Failed disqualification attempt in 1980, known by few..........

[BG984]

In 1980, the Garfield Cadets had a huge (around 1/2 of the corps) contingent of members that came to the corps in late May from the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, in what ended up being a miraculous season.  After a slow start, and playing "catch up ball" for a good portion of the season, the corps finally was in the mix, and in a 5 corps battle for the last 3 spots in finals.  At prelims, the corps laid out a great job, and got a score that looked quite promising of 81.45.  Around 30 min. after the announcing of the score, I see a staff member (I was on staff, too) who looked troubled.  I cornered him.  He tells me, "North Star has filed a protest against us".  "For WHAT", I asked.  "Overage", he replied.  I grabbed him by the collar and said, "you better tell me that we are clean".  I was concerned, as we filled 3 blanks in July before second tour, and I was worried that maybe they were not checked thoroughly.  He tells me, "we are clean.....but there's a problem".  He then tells me the name of the member, and he was a student at West Chester University.  Compounding the problem was this......the container with all of the birth certificates was left by accident at our prior school.  Not only that, but the member in question did not have a driver's license, which would have sufficed.  Pesceone said we have until 3 PM to produce proof that this individual was not overage (and it was after 11 AM already)  The member in question also looked old, and had marched in a DCA corps for a few years.  Then, an idea hit me.  It was a Friday, and the bursar's office at WCU would be open.  They would clearly have documents with his date of birth, and may verbally verify.  We ran to a pay phone a block away from the stadium.  Not only did I reach a person there, but she was cordial and helpful, she verified the dob, and also said that she would verify it to Pesceone when called again.  We ran back to the stadium,  found Pesceone in the press box, and told him.  He called the University Bursar's Office, asked for the woman by name, and she verified the member's DOB.  Pesceone hung up the phone and said, "gentlemen, I consider this matter CLOSED".    North Star had not been on yet.  We found their drumline warming up and paid a "visit".  Frankly, I don't think that their members knew anything.  However, when their staff saw us, at least some of them definitely knew, and to say that there was some tension in the air would be an understatement.  The Cadets score held the corps in 10th place, where the corps also placed in finals.  Ironically, North Star also made finals at 12th, which was deserved.  However, I always had a bitter feeling about that, with them making the effort to attempt to have us disqualified.  Karma can be rough though.......that was the last finals performance that they (North Star) would give, while we would win it all 36 months later.  Ironically, a Cadet parent traveled to the school where the birth certificate container was left AND FOUND IT, bringing it to the corps at the stadium by early evening.  I do wander if we would have been disqualified on "hearsay", especially if we had proof that we were clean by early evening, and the "plaintiff" had zero proof of anything.

[Northern Thunder]

Great story...never knew about that!

[BG984]

3 hours ago, Northern Thunder said:

Great story...never knew about that!

Very few people did........we (the Cadets) never went public about it.....even on that day and afterwards, very few people in the corps (probably only around 5-8 members) knew about it, and likely even some staff didn't know.   We didn't want that "cloud" hanging over what was a great day/performance for the membership, and the corps was also totally innocent over the accusation.  I also doubt that very few if any marching members of North Star knew about things, though there is zero doubt that some staff, and obviously administration, knew about their protest filing.