Why The Drop? Polish Falcon Cadets

[Keith Hall]

I noticed that the Polish Falcon Cadets in 1975 took 17th at DCI and the following year dropped to 47th which was dead last. Reasons?

[Hornplayer9599]

And they were 13th in 1974.  I know a few people who marched during the early to mid 70's (not with Polish Falcon Cadets though), and they said that a lot of the corps that were still keeping to a more "neighborhood" setting were losing a lot of membership due to age outs not getting replaced through recruitment, and the cost of gas going way up at this time.  Along with the cost of gas, many corps didn't have a lot of money in the budget to cover things like they could 10 years prior, and along with poor management, and their sponsors no longer willing to foot the bill, they went bankrupt.  Another factor they said was if the corps had good/popular staff members who left the organization, some kids didn't come back out of loyalty to them.  Now, did these things affect the Polish Falcons?  Can't say for sure, but considering the number of corps lost that did have these problems it is plausible.

[MikeD]

One town over there was the Bridgemen coming on strong in 76 with the banana unis. I bet they took quite a few of the potential members from that area.

i think the North Jersey area supported fewer and fewer corps as the years went by, esp top level. 

[ironlips]

What I remember most clearly about the Falcons was Bobby Craig's wicked-good drum line.

[cixelsyd]

On 4/4/2023 at 11:35 PM, ironlips said:

What I remember most clearly about the Falcons was Bobby Craig's wicked-good drum line.

... which was gone in 1976, along with half the hornline.

IIRC, the corps was about to cancel the entire competitive season, but made a late decision to compete after all.  Their first 1976 contest appearance was on August 11th.