst ", and typically it was executed flawlessly by their marchers by the time Championships rolled around. Whoever was teaching them M& M  in these Championship winning years ( or Medal Years ) really knew how to get their Troopers Corps to excel particularly well in this caption. I want to say it was Jim Jones himself ( Troopers Founder )that was working the Corps at their practices to get them so clean and polished in M & M  , but not entirely sure. It could have been others. But in any event, Man, could the Troopers march well in this era.

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Even in those Tic system years, I remember not only ( as you say ) the high technical ability but, especially for back then the visual awe of that sunburst which drew standing ovations. Pete Emmons BD, Cadets SCV etc etc was 1st a horn then a Drum Major of Troopers in those early 60s years. With his fame toward the end of the 60s 70s etc etc and his ongoing contributions to the activity and DCI good guess might be he was honing his skills at that time. 

Certainly was one of my mentors at the time as well as others including his then wife Jody from SCV

Edited by GUARDLING
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19 hours ago, Ghost said:

Elphabao1 typed that the Troopers beat all the biggies at least once.  So, no matter the "contest", I thought RA went undefeated in 65.  But, after some searching, they went undefeated from July to the end of the season.

1965 Royal Airs:

1965 started off with a rough ride for the Royal Airs.  Cavaliers, Kilties and Skokie Vanguard all went past them in early shows. 

HOWEVER:   The big win at CYO Nationals set them on fire, and they remained undefeated for the rest of the season, winning both Veterans nationals titles.

Elphaba   :flower:

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5 hours ago, GUARDLING said:

Even in those Tic system years, I remember not only ( as you say ) the high technical ability but, especially for back then the visual awe of that sunburst which drew standing ovations. Pete Emmons BD, Cadets SCV etc etc was 1st a horn then a Drum Major of Troopers in those early 60s years. With his fame toward the end of the 60s 70s etc etc and his ongoing contributions to the activity and DCI good guess might be he was honing his skills at that time. 

Certainly was one of my mentors at the time as well as others including his then wife Jody from SCV

I had the opportunity in 1982 to see Pete at a WCU clinic. Dynamic, thoughtful, thorough, and exact. He really enforced using good consistent methodology to achieve excellence- that the design was almost secondary to making sure whatever you did that it was done exceptionally well.

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What Guardling and others have said about the Troopers' signature "Sunburst" visual. For that era, that was the real deal, no doubt about it. In an era when most drills were of the "file and column" variety, a circular/curved move like the Sunburst, executed at such a high level, was stunning.

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1 hour ago, Fran Haring said:

What Guardling and others have said about the Troopers' signature "Sunburst" visual. For that era, that was the real deal, no doubt about it. In an era when most drills were of the "file and column" variety, a circular/curved move like the Sunburst, executed at such a high level, was stunning.

 It may have been Pete or Mel Stratton's WCU Clinic that specifically mentioned the Troopers, I think it was Mel's in 1983, for those very reasons. He also mentioned some tricks they used to make them very hard to tick like body placements and stances. :)

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9 hours ago, BRASSO said:

 In the 60's, in the pre DCI years, a lot of emphasis on the judging sheets was really on performance execution. This was an era before highly creative and elaborate drill designs came into being that accelerated in the DCI years. As such, how one marched and played, really was what got Corps high scores. This was the era of the " Tick System ", where a tenth ( a " tick ") was deducted off the sheets by judges for bad execution by individual marchers in Brass playing, Drums playing, Color Guard Equipment work, and Marching ( called" M & M"... Marching & Maneuvering ).

 The reason I mention this on this thread re. the Troopers is because while the Troopers really were 1st rate for much of the decade from the mid 60's to the early 70's in Drums, Brass, Color Guard, they had quite a few show performances at the National Championships in the 60's, and pre DCI, ( VFW, American Legion, CYO, World Open, American Open, etc ) where their outstanding execution performance in M& M ( Marching ) was what put them over the top. They really could  March  in these years better than a lot of the Corps in their top tier placement range. One of their signature drill moves back then ( legacy fans here would know this ) was called " The Sunburst ", and typically it was executed flawlessly by their marchers by the time Championships rolled around. Whoever was teaching them M& M  in these Championship winning years ( or Medal Years ) really knew how to get their Troopers Corps to excel particularly well in this caption. I want to say it was Jim Jones himself ( Troopers Founder )that was working the Corps at their practices to get them so clean and polished in M & M  , but not entirely sure. It could have been others. But in any event, Man, could the Troopers march well in this era.

Supposedly they practiced company fronts with each member's feet tied together by yarn of the appropriate step size.  They kept repeating the move until everyone had unbroken yarn at the end.

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8 hours ago, BigW said:

 It may have been Pete or Mel Stratton's WCU Clinic that specifically mentioned the Troopers, I think it was Mel's in 1983, for those very reasons. He also mentioned some tricks they used to make them very hard to tick like body placements and stances. :)

"Troopers":

Another standard hat F Troop set the bar at was competition color guard.  Their floor guard had a threepeat in the old MidWestCircuit  with Championships in 1968, 69, and 1970, as well as several guard Championships in the Veterans contests.

Elphaba     :flower:

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3 hours ago, elphaba01 said:

 Another standard hat F Troop set the bar at was competition color guard.  Their floor guard had a threepeat in the old MidWestCircuit  with Championships in 1968, 69, and 1970, as well as several guard Championships in the Veterans contests. 

Back in the mid 60's there always was talk of how the judges drooled over their guard.

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Have things to do the next couple of days, before I head out, the scary thing about this thread to me is how most of the discussion's about the pre-DCI period. With a couple of exceptions, it's kind of like, yeah they do things now, but nothing's really grabbing people and involving them except for 2009 and maybe another show since 1979? :huh:

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