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Why 1976?


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Since there isn't much happening on DCP I thought I'd pop on here and talk about why 1976 was such a great year in drum corps. 

It was the Bicentennial year....1976 and celebrations were happening all over the country. No more war (Garfield's dream came true), 80 plus corps attending DCI Championships in Philadelphia. Blue Devils win their first World Championship and have won many more after that!  Open class corps were ALL exciting to watch from Blue Devils to Polish Falcon Cadets. Class "A" corps were also exciting to watch. Who can forget Wausau Story walking away with the 2nd ever DCI "A" Class Championship? St. Ignatius Girls winning their 2nd All Girl Championship too. 2 Canadian corps in the top 10 of Open Class. Kilties drop from 8th in '75 to 28th in '76? Schaumburg Guardsmen were in 31st in '75 and slide into 12th place in '76. Thank you Colonel Sanders? Phantom Regiment hops into the top 4 by beating 27th Lancers by almost 3 points.

There were tons of shows all over the US and Canada every weekend. I don't know about you but that was the most fun I had ever had in drum corps that year. My corps won a little championship too...NT Open A Class beating out Peterborough Krescendo and Simplex Minutemen. Marquis won Open Class.

Many of you have your own special years BUT if you liked 1976 please comment.

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I remember getting to Franklin Field to watch DCI Finals that year and being absolutely stunned that the Garfield Cadets had not made it to the night show.

They seemed like a stone lock going into the weekend.  I could live 300 more years and never figure out what happened.  

It was a pretty good Finals that year, featuring an overwhelming performance by the magnificent Blue Devils, and the sheer fun of the "new" Bridgemen. Plus some new faces... Guardsmen, Freelancers, Seneca Optimists.  The Optimists' electric-yellow uniforms... wow. To date, one of the brightest unis I've ever seen.

 

Edited by Fran Haring
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My Age out year.
I did not get to go on tour but it was a lot of fun while I marched the first half of the season.
For finals, I sat 13 rows up on the 50. I think that is when my ears started ringing and never stopped.

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I bought 2 tickets from someone who was sitting on the 50 yard line in the Phantom Regiment section.

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My first year, I was in Blue Devils B. We never left the state of California. When the A corps swung back through Nor Cal in early July they were still marching in their "gas station attendant" [blue short sleeve shirts] uniforms. So the only corps I saw live in their actual uniforms who were at finals were the Vanguard. Watching finals on PBS was awesome! All those great corps, the Bridgemen! Santa Clara and Madison performed and were great! Then the Blue Devils came on in their new uniforms - holy sh#t!

The beauty of the pre-internet age - when ignorance could bring great surprises.

 

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I enjoyed watching Gene Rayburn and his wife as they were sitting near 50 on field doing the telecast.

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On 3/1/2018 at 9:51 AM, Fran Haring said:

I remember getting to Franklin Field to watch DCI Finals that year and being absolutely stunned that the Garfield Cadets had not made it to the night show.

They seemed like a stone lock going into the weekend.  I could live 300 more years and never figure out what happened.  

It was a pretty good Finals that year, featuring an overwhelming performance by the magnificent Blue Devils, and the sheer fun of the "new" Bridgemen. Plus some new faces in Finals... Guardsmen, Freelancers, Seneca Optimists.  The Optimists' electric-yellow uniforms... wow. To date, one of the brightest unis I've ever seen.

'76 was my last year marching junior corps. My  local-circuit corps really struggled that year... didn't break a 60 the entire season, in local competition.  We sucked with a capital "S."  :tongue:

"Bicentenial Memories":

The most outstanding (For us) is the comeback of the Madison Scouts.  They had suffered a poor "First season" and went into rehearsals to change a huge chunk of their show.   The changes and their fighting spirit carried them to a second place finish at Philly.  I have always thought that if they had another day or two, they might have come a lot closer to the Blue Devils.

Garfiled Cadets exit from Finals was a shock, as was the very low placement of the Muchachos in prelims. Hawthorne (While not the powerhouse corps of 1975) had defeated both Garfield and the Bridgemen a few times and had placed over the Blue Stars and Guardsmen in contests right before the DCI Championships.

"Looking Back Ten Years, Absent Friends":  A look back to the season of 1966 and some of the competitors of that season who were no longer with us:  Blessed Sacrament, St Kevins Emerald Knights, St Lucys Cadets, St Raphaels Buccaneers, Bridgeport PAL Cadets, Blue Rock, St RoccosCadets, NY Kingsmen, St Josephs of Batavia, Conn Royal Lancers,  Pittsfield Cavaliers, Chicago Royal Airs, and my first "M & M" corps St Anns.  Raise a glass:   :guinesssmilie:

Elphaba      :flower:

Edited by elphaba01
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On 3/2/2018 at 2:15 PM, elphaba01 said:

"Bicentenial Memories":

The most outstanding (For us) is the comeback of the Madison Scouts.  They had suffered a poor "First season" and went into rehearsals to change a huge chunk of their show.   The changes and their fighting spirit carried them to a second place finish at Philly.  I have always thought that if they had another day or two, they might have come a lot closer to the Blue Devils.

 

I agree, that was an amazing in-season comeback for the Scouts!!!  They were really good at Finals.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Madison and the 27th Lancers did a 4th of July exhibition in Phoenix.

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On 3/14/2018 at 6:41 PM, regimental1 said:

Madison and the 27th Lancers did a 4th of July exhibition in Phoenix.

Madison was in Disneyland on 7-04-76 but we did go to Phoenix the next day for a show.

 

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