Famous, or infamous, corps stories, myths, legends

[OldBones82]

Late 70's Early 80's Crossmen Rookie Initiation: Football on the bus.

Bus Driver turns on all of the reading lights (stadium lights), everyone sings Notre Dame Victory March, all of the vets head to the back of the bus. The back seat is the end zone. One rookie is designated as a blocker, the other is the ballcarrier. The referee blows the whistle and the rookies run for the endzone. The vets in the back of the bus just beat the crap out of the rookies. Legend has it that the only rookie ever to make to the end zone was snare player (and current WGI Director of Percussion) Mark Thurston in 1979.

Eventually football got so rough that severel bus windows were broken out. SO, football was outlawed by the corps administration and they had to switch to a more tame activity....RUGBY!

[Bob Brady]

Without a doubt we were the Original Bad Boys of Detroit before the Pistons!

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Yeah, There were several ex-Royal Lancers who came down and joined the Glassmen drumline after R.L. folded-definately brought a whole new sense of "fun and games" to the corps!!

Not to mention some KILLER bus songs!! ^0^

Edited July 28, 2005 by Bob Brady

[madscout96]

She was born in Bay City...117 miles from Pt. Huron....dunno if that helps.

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She then grew up in Rochester, which is in Oakland County. I just can't possibly imagine Madonna Ciccone in a drum corps... she was hitting clubs in downtown Detroit when she was young.

Sorry if someone answered this already, but I just saw this topic and still haven't read all the many many posts yet.

[madscout96]

The incident happened in Milwaukee.  The Code of Conduct penalty was issued in Ypsilanti at prelims.  Most people thought it was because a staff member came running onto the field, in the middle of the show, and reset some of the flag poles which must have been placed incorrectly when they came on.

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If you're talking about the Troopers' mauling of a Pioneer staffer, that actually happened in Stillwater, MN. But yes, they received something like a full 3.0 points penalty at prelims of "Preview of Champions" in Ypsi for the incident.

From what I understand, he didn't really try to break ranks (he better not have, he knows better!). He was kinda, trapped, as the troopers were moving in 2 lines, and he got caught between them, so he hung out by a pole. They took it as breaking ranks so they made him pay.

[Galen]

A rumor is that due to the events of finals week in 2002, Phantom's cooks are no longer allowed to serve chicken salad to the corps. :P

[skywnch320970]

That had to be Rita Kimberly, right? Wasn't she the only girl in the pit (which was actually only Ray at the timps, everyone else still marched the keyboards in 82)? I never heard the 'sunglasses' story. Do tell!!!

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right-o. we were all so angry about the whitewater score, we all had various reactions. personally, i thought, "okay, what caption did they forget to add in?" it was THAT obvious. rita threw her sunglasses so hard (i believe the lenses were glass, i could be wrong) that they shattered into an unknown number of pieces. i had never seen her so angry. i do remember the bus being punched a number of times, i think one of the busses was driving around for quite some time with a dent in the side from that day...

Ü

jan

[sarnia sam]

Actually I set that page up with info I got from the various threads here. It's frustrating that all the info about this corps is third-hand although I don't suppose there were a lot of members given its apparently short history. I'll update the page to indicate that they may have been from Sarnia.

From the small bit of research I have gathered so far, there is no evidence that Madonna ever marched in that corps and I believe it has been established already that she did not march in the Bayonne Bridgmen.

I was marching in a southern Ontario corps around this time too and I never heard of them either although the Windsor, Sarnia and London corps tended to march in the DCE circuit more than ODCA. They don't show up as a member of ODCA in the "Corps Fax" directory of 1979.

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For the record.

The Bluewater Bridegmen were from Sarnia. They started out as the Entertainers (in name only) for one season, 1976. In 1977 They did become the Bridgemen. I'm tryng to remember, but it seems tome that they didn't make it to the end of the 78 season.

Madonna definitely did not march in the corps, though there were a number of Americans, mostly from the Port Huron area, in the corps.

Earlier I said that she was on MTV by the time the Birdgemen were operating, but I was confused, or having a stroke, at the time.

Mostly anyone connected to that corps tries hard to forget about it.

If you are the one who put up the stuff on Buccaneers, most of it is right. The stuff about Pheonix I'm not so sure about. I thought that was a totally different organization. There was a brief merger with the Leamington Townsmen that lasted one season - 1978 I believe.

There were three feeder corps: The Pirates, Sarnia; The Raiders, Port Huron (and this is the only corps Port Huron had during the time period 1960 to 1990. Outside that time frame I can't say, but I never heard of one.); The Imperials, London. Those operated in 1979 and 80.

I also followed the link on the Bucs page to the Marching Diplomats. Did you do that too? If so, the Dipomats were a re-organization of the Sertomanaires. The Sertomanaires started in 1958 I believe, maybe a year or two earlier, and went through the management change at the end of 1968. The Sertomanaires actually was a band dating back to the 40s before becoming a drum corps.

All those corps did Great Lakes Drum Corps Association shows and ODCA and CDCA shows. DCE really didn't figure into it very much. ODCA had a hard time understanding there were drum corps south of Kitchener, which is why you didn't see a listing for the corps.

Regards,

John Swartz

[Bob Brady]

For the record.

The Bluewater Bridegmen were from Sarnia. They started out as the Entertainers (in name only) for one season, 1976. In 1977 They did become the Bridgemen. I'm tryng to remember, but it seems tome that they didn't make it to the end of the 78 season.

Madonna definitely did not march in the corps, though there were a number of Americans, mostly from the Port Huron area, in the corps.

Earlier I said that she was on MTV by the time the Birdgemen were operating, but I was confused, or having a stroke, at the time.

Mostly anyone connected to that corps tries hard to forget about it.

If you are the one who put up the stuff on Buccaneers, most of it is right. The stuff about Pheonix I'm not so sure about. I thought that was a totally different organization. There was a brief merger with the Leamington Townsmen that lasted one season - 1978 I believe.

There were three feeder corps: The Pirates, Sarnia; The Raiders, Port Huron (and this is the only corps Port Huron had during the time period 1960 to 1990. Outside that time frame I can't say, but I never heard of one.); The Imperials, London. Those operated in 1979 and 80.

I also followed the link on the Bucs page to the Marching Diplomats. Did you do that too? If so, the Dipomats were a re-organization of the Sertomanaires. The Sertomanaires started in 1958 I believe, maybe a year or two earlier, and went through the management change at the end of 1968. The Sertomanaires actually was a band dating back to the 40s before becoming a drum corps.

All those corps did Great Lakes Drum Corps Association shows and ODCA and CDCA shows. DCE really didn't figure into it very much. ODCA had a hard time understanding there were drum corps south of Kitchener, which is why you didn't see a listing for the corps.

Regards,

John Swartz

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Great info John-Thanks for setting the record straight!!

Edited July 28, 2005 by Bob Brady

[sarnia sam]

Great info John-Thanks for setting the record straight!!

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Thanks. Full of spelling mistakes too. Oh well, too late go back and fix it.

Regards,

John

[Guest DrumCorpFan]

If you're talking about the Troopers' mauling of a Pioneer staffer, that actually happened in Stillwater, MN.  But yes, they received something like a full 3.0 points penalty at prelims of "Preview of Champions" in Ypsi for the incident.

From what I understand, he didn't really try to break ranks (he better not have, he knows better!).  He was kinda, trapped, as the troopers were moving in 2 lines, and he got caught between them, so he hung out by a pole.  They took it as breaking ranks so they made him pay.

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There was an incident in Milwaukee as well (it was Racine or Waukesha or something just outside of Milwaukee. I was facing the other way walking out after the show and heard a ruckus ($2 to The Breakfast Club). I turned to see a couple of drummers shoving some guy away. I always assumed that was the incident that caused the penalty, but I never heard about the Stillwater incident.