Has any corps been busted for this?

[BrassClef]

Have to fill out insurance paperwork, providing your SSN and birthday. No real way to get around that....

[kickhaltsforlife]

There is really no way to get around it.. plus no corps is willing to try it anymore. Way too much risk.

[HollywoodNeoCon]

From the Bayonne Brisgemen History page...

The Bridgemen won the World Open and DCI East titles, before heading out west to tour enroute to Denver. After their announced 3rd place prelims performance, several members were singled out by DCI personnel, with the full support of some DCI member corps directors, where the persons under scrutiny were declared ineligible subjecting the corps to disqualification. The Bridgemen sued DCI to contest the disqualification on the grounds that there was no intent to have an overage member march beyond their 21st birthday, since the corps had replacement members on tour to take the spots of those members in question on the day prior to their birthday. A compromise was reached by which the Bridgemen were allowed to compete in the 1977 DCI finals. The day of DCI finals in Boulder, CO was a painful one for the Bridgemen as no one knew how this would turn out. But lawyers for the Bridgemen found a loophole in DCI rules that allowed the Bridgemen to take the field. The audience's resistance was met with Bayonne tenacity as the corps unleashed a powerful performance in the face of adversity. By show's end the crowd was roaring their approval and the Bridgemen proved they were one of the strongest corps in contention that night. Their score and placement would not be recognized in the DCI annals. But years later, the disqualification was rescinded and the Bridgemen are now listed as finishing in 4th place in 1977.

I was only 11 when I saw this show live with my dad, and I thought it was the coolest drum corps show I'd ever seen. I have to believe they would've taken the whole enchilada, were it not for the controversy.

Edited July 11, 2013 by HollywoodNeoCon

[drilltech1]

The following corps were investigated for age out members subject to disqualification:

Bridgemen, Crossmen, Hawthorne Muchachos, Purple Lancers, Santa Clara Vanguard (amongst the World Class finalist corps.)

A certified birth certificate is now required plus secondary proofs of ID and age. Process is extensive today.

[/quote

I deliberately worded what I previously said very carefully as no two of the situations were alike.

There may have been at least one other situation involving a Canadian corps, but my memory is now fuzzy on specifics. Besides with the Canadian corps when DCI was first starting, there was also the question of which American might be living in Canada to avoid the US military draft. The coincidence is that the when the draft ended, so did so many of the touring Canadian corps. But we are living in peace with that nation at present and I don't want to start a hockey fight.

Edited July 11, 2013 by drilltech1

[BRASSO]

This is the way I remember it evolving as well.

For historical context, the '88 DCI champion ( Madison Scouts ) show was a crowd favorite, and in '89, SCV was doing a repeat of their 88 show " Phantom of the Opera ". This show was a big hit with judges and national fans alike as well. During this period, DCI Finals was televised Coast to Coast on TV. DCI certainly wanted to showcase to the country and to the national TV audience their best Corps and their best DCI show for the season. So when SCV came to them the day of Finals with the info that they had been marching overage marchers that season but promised would not do so that nite, that was enough for DCI to want to know, and so they let them perform.

For further perspective, when the NCAA is informed by a school that they unknowingly utilized ineligible players in NCAA competition that season, and the school voluntarily informs the NCAA, the school is always made to forfeit all the games that they utilized... even 1... ineligible player in. The school also receives fines payable to the NCAA, and even prohibition of playoff participation. To the NCAA, " not knowing " before the rules, is no excuse. Whether the ineligible player was utilized unknowingly or not by the school is of little to no concern to the NCAA when they level sanctions, fines, and penalties to the school, team, and its Coaches for its use of ineligible player(s) in competition.

Edited July 11, 2013 by BRASSO

[JimF-LowBari]

The coincidence is that the when the draft ended, so did so many of the touring Canadian corps.

Not sure when draft ended but mandated registering for the draft stopped between roughly 1975-1978. Last draft I know for sure was 1972 as rememebr the numbers listed in the paper. Still had Canadian corps touring after that for a while.

LOL - know for sure you didn't have to register if born 1957.....

Edited July 11, 2013 by JimF-LowBari

[fsubone]

With SCV '89, the stories I've heard from members that year was that it was right before Prelims, not Finals. And because the members had actually committed an international felony by forging British Birth Certificates, SCV was found to be not at fault in this case. Not like they knew they were marching overage people, like the other corps who had gotten busted for it.

[CHRISP]

Les Eclipses was disqualified in 84.

This is the first I've heard about the Purple Lancers. What was the story with them?

[BRASSO]

Still had Canadian corps touring after that for a while.

The DCI Canadian Corps were chock full of overage marchers in the early years of DCI. I was watching Fan Network awhile back.. I won't name the Canadian Corps, as its all water under the dam now... but I chuckled when I saw some of the MM's in line in the video. If those guys I saw arn't over 21, then I'm a Nepal mountain guide.

Going further back, in the 60's, prior to DCI, approx. a third (or more) of the east coast corps utilized overage marchers, some closer to age 30 than to age 21. Especially as they got closer to Championships, where they'd put in what was then called " ringers " into their lines. It wasn't right. But it just the way things were done when the VFW and AL checkers of paperwork were usually asleep at the wheel on such stuff during Championships Week when they had so many Corps at Championships.

Edited July 11, 2013 by BRASSO

[normy diploome]

The DCI Canadian Corps were chock full of overage marchers in the early years of DCI. I was watching Fan Network awhile back.. I won't name the Canadian Corps, as its all water of the dam now... but I chuckled when I saw some of the MM's in line in the video. If those guys I saw are under 21, I'm a Nepal mountain guide.

Going further back, in the 60's, prior to DCI, approx. a third (or more) of the east coast corps utilized overage marchers, some closer to age 30 than to age 21. Especially as they got closer to Championships, where they'd put in what was then called " ringers " into their lines. It wasn't right. But it just the way things were done.

Funny how some who speak of BITD as the epitome of drum corps fail to remember some of these inequities of the past.

But to be accurate, even the Am. Legion rules allowed corps to have members over 21...the "concert master" which each corps was allowed to have, could be no older than 25. I chuckle about this when I see the energy in some quarters to propose an older age limit for DCI members today. What goes around, comes around.

Responding to Chrisp....check your dates. In the '80's, no members of Les Eclipses would define themselves as Canadian but Quebecois who were Canadien!!!