jeff danchik Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Royal Crusaders. 1980 the director folded the corps. 1981 (when I joined), we nearly made it out, went to mountain camp with under 20 brass, but a decent size battery. No money and low brass numbers sunk us in 81. I think we could have made it out and maybe-depending on how many veterans showed up, would have been in the top 25. In 82, we tried again, but this time the board was disinterested completely. They just wanted to pay off debt-we survived that summer as a parade corps and that was the end. If we had fielded it would have been a respectable Class A unit. In the long run, I think deindustrialization of the Pittsburgh region killed the Royal Crusaders as much as anything else. General Butler Vagabonds. Since Finleyville was done, I moved up North in 83. GBV had not fielded for reasons unknown in 82. Most of the vets went to bigger corps. 83-85 we fielded and were mid-pack Class A. But we had recruitment problems (alot related to hard economic times for W. PA-no more steel production). We couldn't get enough brass players locally in 86 and the corps became a parade unit. With a few more musicians, the corps probably could have fielded in 86, but alot of folks went to BAC. GBV then did not field again for a decade, when a much smaller, but more sophisticated corps emerged. I think our "what if" year was 84, when we had as many as 50 brass show up (and a full battery) for a couple of camps. But we kept losing people to having to work. RC bleed to death in 1980 from financial mis-management. The board which had the experience to rebuild the program again,put their time into paying off the bills they cosigned. There still was a viable Bingo running but the board members ran it.They acted like they cared but the actions spoke for themselves.Every board meeting I went to in 82 they were selling off something else, the truck, a bus... it was when they wanted to sell the instruments I knew they would cut the feet from under the kids and I shut things down.George started the parade corps up,but in reality it couldn't last.Many factors killed Junior corps, not just the plight of the local industrial base.There's more money around here than there ever was. People have too many things to spend their time on today.So do the kids.One big problem is attitude around here is dumb founding.I would say more but it would be pointless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84skyrydr Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 A lot of "what ifs" involved in that... Defenders What if we had not seen such a dramatic decline in membership? What if we had maintained the core of the marching members? What if the finances had not been so bad? I listen to, and look back at the years I marched and know that we definitely had the ability to go farther than we did. If we had not folded after the '82 season, and had we managed to rebuild the membership? I think maybe the '84 season would have been realistic to see marked improvement. We were barely treading water that fall/winter after the '82 Season, and honestly it was just painful to be at rehearsal. I had the chance to go march elsewhere that Winter and never took it, it just would not have been the same for me. The expectation of breaking into the top 12 was so high going into the '82 season. The talent was there, our drum line was awesome, our brass line was talented, our guard was excellent... Something was missing in there, and though we had some pretty knock out the crowd performances the missing piece(s) or pulling it all together at the same time never did happen for us. That is alright though, 26 years later and we have our Alumni Corp and are just having a great time of it. I remember in 81 pulling into a show and the Defenders were in line to go on, and I was impressed just from that scene. You guys looked big and had a presence about you. I have your 81 show on cassette tape somewhere and used to listen to it regularly. Thanks for being part of a unique experience for me. I was a rookie and seeing a corps look so fierce and ready was new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84skyrydr Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 After the Ryders left Hutch to me it wasn't the Sky Ryders anymore. Don't know where we would have been given the Texas situation, but an aweful lot of top corps take a big number of Texas kids into their corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84skyrydr Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 Had the corps made finals in 82, as all signs pointed before being unceremoniously dumped at DCI Midwest, the 83 Knights almost certainly would have been a repeat offender contender.Garry in Vegas 85 Knights were my favorite of the Knights years. They were contenders though in the years previous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Knob Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 What if Fantasia III hadn't folded? Another tough little NJ corps which would have provided an excellent training ground for many more youngsters who could either stay and work in the Summer while still competing in a good drum corps or develop the chops and confidence to move on to top level corps. What if the Bridgemen hadn't folded? Many more years of limping along financially AND many more years of fan adoration. A true sense of fun and joy in the activity that is still sorely missed. What if Star of Indiana hadn't folded? Thousands more kids getting a first class drum corps experience and a few more championship trophies in Bloomington. Star didn't fold. They morphed into Blast and all their other incarnations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingsmenSnare76 Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Had the Anaheim Kingsmen never folded I am certain we would be in the top 12 today!...because every year the hype was "lets win DCI" no matter how small the corps was in winter. We set our sights high and always did! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kstein Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Star didn't fold. They morphed into Blast and all their other incarnations. Easy for a non-member to say. Trust me: they folded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrewvyG2 Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Saginaires/Northern Aurora. Still not sure why the corps folded. Sure would like to see it still around competing with our old rivals : Colts,Glassmen,and Bluecoats. At least the corps lives on via the Northcoast Academy Winter Drumline. GO NORTHCOAST!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerriTroop Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Houston Nighthawks: folded in 1984 after our home show. We had all expected to be driving off for the rest of tour that night as we assembled after the show at our usual host school. Instead, we got a very terse instruction to call our parents and go home, tour was over. I don't really remember what happened next other than crying a lot and trying to explain to my mom at midnight why she needed to drive all the way across town to come get me. I'm surprised she let me go march another corps in 1985 after her experience with that phone call - but thankfully she did. So what would have happened? No earthly idea. The tide of drum corps at the time was what it was - smaller corps run by people with lots of heart but no management or business sense were either going to survive on pure luck until someone with some sense came along to save them, or fold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcityrabbit Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 In the complete opposite direction a corps that always amazed me has been the Canton Bluecoats. In the 70's they were one of thousands of small town corps that membership came from within 50 miles of their hometown. They were an "A" class corps at best. They never shut the door in the 80's when $$$$ caused most corps to fold. Now they are among the elite. Compared to the other elite corps of today who have been there all along, i.e., Blue Devils, SCV, Phantom, Cavs, Cadets etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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