tkelly21

Interesting thread, good idea. I was in Santa Clara from 67-72, then into the real world, then back to what represented some of the best years so far, Drum Corps. You can always go back, thanks to DCP.

Is anyone else going to Mira Mesa? I want it empty, cool, and loud!

With the Santa Clara Vanguard in 1968-69 we practiced at a Junior High school surrounded by houses. One man finally had enough. When we came out to practice one evening he had set up his two little sterio speakers onto two stands pointing in our direction. When we started playing this guy cranked his speakers up full blast to disrupt our practice. Imagine just how ineffective two small stereo speakers are at drowning out the hornline of a major drum corp. It was ugly and he was really ticked off. He went into his house and came back out with a bee-bee gun that he started firing at us. I remember Gail Royer running over to the guys house and yelling at him. No one was hurt but we did get a few laughs out of it.

This thread needs more response from people who are winning or have won shows. All I hear is rationalization here. What does it feel like when you have the highest score. How does that make you feel about the hours you spend rehearsing, your staff and instructors, your fellow corps members? Does it make the bond even greater with these people? Is the sense of accomplishment greater? The answer is YES. I was in Santa Clara from the beginning. Why did it become even more fun when we began winning shows and championships? You always have a sense of accomplishment and comraderie, but that sense is even greater when the final accomplishment is to achieve the ultimate goal. When you keep score that goal becomes the highest score, to perfect that score. To accept otherwise is to just accept being mediocre. I have tasted last place and first place in my life, in and out of drum corp. First place always felt better. Don't be afraid to put pressure on yourself, your fellow corps members, and your staff to help you experience that. It is not a sin to win!

Scores matter. As much as many people want to hide from the competetive aspects of life, you can't. I marched to be validated as the best in my field as well as have fun. I noticed it was a lot more fun to be one of the best than one of the worst. I could appreciate others work but at the same time I knew everyone was not as good as each other. It is human nature to want to be the best at something. When you finish 12th out of 12, people telling you you did your best just seems to come up short. I believe we are beginning to see the negative effects on personality that playing soccer without keeping score breeds.

I marched in 1971 with Santa Clara. The biggest thing that stood out from that year was how ugly and vicious the critics were towards the Cavaliers that year. With Santa Clara we could really apprecciate pushing the envelope. What was being written and said that year about the clown and the circus theme was just ugly. You would have thought they were marching nude, with long hair,(it was the early 70's) and playing acoustic guitars. People thought they were killing drum corps. I have always wanted to congratulate the members of the Cavaliers from that year for sticking it out, they were pioneers. As far as the VFW went. You could go into the finals at the VFW National Championships vying for the top spot. You could have a whole season washed down the tubes and your chances of winning a championship ruined by some old VFW guy doing an inspection on your corps, deceiding that you hadn't spit polished your shoes well enough and subtracting from your final score at the finals with ticks against that. Another reason we were all glad to escape their evil clutches. I would also be remiss if I did not mention one of the glorious parts of 1971. That was listening to the Argonne Rebels hornline show all of us how you were supposed to sound. They were unreal.

I think a great uniform should change the atmosphere in the stadium when they first line up to start their show. In that category there have been three I believe. 1. Casper Troopers ( late 60's early 70's) 2. Anaheim Kingsmen (people would stop watching the performing corp) 3. 1972 Santa Clara Vanguard (the dawn of an era) 4. Racine Kilties (68-72 cool)

A good thread and worth thinking about. I think the thing we should all be most thankful for is that for the first time, in a long time, we have a CLOSE competition among the top 6 perennial contenders. Also, we seem to have Santa Clara taking their rightful place as a cutting edge force in the drum corps activity once again. I, for one, am looking forward to a tight, close battle as they all fight their way to the finals.

Well I tried. People today have no idea that they missed out on the golden years of drum corps. They think that the activity started with their involvment. Everyone is the sme these days and it puts me to sleep. Insert different music here into an identical drill concept. Te only thing we lacked was todays marketing expertise. The activity was far more interesting, more competetive ( heaven forbid that word) and way better. How many more corps were there in the 60's and 70's. Like everything else in this world today, drum corps today is vanilla pudding, we were electrical.

As I have said in many previous posts, the Santa Clara Vanguard would not have achieved what we did, as soon as we did, without the Anaheim Kingsmen. They showed us what class looked like and we pushed hard to catch up with them on the field. By 1970 we, in Santa Clara were proud to take on the Midwest and East Coast drum corps establishment with the Kingsmen. There was the unspoken feeling in Santa Clara that between the two of us, we were going to bring the best of this activity West. If the Kingsmen were around today, people would be referring to 2 drum corps that really epitomized class, respect for all of their opponents, and consistant quality drum corps year in and year out, Santa Clara and Anaheim. This is meant as no disrespect to the Cavaliers, Garfield, the Blue Devils or anyone else. There was just magic when our two corps took the field against one another and the activity is diminished by the fact that it is no longer there to witness. They had the coolest uniforms ever.

As a few other ex-Vanguard members have posted, we had great instructors. Do you wonder why Santa Clara exploded on the scene so quickly? Between 1968-1970 these people were either our full-time instructors, or spent considerable time developing and working with us: Gail Royer - Director, brass instructor, heart & soul Pete Emmons - M&M, show designer, led us to the promised land, ex-Trooper Fred Sanford - drums, everybody's best friend, ex-Trooper Jack Meehan - brass instructor, set the bar very high for us, ex-Trooper Gene Monterastelli - M&M, ex-Trooper Don Angelica - brass instructor, drum corps God Gary Czapinski - brass instructor, showed us how to be cool and kick butt. Bob Kalkoffen - drums

I know I am old school I guess. If you want to hear a magic hornline, playing on the old instruments, please listen to the Argonne Rebels any year around 1968 - 1971. They never marched that well and their shows just weren't quite good enough, but these people could play with any hornline in history. I would love to have heard them play with today's horns. Is anyone with me on this?

Gail Royer was a great director. Gail was a huge part of my life growing up. He was my band teacher starting in 3rd grade and he allowed me to be a part of Santa Clara from it's birth in 1967. We were his only child and his family. He had vision, talent, great humility, and he always wanted his child to have class, and we grew into a drum corps of extreme class. Gail always knew that drum corps needed to break free of the heavy-handed, disinterested control of the VFW and the American Legion. The combine was his creation, then came DCI. As far as directors who took members of their community, gave them goals, direction and influenced their lives to this day, Jim Jones of the Troopers is a giant. The Troopers were the first ones with busses and an equipment truck and sold souveniers. He created the Troopers from a real small pool of kids in Casper and created a drum corps giant. If you speak to any former Trooper who was a member when Jim Jones was the director, you will hear just what a great impact this man had on not only creating a great corps, but he helped create good people.

1. Gail Royer - He had such passion and commitment, we were his creation in Santa Clara. Plus he used to get sooooooo cranky somtimes and the faces he made trying to get us to stop were, as they say, priceless. 2. Jack Meehan - Mr. Cool. He elevated us all and made you think you were the best there was. 3. Don Angelica - When he came to work with us in Santa Clara, in our infancy, 1968 he was THE MAN. His parting words at the end of the weekend were, "I was pleasently surprised by how good you are".

Toronto was a great venue. It had that great big sound to it. We rocked that place in 1971 I believe. Maybe it was 1970, who knows, I'm old now.

Gimpy, I got that performance of Kaza a while back. Let me know, I still have a copy of it,,,,,,,, and we were pretty good that night weren't we? TK

1970 Santa Clara 1971 Santa Clara 1970 Kingsmen

Well here is a response that is sure to irritate some people, I can't take anymore of this.. I was in Santa Clara from the start, 1967. From the outset our goal was to beat the Anaheim Kingsmen. The Kingsmen had defined what class was and actully taught us all about that at a standstill in Pinole, CA. in early 1968. If you want the particulars about the defining moment in Santa Clara becoming the class corps they are today, you can e-mail me and I will give you the details. We didn't look any farther ahead than Anaheim. Once we beat the Troopers, Cavaliers and everyone else in 1970 our focus was still on the Kingsmen. As they will tell you the whole country had this bad attitude about anything from California, it was all hippies and weirdo's. To tell you the truth we didn't care or worry about the 27th Lancers, the Cavaliers, Crusaders or anyone other than the Troopers and as always the Kingsmen. Of all the corps that are gone now, forget Spirit of Atlanta and the Bridgemen. The Anaheim Kingsmen had that mystique about them. They had those cool blue cadet uni's. I read a post once saying they had gotten the Blue Rocks uni's by mistake, rubish. They were always cool blue and cool Southern California blue. Our goal was always to beat Anaheim, and that is what drove us because we were so tired of people whining about California. We all knew we were the 2 best drum corps in America. Anaheim clutched up to win the first DCI championship, they did it that night. Maybe the forces of nature knew they weren't long for this world and gave them something that would go down in drum corps history, and it was only right.

Old school is the best. At least every corps show was different then. You've seen one, you have basically seen them all now days. They are very,very, good,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but the same. Give me the old days when you could be overwhelmed by corps, after corps. How different were the kilties in 1970 from Santa Clara, from the Kingsmen, from 27th? I rest my case.

You show no knowledge of the activity unless you include the Anaheim Kingsmen. They, along with Santa Clara, set the the standard of class in this activity.

If I couldn't be in Santa Clara, it would have been the Anaheim Kingsmen any year from 1968 - 1971. They were too cool, had the best uni's and those high black boots their guard wore made me crazy.

I never read these posts soon enough, as everyone who marched in the late 60's early 70's knows, we work too much and don't spend enough time on the things we like to do. Anyway,,,,,,,,, 1970 was the year. That was the year that Santa Clara really became a national power and along with the Anaheim Kingsmen, we made drum corps a nationwide activity. It took us awhile to break the East/Midwest/Casper lock on things but we finally did. As far as pivotal drum corps years goes, this was a big one. I know that RobH will remember it and since I am in an airport waiting to catch an airplane so I can work more, I will leave it up to him to add anything he can come up with from that year or 1969. As well as any Anaheim Kingsmen alumnus out there, those were cool years.