Jump to content

Top 3 Trivia


Recommended Posts

I know Fran and I were discussing this earlier given CV's cracking the top 3 last season. I said that the Yankee-Rebels were the only DCA corps to not win a championship after cracking the top 3. I did a little research and stand corrected. There are now four corps out of the 15 who have reached top three who haven't won a championship.

 

Data here, I find the cyclical nature of this rather interesting, listing the first year a corps made the top 3 and then their championship:

 

Bucs 1965-1965

Hurcs 1965-1967

Sky 1965-1966

Cabs 1967-1970

Brigs 1968-1997

Sun 1968-1977

Y-R 1969-none

Westshore 1982-1996

Bush 1984-1986

Steel City 1986-none

Crusaders 1988-none

Empire 1990-1991

MBI 2008-2011

C2 2015-2016

CV 2017-?

 

Well... the odds are still heavily in CV's favor though I think they'd rather get one sooner than ending up like Westshore or the Brigs. :satisfied:

Edited by BigW
Link to comment
Share on other sites

An interesting timeline, for sure. Great stuff, W!!!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah... look at the clusters where new corps began to come in and make changes. Early on in DCA, it was pretty much all Hurcs, Sky, Bucs, and Cabs until 1978 when Sun cracked in and then Westshore and Bush. Then there was a long drought after Empire came into form till more recent.

 

With C2, MBI, and now CV.. there's a new wave of new groups cracking in the last few seasons. Without a doubt, this is a good thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/2/2018 at 3:00 AM, BigW said:

yeah... look at the clusters where new corps began to come in and make changes. Early on in DCA, it was pretty much all Hurcs, Sky, Bucs, and Cabs until 1978 when Sun cracked in and then Westshore and Bush. Then there was a long drought after Empire came into form till more recent.

 

With C2, MBI, and now CV.. there's a new wave of new groups cracking in the last few seasons. Without a doubt, this is a good thing.

We actually "cracked in" in 77

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oscar is talking Sun in 77 which was a holy crap someone new  moment.

And Brigs with 31 year gap and WSM 2nd with 14.... yowsers

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh!

Sun was 2nd in 1968, though. Don't know the why's and why not's. True, that classic Sunriser purple patch of success was right there in that era.

 

That year looks to be a real strange season- Cabs 8th!? I think that might be their lowest placement ever.

 

1968 was B.F. (Before Fran) but my guess is he knows what happened that season to push Sun into 2nd.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, BigW said:

Oh!

Sun was 2nd in 1968, though. Don't know the why's and why not's. True, that classic Sunriser purple patch of success was right there in that era.

 

That year looks to be a real strange season- Cabs 8th!? I think that might be their lowest placement ever.

 

1968 was B.F. (Before Fran) but my guess is he knows what happened that season to push Sun into 2nd.

I know they had a great corps that year, but I don't know the particulars, other than they had been basically moving up the ranks ever since they broke onto the "national" (meaning major northeastern.... Cabs, Sky, the rest of the big guns) senior corps scene in 1963. 

Frank Dorritie might be the best source for filling in the blanks here... but from what I recall, and what I've heard, before '63 Sun was a "local circuit" group in the senior ranks.... but they really put themselves on the map with their '63 corps.

They had received a big influx of talent after 1962, when the St. Catherine's Queensmen junior corps folded.  Frank was one of the Queensmen who joined Sun... along with the Sasso brothers, Billy Cobham, Bill Hightower, and others.  That, IMO, changed senior corps history... certainly Sunrisers history. Imagine if all those guys had joined Skyliners instead?

And  a few years later, circa 1966, the Carver folks... Gene Bennett, Alfred "Uncle Nick" Nichols, etc., came over to Sun after the Gay Blades went under.  Another game-changer for Sun, IMO.

Also in '66, a young man from NYC, who had been with some local city corps, joined Sunrisers. Soprano player, and aspiring arranger,  by the name of John Arietano.
 

 

 

Edited by Fran Haring
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bottom line with Sun... and again, just my opinion here... if not for the guys (and gals) who built the corps into a DCA contender in the 1960s, and then for the members who basically kept the corps going with chewing gum, baling wire and a prayer in the tough days of 1972, '73, and '74... when, seemingly at any moment, the corps was on the verge of folding... the great Sunriser corps, circa 1976 through the 1980s, would not have happened.

My longtime friend Gary Williams has told me when the corps held a reorganizational meeting after the 1974 season, there was a grand total of nine horn players there. And three of them were from the Williams family. :tongue:

Just three years later, at the first rehearsal following the 1977 season... the Sunrisers were DCA champions. I don't know what anyone else thinks about that... but that's a remarkable turnaround.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You did provide a piece of the pie with the 1966 addition of a bunch of the Gay Blades, Fran. Those guys were as good as you could get back then, that much I know. Are there any recordings or film of them around?

Edited by BigW
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...