Freelancers Documentary

[Ryan H. Turner]

Thanks Rich! I always feel like I've accomplished much if I can get a compliment from you my friend!

[KeithHall]

I missed the Freelancers but NOW I REALLY MISS the Freelancers!!!

[Big Mac]

Hey, that's cool!

Just to give you a little sneak peak... here is a tease from the docuentary I have been working on for the past year in conjunction with the Freelancers. Hopefully this will be up on their site ASAP. Enjoy...

[Bob J]

When is the documentary scheduled to be finished?

[stylites]

Can you imagine... a VK drum major working on a Freelancer documentary.... the Horror! Or maybe it's closer to reality than you might think... lol... well, kinda. (Inside joke, Ryan will get it...)

Mr. Turner, I might just take you up on your offer. Give me a couple of days to put a few things together. I have one more shoot I need to do.

Almost as bad as an ex-Freelancer taking the brass captionhead job of VK ;) Oh wait.....

Good luck on the project, Jason.....can't wait to see all of it.

[CrunchyTenor]

Actually, there was a slim margin of Freelancer placings higher than VK at DCI, including a few when one or the other corps didn't make it to finals. Freelancers had five finals appearances before VK made it to the big show in 1984. VK first went to DCI in 1973, Freelancers in 75. Neither corps went in 1974.

Freelancers made finals in their second and third year, barely missed in 77 and 78, fell back a year in 80 before roaring back to finals in 81 for the first of five straight appearances. 1986, of course, saw the corps take a year off, but they weren't done yet. They returned in 87 and were back on the field on finals night by 1989. They made two more finals appearances in 91 and 92 before fading a little into the mid-90's. 1994 was their last appearance at DCI.

VK had a tumultuous decade in the 70's. After growing and improving through the late 60's to reach the finals at CYO and American Legion in 1970, the corps only made 4 trips to DCI finals week in the 70's. The year off in 1980 and reorganization from 1981-83 saw a drastic improvement in talent and design resulting 8 finals appearances out of nine years from 84 to 92.

Freelancers had a total of nine finals appearances, VK 8. In the four finals they both appeared, they split the series 2/2. (Those four finals actually saw four California corps in finals, which leads to the question of why finals never made it to California until last year.) In the 16 times they both attended finals week, Freelancers finished higher in 9, VK in 7. There were three years Freelancers went and VK didn't, and four with VK and no Freelancers.

From 73 to 96, here is how the corps fared against each other at finals week...

Freelancers/VK

1973 NA/29

1974 NA/NA

1975 18/NA

1976 11/NA

1977 8/25

1978 13/25

1979 14/33

1980 19/NA

1981 11/33

1982 9/21

1983 8/17

1984 9/12

1985 12/11

1986 NA/12

1987 19/7

1988 15/8

1989 10/11

1990 14/10

1991 10/14

1992 12/10

1993 15/13

1994 16/15

1995 NA/15

1996 NA/16

Freelancers average finish was 12.76, VK's 16.35. Freelancers highest finish was 8th twice in 77 and 83. VK's highest finish was a 7th place tie with Star of Indiana in 87 followed by an 8th in 88. Freelancers lowest finish was 19th twice in 80 and 87. VK's lowest was 33rd twice in 79 and 81.

Is that something you can use, Jason?

Garry in Vegas

PS From the head-to-head scores I could find on corpsreps.com, VK took the series from 1970 to 1994 123 to 104 in 227 competitions.

Edited May 9, 2008 by CrunchyTenor