1988 Madison Scouts

[drumcat]

As we talk about parity in DCI, some of you way-back types (yes, apparently 20 years ago now... dang) should chime in on which factor was the most important factor with the Scouts' last win.

A few caveats --

This poll is in no way intended to speak poorly of the 88 Scouts, the judges, the fans, anyone. There were lots of great shows in 1988. This poll seeks to find whether it was a serendipitous convergence of good karma, or an overwhelming performance, or strength throughout the season.

Second, and most importantly, all of these things were a factor on Finals night. The question is which do you believe is most significant in putting the Scouts over the top that night, nearly 20 years ago.

1988 is still looked at with the most effort of competitive equality for its random draw. It will probably always be debated as to whether step off time is a material factor, but in today's competitive environment, it's worthwhile to draw lessons from what has already happened.

Thanks.

[1990_RookOut]

As a fan, the random draw was kind of fun. Now if that had been the case when I marched. . . . . .

[Russellrks]

...

Edited December 16, 2007 by Russellrks

[madalumni]

Alot of people say the draw was part of why the Scouts won.

But people forget that they won Semi Finals by a pretty decent margin...

1.2 over Blue Devils if I remember.

[jthomas666]

BD, SCV, and Madison all had great shows that year. The thing that set Madison apart that Night (and this is based solely on watching the telecast--was that Madison dumped more raw energy into that show than I have ever seen before.

I doubt the draw had a bog impact--in addition, I wish they'd go back to a form of the random draw/

[Michael Boo]

I was standing talking with Don Pesceone after the draw for judges (which some might have forgotten about) for Finals night, when a corps director came up to remind him that the judges who had already judged were not supposed to be thrown into the hat with the judges who hadn't judged yet. Due to the luck of that draw, some judges that had already judged were selected to judge Finals. I don't know if that had an impact one way or another, but it's interesting speculation as long as you're contemplating everything else.

That system was discontinued the following year.

[Cop]

August 12th 1988

Texas SCORE

Madsion Scouts 94.40

KS SCORE

VANGUARD 94.80

IL SCORES

BLUE DEVILS 94.50

August 13th 1988

Tulsa Ok SCORES

Vanguard 94.30

Madison Scouts 93.90

St Louis MO SCORES

BD 93.50

August 19th 1988

WI SCORES

Madison Scouts 97.80

Blue Devils 96.60

Vanguard 96.30

August 20th 1988

Madison Scouts 97.10

Vanguard 96.90

Blue Devils 96.30

August 13th 1988 Madison Scouts are.04 behind the 2nd place SCV.

That night we got slamed on the field by 1 judge who had not seen our show in 4 weeks or so. Madison Scouts from July on, never lost a field caption, except for this one time, and we lost by nearly a full point. The loss to the 2nd place SCV by .04 was blown by 1 judge. Our Scores were tight with the top 2 corps.

This same night Madison Scouts out scored Blue Devils who were in St. Loius by .04

We then saw Blue Devils on Aug 19th and beat them by over a point and Vanguard was 3rd. So when we were over Blue Devils, Blue Devils were still undefeted to SCV.

It was not like Phantom 1996 who moved up 5 spots "over night" per-say.

1988 Madson Scouts made a run at the top 2 drum corps over a weeks time and 5 shows.

So when we speak of the 1988 Scouts, remember, the corps did not pull out sudden WIN in one night, we were in the running 7 days heading into Saturday night! (FYI). That Said, We still thought we had to fight hard for a top "7" spot.

Edited December 17, 2007 by Cop

[Michael Boo]

...

It was not like Phantom 1996 who moved up 5 spots over night.

...

1996 Quarterfinals: Phantom was in 4th.

1996 Semifinals: Phantom was in 3rd.

1996 Finals: Phantom tied for 1st.

The most they moved up in one night was two spots, not five.

[JKatzmellophone]

BD, SCV, and Madison all had great shows that year. The thing that set Madison apart that Night (and this is based solely on watching the telecast--was that Madison dumped more raw energy into that show than I have ever seen before.

I doubt the draw had a bog impact--in addition, I wish they'd go back to a form of the random draw/

I was there for Quarters, Semi's and Finals. Madison was clearly better thne everyone else. Emotion had a lot to play in that show. Judges, Draw or not. It was clearly theirs to win or lose.

[Cop]

1996 Quarterfinals: Phantom was in 4th.

1996 Semifinals: Phantom was in 3rd.

1996 Finals: Phantom tied for 1st.

The most they moved up in one night was two spots, not five.

Close enough, that was GOLDEN for me to have seen 1996 play out live!

Edited December 16, 2007 by Cop