BigW Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 (edited) 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. Edited July 1, 2018 by BigW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 An interesting timeline, for sure. Great stuff, W!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted July 2, 2018 Author Share Posted July 2, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucbari Posted July 8, 2018 Share Posted July 8, 2018 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted July 8, 2018 Author Share Posted July 8, 2018 4 hours ago, Bucbari said: We actually "cracked in" in 77 Well, since the Bucs were the first DCA Champions in 1965, they won the first time they cracked the top 3, the only corps to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted July 8, 2018 Share Posted July 8, 2018 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 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted July 8, 2018 Author Share Posted July 8, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 (edited) 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 July 9, 2018 by Fran Haring 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 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. 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted July 9, 2018 Author Share Posted July 9, 2018 (edited) 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 July 9, 2018 by BigW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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