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That would require a lot more mental exercize than I am prepared to do on a Sunday afternoon. But to get things started:

International Corps Associates (ICA) was founded by the late John Collum in the late 1970s or early 1980s following the demise of the Red Carpet Association. The organization was formed, like RCA, to provide a competitive forum for those corps which were unable to compete at the DCA level. Vince Bruni was president of the organization in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Among the competing corps that were members at various times were (in no particular order):

Guelph Royalaires

Empire Statesmen

Erie Excaliber

Steel City Ambassadors

Bushwackers

Capital Brass

C.M.C.C. Warriors

Archer-Epler Musketeers

Milton Keystoners

Ohio Brass Factory

Pinetree Warriors

Troy Defenders

Lampliters (Smiths Falls, ON)

Les Ambassadeurs

There were also probably a number of other corps which had also competed in the RCA circuit that, at some point, became members of and competed in, ICA.

Some of the contests were held in former DCA and RCA strongholds like Altoona, Butler, Midland, Williamsport, and Warren, Pennsylvania, and Guelph, Ontario. Other sites included Cape Vincent, NY, Towson, MD, and Quebec City, PQ.

The first championship contests were held in Erie, where RCA had traditionally held their title shows. Later championships sites included Albany, Medina (NY), and Rochester.

There was never, to my knowledge, any official or unofficial relationship with DCA. There were even times of friction between the DCA and ICA leadership, such as in 1985 when ICA proposed boycotting the DCA prelims. The proposed boycott resulted from what ICA perceived as unfair treatment and scoring of ICA corps by DCA and its judges at prior DCA championship events, and no appearance fees or sharing of revenues for/among the ICA corps from the championship. ICA believed that, without the participation of their corps in DCA prelims, DCA could not offer its fans a valid World Senior Championship preliminary contest. The boycott never took place (all but one ICA corps attended DCA prelims) and the Empire Statesmen achieved DCA membership for the first time (taking the spot vacated by Archer-Epler Musketeers, who dropped out of field competition following the 1984 season).

On rare occasions, a DCA corps such as the Sunrisers or Buccaneers would compete in an ICA-sponsored contest. These contests often flew in the face of the DCA rule (at the time, and perhaps even now) that "two DCA corps constituted a DCA contest".

ICA had some rather unique rules that included an "Entertainment Value" caption that was scored on a 6-point "must" system (6.0 for the top corps, 5.0 for 2nd, 4.0 for the 3rd, etc.) and allowed for an amplified electric bass guitar (often used by corps which did not have, or could not afford, contrabass bugles). For ICA Championships and contests of more than seven corps, the Entertainment caption broken down into half-poit increments (6.0 for 1st, 5.5 for 2nd, 5.0 for 3rd, 4.5 for 4th, etc.). The arithmatic emphasis of the scoring was on music and general effect, in opposition to systems in place elsewhere that more favored "M&M execution" and the difficulty and percussion captions.

Perhaps this will get you started. If more comes to mind, I will post it later.

Edited by K2SMA
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International Corps Associates (ICA) was founded by the late John Collum in the late 1970s or early 1980s following the demise of the Red Carpet Association. The organization was formed, like RCA, to provide a competitive forum for those corps which were unable to compete at the DCA level. Vince Bruni was president of the organization in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Among the competing corps that were members at various times were (in no particular order):

Guelph Royalaires

Empire Statesmen

Erie Excaliber

Steel City Ambassadors

Bushwackers

Capital Brass

C.M.C.C. Warriors

Archer-Epler Musketeers

Milton Keystoners

Ohio Brass Factory

Pinetree Warriors

Troy Defenders

Lampliters (Smiths Falls, ON)

Les Ambassadeurs

I know this,...................Erie THUNDERBIRDS won the ICA championship in 1981,..............

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I know this,...................Erie THUNDERBIRDS won the ICA championship in 1981,..............

Thanks Gary. I know there was some interegnum between the end of the T-birds and the time Excaliber came into being, but I was unsure whether T-birds had been in ICA or not. My exposure to, and participation in, ICA was limited to the years 1984 through 1990. I know Erie sure knows how to throw a party, no matter which corps was running it...!

Edited by K2SMA
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Westshore did some shows in the mid 80's

We were at the 1985 ICA Championships at Erie aka the Great Erie Monsoon fest.

Hmmm, did couple of other ICA shows in 1985 but not 1984 as we were rebuilding.

Did you check www.srcorps.com as think Ron has some shows listed under the 1980s area. Possible Yankee-Rebels (early 80s version) did some shows but can't remember.

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I was there in the Erie rainfest in '85 ES. CRU won that year. In '86 both ES and CRU were strictly DCA, I believe. Don't know how much longer ICA existed.

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That would require a lot more mental exercize than I am prepared to do on a Sunday afternoon. But to get things started:

International Corps Associates (ICA) was founded by the late John Collum in the late 1970s or early 1980s following the demise of the Red Carpet Association. The organization was formed, like RCA, to provide a competitive forum for those corps which were unable to compete at the DCA level. Vince Bruni was president of the organization in the mid-to-late 1980s.

...

Perhaps this will get you started. If more comes to mind, I will post it later.

Thanks Stephan! That's a pretty good start!

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That would require a lot more mental exercize than I am prepared to do on a Sunday afternoon. But to get things started:

International Corps Associates (ICA) was founded by the late John Collum in the late 1970s or early 1980s following the demise of the Red Carpet Association. The organization was formed, like RCA, to provide a competitive forum for those corps which were unable to compete at the DCA level. Vince Bruni was president of the organization in the mid-to-late 1980s.

....

Perhaps this will get you started. If more comes to mind, I will post it later.

Stephan, I have put together an initial article about ICA on DrumCorpsWIki based on your post. Let me know if you think it requires any more or any corrections.

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