"Historical" Sizes of Drum Corps

[JoSaints]

Maybe it was a thing with the east coast circuits or American Legion rules, not sure, but I marched from 1967 - 1976 and best I can remember (?), 128 was the number out here.

I also seem to remember some rules shifting for one season in the early 70s (just before DCI) which allowed one additional person: a musical director who (1) didn't count towards the headcount; (2) could be up to 25 years old; and (3) wasn't allowed on the field ... this was when podiums first came into favor.

Of course, I could have hallucinated this whole musical director thing -- I had a discussion about it with friends of mine recently, and neither Jack nor Ef remembered it.

Edited August 2, 2007 by JoSaints

[Northern Thunder]

I have the Blue Stars roster from 1973, and they only marched 87 according to that. Probably the biggest corps that year was The Thing, the St. Patrick's Imperials/Thunderbolts merger that eventually became Pioneer. They had more than 50 guard members in '73.

In those days the senior corps were more likely to have huge numbers, compared with juniors. If you had a junior corps with 50 horns you were regarded as MASSIVE.

[mobrien]

The 128 size rule went into place with the '76 season. I had heard it was PR's size in '75 that was an instigating factor, but not being familiar with Regiment Militaire, perhaps I simply misheard the source.

If I remember correctly, Troopers had been pushing for a limit of 110 (which would level the playing field a bit for them), with 128 being settled on as the number that could fit on three coaches.

[bill]

There were no limits prior to, and going into the 70's and the early 70's. A corps could be as large (or small) as they wanted. If I recall Madison had quite a large corps one particular season before limits were placed.

[MikeD]

I have the Blue Stars roster from 1973, and they only marched 87 according to that. Probably the biggest corps that year was The Thing, the St. Patrick's Imperials/Thunderbolts merger that eventually became Pioneer. They had more than 50 guard members in '73.

In those days the senior corps were more likely to have huge numbers, compared with juniors. If you had a junior corps with 50 horns you were regarded as MASSIVE.

Exactly so. Pre-DCI Hornlines in the low to mid 40's were considered good sized lines. Drumlines of 4 snares, 3 or 4 tenors, a couple of 'straight' basses of varying sizes, 3 or 4 cymbals, and later 4 timps were decent sized drumlines. by 70/71 a few had larger snare lines. Blue Rock was one, I think. St Joe's of Batavia before them had an amazing drumline and marched 6-8 snares, or something, I think.

Garden State Circuit corps (div II/III of today) (in the late 60's - 70's) had hornlines ranging from the mid-teens to the 40's....I think most were in the mod-uppoer 20's.

[A27Lancer]

I have the Blue Stars roster from 1973, and they only marched 87 according to that. Probably the biggest corps that year was The Thing, the St. Patrick's Imperials/Thunderbolts merger that eventually became Pioneer. They had more than 50 guard members in '73.

In those days the senior corps were more likely to have huge numbers, compared with juniors. If you had a junior corps with 50 horns you were regarded as MASSIVE.

I was going to mention The Thing, but thought it might have been a faulty memory. I remember watching them march into Manning Bowl, and they seemed to go on FOREVER. Anyone know their official size/membership?

[Northern Thunder]

I had the '73 roster for The Thing at one time, but unfortunately it was lost. As I said before they did have an unbelievably huge guard that year, with more than 50. I think their hornline was 52-60....about the same as Madison was that year.

The most unusual thing about The Thing was that they used bits and pieces of each of the former corps' uniforms, resulting in purple (from the Thunderbolts) and green (from St. Patrick's Imperials). Purple and green......what a sight!

[Medeabrass]

Thanks to all for clueing me in...very interesting.

[Northern Thunder]

According to Roman Blenski, director of "The Thing", who wrote about his corps in volume two of the Drum Corps World history book, "The Thing" had more than 140 members in 73.

Edited August 4, 2007 by Northern Thunder