Jump to content

Who Really Is To Blame?


Recommended Posts

Decades ago I overheard some former St. Joe's (Batavia) members blaming DCI for their demise. As I marched through the 1970's I was lucky to compete against a lot of NY corps (Greece cadets, Squires, Black Knights, Gauchos, Mighty Liberators, Mark Twain Cadets, Marauders, Magnificent Yankees, Mello Dears, Lakeview Shoreliners/Imperial Regiment to name a few). Also going into Ontario, Canada, PA and OH. When corps disbanded or folded, most of the things you heard was management. I knew of an Upstate NY corps director that took money from the corps bingo games and once he was caught the corps, even though they had corporate sponsorship, went under. 

 

Did DCI "force" all corps to do it their way? Did they dismantle US Open, A-I Open, World Open and other major shows?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keith, in reference to St. Joe’s being “snubbed” by DCI, I think more likely is that this was a corps at the end of its game by 1971. It is perhaps an indelicate subject, but this was a corps that perhaps set a high water mark for overage members. To be sure, it was not uncommon for many of the national contenders of the day to have some overage. However, with St. Joe’s it was more than a few. I competed against this corps week in and week out from 1966-71 and I can remember standing next to them at retreat as a 13 year old in 1966 thinking that when our average age was 18-20 as theirs appeared to be that maybe we could be as good as they were! The only problem was that by the time I was 19 many of them were still 4-5 years older than me!

They were disqualified from the NYS championship in 1971 after their drum major was cited as overage. Years later I remember reading a posting by their corps director/former marching member/soloist joking that the DM was actually one of the younger of the 20+ overage members that year!

Let me be clear that I loved the quality standard they set and this is one of the reasons I came to admire and love drum corps over the years. They were a good corps and I appreciated that fact. Later I marched in their alumni corps. But, these are the facts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

July 17, 1971
NY Legion State
Rochester NY
1 St. Joseph's of Batavia 80.450
2 Magnificent Yankees 79.200
3 Purple Lancers 73.800
4 Marauders 71.400
5 Appleknockers 69.500
6 Mello-Dears 68.100
7 OLPH Ridgemen 65.100
8 Mark Twain Cadets 62.350

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, KeithHall said:

July 17, 1971
NY Legion State
Rochester NY
1 St. Joseph's of Batavia 80.450
2 Magnificent Yankees 79.200
3 Purple Lancers 73.800
4 Marauders 71.400
5 Appleknockers 69.500
6 Mello-Dears 68.100
7 OLPH Ridgemen 65.100
8 Mark Twain Cadets 62.350

St. Joe was disqualified some time after the contest was held.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Utica Yankees filed the protest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My best memory of that 1971 season with Geneva was U.S. Open finals. We started very slowly that year and were lucky to have fielded a corps at all at state. We gained momentum quickly over the next couple weeks. Sure, the 7 horn players we used from Tri-Town helped, but we had a solid 37 of our own! Ahh, the memories.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For sure, there is sufficient blame to go around, including DCI. However, I think most of it has to lie with corps management. Someone mentioned living beyond the budget. Heck, that even happened in the, then know as, Class B corps! No matter how noble the idea, to sacrifice the future of the corps for a 'now' moment, is irresponsible. I know for a fact management of the Class B corps I marched in took out a $10,000 - $15,000 loan secured by the corps equipment. As you might have guessed, that loan was never repaid, and the corps folded at the end of the season never to return. Focus on the finances and live within your budget.    

I think DCI now looking at finances is a day late and a dollar short for a lot of corps. 

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...