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Actually, each corps only knew whether they were 1-5 or 6-12 (for broadcast purposes). I also believe that Garfield just drew the last position - I do not think they were guaranteed that as defending champion - it was just luck. I remember the directors drawing and being thrilled that we were in the top 5. I think everyone was shocked that BD ended up in 3rd place, but it was also a bit suprising that Star ended up in 7th. It was an exciting year throughout and I was happy my friends in the Sky Ryders made it to finals.

I remember 1990 as one of DCI best years, especially the fierce battle among the top 6. The first show I attended in 1990 was DCI Midwest in Whitewater - where two unbeatens (Phantom and BD) came with the hopes of being the only unbeaten corps remaining. I was so hyped to attend this show (it's rare to get a battle between two undefeated corps in mid-season) and the fact that the Cavies were there was another bonus. I was shocked when I came into the stadium and all the talk and hype from the people around me was not about the Phantom Regiment, the Blue Devils, or the Cavaliers for that matter, it was about the Star of Indiana. I had known that Phantom narrowly defeated Star at DCM Finals the week before, but strong starts and slow finishes were nothing out of the ordinary when Star was concerned. They beat everyone in 1988 accept BD and SCV, and landed in 7th. In 1989 they beat everyone but SCV and landed in 6th. I had no reason to believe that a 2nd place finish at DCM (which they also accomplished in 1988 and 1989) was anything special. However, those that had seen Star at DCM said this is not the Star we are used to - that Star had grown up. One staff member of the Jr. Scouts said he would be stunned if come finals Phantom, BD, or the Cavies beat Star. He said their brassline and drill was simply amazing - that they are the corps to beat for the DCI title. During finale, the crowd was shocked when both unbeatens fell to the Cavies. It was a shocking and wonderful night - after 1989 "anyone in the midwest but Phantom" was my motto. I love Phantom, but considered them my biggest rivals and did not want them top the midwest come finals. I knew, that night, that Phantom or BD would likely never beat the Cavies again. The Cavies show was that much better and they were performing it wonderfully. I left the stadium wondering if it would be a Cavies/Star showdown at finals. I went to finals that year knowing that Star had finally beaten SCV and was in the thick of things. Their performance in Quarter-Finals blew me away. Instantly, it became one of my all time favorite shows - and still is. I was so thrilled come finals night when they won high brass and took 3rd place. They were great, but couldn't quite get to the top spot as the Cadets were dazzling and the Cavies were simply wonderful. Still the improvement from 1989 to 1990, on all levels, was astounding and I knew that 1990 marked the emergence of a DCI Superpower. I loved the entire top 6 that year. I was sad to see SCV place 6th and it was unbelievable that BD and Phantom would tie for 4th after both were undefeated for much of the season. 1990 will be one of my favorite years for a long time. On so many levels, it was such a great year that provided a lot of unexpected turn of events.

Hi All - Being that I found the 'Santa Clara 1984' thread so interesting, I thought I would start yearlys threads. I think we could do one year from the 70's, 80's, and 90's each week, and tack on the 2000's at the end. My experience with drum corps began in 1984 and I would just like to hear from those who experienced drum corps during different years, whether member, staff, support, or spectator. I think it is fun to talk about the "old days" and learn things about them you may have never known (like the 'Santa Clara 1984' thread). So, I am hoping that all of you that experienced drum corps in 1990 will share your memories. Next week, I will start a 1991 thread and move through the 90's each following week.

Hi All - Being that I found the 'Santa Clara 1984' thread so interesting, I thought I would start yearlys threads. I think we could do one year from the 70's, 80's, and 90's each week, and tack on the 2000's at the end. My experience with drum corps began in 1984 and I would just like to hear from those who experienced drum corps during different years, whether member, staff, support, or spectator. I think it is fun to talk about the "old days" and learn things about them you may have never known (like the 'Santa Clara 1984' thread). So, I am hoping that all of you that experienced drum corps in 1980 will share your memories. Next week, I will start a 1981 thread and move through the 80's each following week.

Hi All - Being that I found the 'Santa Clara 1984' thread so interesting, I thought I would start yearlys threads. I think we could do one year from the 70's, 80's, and 90's each week, and tack on the 2000's at the end. My experience with drum corps began in 1984 and I would just like to hear from those who experienced drum corps during different years, whether member, staff, support, or spectator. I think it is fun to talk about the "old days" and learn things about them you may have never known (like the 'Santa Clara 1984' thread). So, I am hoping that all of you that experienced drum corps in 1972 will share your memories. Next week, I will start a 1971 thread and move through the 70's each following week.

Thank you to the members of BD, SCV, and Garfield who shared their stories. That was my first year in drum corps and still one of the most interesting to me. It was great, but I thought '85 was even better. That's still my favorite year. It's also interesting to hear about the relationship between BD and SCV. They are contrary to the stories I remember hearing. For example. in 1988 Star ventured out to California and was only 0.8 down from SCV. I remember hearing stories of BD staff mocking Santa Clara "0.8 above the pick elephants from Indiana" or something like that. I heard other stories of how cocky BD was and how they were horrible to SCV. I had never met anyone from BD and really didn't have much contact with them, but I got the impression that the members and staff weren't very nice. I did have some contact with SCV and Garfield members and thought they embodied class and dignity, but never with BD. The BD members on here are great and I think I passed poor judgement on BD, based on exaggerated stories - maybe - I'm still convinced the '88 "Pink Elephant" story is true

Yeah, Garfield took quite a tumble at Whitewater and they still beat BD! :P

Uhhhh....nope! But I thought you'd rather have SCV beat Garfield if BD couldn't?

Are you serious? That is rather surprising. Along with SCV and Madison, Phantom's my favorite but I still would have rather Star or Cavies won a show, when I marched, than Phantom. It just got my goat when Phantom won! I would have thought BD would NEVER want SCV to win!

Wish I could have seen their drill. I don't remember any of the visuals from that year. I loved Regiment's opener that year - very cool stuff. As a classical music lover, I must say that I loath 1812 Overture though. If I never hear it again, it will be too soon. I love Tchaikovsky though and it cracks me up that he called 1812 "bombastic". It's sort of true. On that note, I really wish Regiment would do a whole show on Tchai's 'The Sleeping Beauty' - one of his best works.

Do you guys have any reaction to their score and placement? I'm sure you were more worried about your performance, but it just sticks out to me. I remember hearing about it the next morning and thinking "what"? All I remember was setting up for the corps pictures they always took after prelims... We're getting ready for the shot...the photog starts counting down...we hear Brandt Crocker's voice and hush up..."We have a score for the Vanguard..." When we realized it was 3+ points, we just started chanting "BODY SLAM! BODY SLAM! BODY SLAM!" which was any point spread over 3. It took the poor photog forever to calm us down for the pic! I suspect they just chose the wrong time to have a bad show and made it up at finals...that kind of a drop was NOT in character for SCV in 84. They were hammering us until Whitewater... They hammered your butts in Whitewater too :P That is one of my favorite top 5 (as I said before). SCV sounds awesome on the recording, as does everyone. Loved Suncoast and Spirit too. Madison had my favorite finale that year. I get huge goosebumps everytime I listen to it at full blast. It would have been pretty cool if SCV got a 98.1 in 1984. Can you imagine....2 tenths separating the top 3 - plus a 4th to 1st would have been kewl.

Do you guys have any reaction to their score and placement? I'm sure you were more worried about your performance, but it just sticks out to me. I remember hearing about it the next morning and thinking "what"?

1984 was my first experience with drum corps and I didn't go to Atlanta (being that I was in Jr. Scouts and we had our own stuff going on). Semi-Finals ended like this: 1. Garfield Cadets - 97.5 2. Blue Devils - 96.8 3. Phantom Regiment - 95.0 4. Santa Clara Vanguard - 93.5 5. Madison Scouts - 92.6 Santa Clara scored lower than they had scored two weeks before, when they scored a 95.2 on August 3rd. What happened? I always assumed they had a really off night, but looking at the recaps (thanx www.fromthepressbox.com) nothing appeared to be out of line. Can anyone that was there elaborate on SCV's performance. They sure roared back in finals, with a 3.9 jump in their score. 1. Garfield Cadets - 98.0 2. Blue Devils - 97.9 3. Santa Clara Vanguard - 97.4 4. Phantom Regmeint - 95.6 5. Madison Scouts - 94.6 Pretty impressive. I would say this is probably my favorite top 5 ever. From the first note of Garfield to the awesome finale of Madison (better than 1995 IMO), I was in awe. * I know you can't compare scores from two different shows, but for weeks they had been within tenths (above or below) Garfield and Blue Devils - so something happened in Semi's that dumped them 4 points behind Garfield. What was it?

01> 1990 02> 1992 03> 1989 04> 1991 05> 1987 06> 1988 07> 1986 08> 1993 09> 1985

I'm sorry but there's NO WAY you could put us higher than 7th. The ending passthrough in Make His Praise Glorious was as dirty finals night as it was the first show. I'm not kidding. Watch the DVD, the camera focuses right in on that mess. We watched it over the holidays, and my dad was like "ouch" when that moment came up. Our visual design was not good either. The Cadets had a great show that year and a nice visual design. Also, there's no way Cavies should have been that low. They had the best and most difficult visual package on that field. They marched it as well as SCV and Phantom too and should have won visual. Their show was dynamite. I thought Star should have been 2nd in brass (behind Phantom). Their hornline was wonderful. SCV, of course, was amazing percussion wise and definitely deserved the win in GE. I had my captions, something like this (top 7 only) Brass: 1. Phantom 2. Star 3. SCV 4. Devils 5. Cavies/Cadets 7. Madison GE: 1. SCV 2. Cavies 3. Cadets 4. Phantom 5. Devils 6. Madison/Star Visual: 1. Cavies 2. SCV 3. Phantom 4. Cadets 5. Devils 6. Star 7. Madison Percussion - I know too little to say.

I thought 4th! I thought 1989 should have went: 1. Santa Clara 2. Cavaliers 3. Phantom 4. Star 5. Cadets 6. Devils 7. Madison 1 and 7 were right, it was everything in the middle that was wrong :)

I thought all three had great guards. What surprised me was Phantom's guard placing as high as they did. They got lost in the show and were not well integrated into the visual design at all. The equipment use in the ballad was damaging to the musical impact, IMO, as well. Madison's guard was much improved over previous years. I was shocked they placed as low as they did. Boston's guard was wonderful as well. Excellent equipment work and they were so well integrated into the drill. I didn't think Bluecoats guard was as well integrated, or as effective, as Madison's or Boston's. I agree with GMichael's assessment.

Their guard was 12th in Quarters or Semis I believe, 8th in finals. They did beat BD out in California. The only corps they didn't beat that year was SCV. Topped Phantom at DCI South prelims, and beat us, Cavies, and Cadets several times.

I agree. 1990 will always be one of my absolute favorite shows ever, and favorite Star show! I definitely like '89 and '92 better than '91 and '93. I miss Star!

I was just at home from Xmas and my parents have the '89 DVD. I never got the opportunity to see Star's show, during '89 or after. Wow - I absolutely loved it. What a great show! You could definitely tell how much Star grew between '88 and '89. I think it was my favorite show of '89.

Thank you. I figured a 6 foot pole would be best, but wasn't sure on the flag size. I did the 35 X 52. Thank you for your help. Now, I have to find someone (secluded) to spin away.

Hi All, I want to buy a flag and flag pole from bandshoppe.com. I am about 6 foot tall. What would be a good size flag and pole? I don't want either that's too big or too small, but I'm not sure if I should get a 6 foot pole and what size flag to get. Any help would be appreciated and PM's are definitely welcome! Thanx.

Hi All- does anyone know where I might buy a flag and flag pole? Although I was a horn player, I've taught myself flag work. It's fun and I'll have a big yard to myself in Feb. I want to buy a flag so I can go outside and spin to my heart's content. Any help would be appreciated and if you can PM me, that'd be greaT!

You can't compare what happened with SCV in 1989 with what happened with Bridgemen in 1977. Knowing you're breaking the rules (Bridgemen) and being the victims of fraud (SCV) are entirely different things. Think about it - if you can fool the US immigration officials then fooling a drum and bugle corps should be very easy. This could have happened to any corps, and may have. This may be one of the few times it was discovered. SCV did the right thing by booting the members immediately. They caught the mistake and they fixed it. How was SCV supposed to know their real ages? Come on! "Ignorance of the rules" hardly qualifies in this circumstance.

man.