THE 1974 SEASON: ANOTHER MIRACLE (from The 74 Historian)

 

The "Miracle Of 1972" has become Drum Corps legend; part of DCI folklore, and rightfully so. What seems to be lesser known is the "Struggle Of 1974". Based on research, conversations with marching members and a sketchy journal I tried to keep, here is a brief summary of that long summer.

 

·        Monday, June 17- "Hell Week" begins. After 2 months of Monday evening, Wednesday evening and weekend 10-to-10 rehearsals, the grindstone started. We had just received the concert music, we were still learning the re-entry drill, the Berlioz production was the most complex book we had ever attempted , Bobby Hoffman's innovative new arc and circle drill design was challenging to put it mildly, the flags hadn't been delivered yet, we didn't even have the chimes for March To The Gallows! At 47 horns, we were going to be one of the smallest lines out there, going against Madison 's 64 and Santa Clara 's 54. Add 23 percussion, 10 rifles, 20 flags, 2 Nationals, 2 DM and 1 CGC for a total corps size of 105, which was small by 1974 standards.

·        Saturday, June 22 – Kelly Field: After performing an exhibition at the Kingsmen Cadet show, we boarded the Scenicruisers for Casper , WY .  We arrived in Casper late Sunday night, our home for the next four days of 14-16 hour rehearsal schedules. Let the season begin!

·        Thursday, June 27^_ Casper, WY: Our year began rather inauspiciously; right before the Tubular Bells drum solo, the glock player collided with a horn player and wound up starting on the wrong foot. The result was half the corps out of step all the way through the drum solo. That mess and the horns somehow finishing the show 2 counts ahead of the drumline resulted in a 67.45 and 3.65 points behind the Troopers.

·        Saturday, June 29- Denver , CO : No disasters, but a dismal 69.50 and 1.35 behind the Troopers. The judges hated the macabre feel of the Symphonie Fantastique production number and to make matters worse, we were all losing in horns to some upstart Bay-Area look-alike called the Blue Devils.

·        Sunday, June 30- Glenwood Springs, CO: This was a daytime exhibition show with a full corps retreat and, because the poor buses kept dying as they tried to negotiate the Rockies , we wound up missing lunch and going directly into the uniforms and onto the field upon our arrival.

·        Tuesday, July 2- Boise . ID. DCI West: Our first shot at Santa Clara . The staff decided to cut the soprano solo and "Gallows Thump" before the drum solo, but we wound up with a season-low 65.80 which put us 5.85 behind SC and 7.30 behind the Troopers. We were still learning the show and concentrating so hard on execution that we were failing to perform, and our GE scores were reflecting it. Morale was getting low, tempers were starting to flare and the veterans, fearing a repeat of 1973, were getting depressed.

·        Friday, July 5- Santa Clara , CA : The equipment truck died in Vacaville , so the small equipment got transferred to the buses and the big equipment went into a hastily rented U-Haul. All, that is, except for Mike McCool's pants. McCool is a pretty good size guy and one of only 3 mellophone players, making his performing that night critical. The uniform staff had a brilliant solution: using 3 black uniform bags and a stapler, they made a pair of "15 Minute Pants", so named because that's the total time they were expected to stay together.  We could only muster a 70.40 which again put us behind SC and the Troopers, those Blue Devils were only 2.2 points behind us, but at least we were out of the 60's.

·        Saturday, July 6- Long Beach , CA : A long, tense ride home, with some people not on speaking terms. We had only been out for two weeks, but it felt like months. We got back to Anaheim in the early afternoon which gave us a few hours to go home before the Festival Of Music, which was our Host Show. The hometown crowd got to see us receive a humiliating 69.10, losing again to SC and the Troopers. Back into the 60's we go, and that Blue Devil outfit won high horns.

·        Sunday, July 7- Van Nuys , CA : A SoCal circuit show without DCI judging. We were well fed, well rested, really didn't worry about executing that night and put on what was probably our first PERFORMANCE of the year. An 82.50 was nice, but not a realistic DCI-type score.

·        Monday, July 8- Anaheim , CA : Another circuit show with the Kingsmen and the Troopers opting to perform in exhibition. No point in beating a dead horse.

·        Tuesday, July 9-The Overhaul Begins: Huge changes were implemented. A tone cluster was inserted before the drum solo, 8 counts were deleted from the end of production, 16 counts removed from concert and 26 counts of marching added, the Will I Ever Find A Love exit intro was shelved and replaced with a silent 8-count, all of which required drill re-writes. All this while we were trying to clean the existing show, and 2 horn players wound up quitting, leaving us only 45 strong.

·        Saturday, July 13- Los Angeles , CA : Another non-DCI show, but it gave us an opportunity to try the changes and the resulting 83.20 confirmed that the Van Nuys score wasn't very indicative. In what seemed to be a Kingsmen tradition, Rocco got into an altercation with the Corps Director that night. It was never clear if he actually had the authority, but Don Wells wound up firing Rocco.

·        Sunday, July 14-Don addressed the entire corps. I don't remember his whole speech, but he admitted that he blew it and apologized. That incident somehow rallied us; we went to the VK show in Buena Park and posted a 78.50. Not bad for biased judging, and closer to a realistic score.

·        Saturday, July 20, Needles, CA: We quietly departed for second tour on Friday evening but in the wee small hours the drum bus stopped responding to input from the steering wheel. We wound up rehearsing in downtown Needles while another bus was requisitioned from Anaheim .

·        Sunday, July 21- Gallup , NM : Another rehearsal stop, this one was memorable because a late-afternoon thunderstorm erupted while we were playing Firebird Suite.

·        Tuesday, July 23- Great Bend , KS : We were pitted against the Troopers again, and lost 80.85 to 77.45. There was clearly some regional bias and we were 8 points up from the last DCI-judged show, but the Troopers were becoming a pain. We still hadn't met Madison , Hawthorne or the Kilts; hadn't yet beaten Santa Clara and we still couldn't get past that Cowboy Corps.

·        Wednesday, July 24- Salina , KS : A weird little regional show hosted by the Silver Sabres with no other real DCI contenders present. A 78.95 showed that we were headed in the right direction.

·        Friday, July 26- Milwaukee , WI : Our last contest before DCI Midwest, and we lost to the Troopers again, 80.50 to 80.60, but at least we beat the Kilts and cracked the 80s. What really made it infuriating was theTroopers were originally announced in second place, but the announcer then said: "We have a tabulation error….." and you could see the entire corps sag. The staff kept reminding us that the Troopers were starting to peak and that we were gaining entire points as we got cleaner.

·        Saturday, July 27- Whitewater , WI DCI Midwest : The first meeting of the big 5 and our first morale boost. Our finals performance suffered a little after Wayne Harris slipped on the grass and fell coming into concert (He DID NOT pass out, Jane Boulen!) but little matter; we finally beat those Troopers  80.45 to 79.00 and were only .1 behind the Kilts. We had finally cleared a hurdle.

·        Sunday, July 28- Racine , WI : I can't find any scores recorded anywhere for this show. All I remember is the order of finish: Madison , Santa Clara , Kingsmen, Cavaliers, Blue Notes.

·        Wednesday, July 31- Belleville , IL : With the Troopers and the Kilts out of the way, we set our sights on bigger game. Santa Clara was clearly our next obstacle as they beat us for the sixth time, 83.55 to 81.45.

·        Saturday, August 3- Cincinatti , OH : Again, no scores are available. SC beat us for the seventh time, Madison was waiting for us in Toledo and we still hadn't met the Muchachos.

·        Sunday, August 4- Toledo , OH , Key To The Sea: We upset Madison , 85.55 to 84.70 for our first championship of the season, winning drums and taking high M&M with an incredible 19.90. And, naturally, we didn't get to stand retreat as threatening weather resulted in a Drum Major only award presentation. How we would have loved to see Madison march past us off the field!

·        Monday, August 5- Altoona , PA : Our next chance to catch the Vanguard. After the Toledo victory, we were psyched up and that most likely was our un-doing as sides 1 and 2 immediately developed a phasing problem so severe that one of the horn judges initially took it for antiphonal. Gary Kean finally got it under control by directing Fred to pound out a straight beat on the large bass drum. No recorded scores here either, but we lost it to SC again.

·        Wednesday, August 7- Butler , PA , The American International:  Our last shot at the Vanguard before DCI, and one of our lowest horn scores of the season. Our ninth loss to SC, 88.25 to 87.15. Still, we had gained 20 points in one month and were still cleaning!

·        Saturday, August 10- Lowell , MA , World Open: The biggest thrill yet, our second championship of the year. Beat the Muchachos and the Kilts with an 85.50, but again, didn't get to stand retreat! Errant sprinkler timers on the field made it necessary to make it Drum Major and National Squad only.

·        Sunday, August 11- Revere, MA:  A mid-day show in blazing-hot weather with a line up that included heavy hitters like the Phantom Regiment, CMCC Warriors and the Audubon Bon-Bons. No offense to the good people of Revere , but this contest was promptly dubbed "Drums In The Slums". I'm not familiar with Della Russo, but I can't imagine that Della would really want to be the namesake for this stadium. No shade anywhere, the only grass on that field was in the end zones, the stands were splintered wood and a dust cloud seemed to hover over the entire area. We weren't even listed in the program book, but we won with an 84.45. Management used the prize money to take the entire t-shirt and cut-offs clad corps to a steak house for dinner. Heaven!

·        Tuesday, August 13- Boston , MA , CYO: An off-night because, for some long-forgotten reason, we had to take the field on empty stomachs, which definitely affected our concentration. We won the drum caption but dropped a point in M&M. Madison, who had lost this show the previous year to the Blue Stars, wasn't about to let us slip by them again. We lost it 85.85 to 84.50.

·        Friday, August 16, Ithaca, NY, DCI Prelims: It took ten tries, but we finally got past Santa Clara, 86.85 to 86.60, placing second behind Madison. The best way to describe our mood was guarded optimism, as we knew that both SC and the Scouts could step it up on Saturday night.

·        Saturday, August 17, Ithaca , NY , DCI Finals: The staff let us sleep a little later than usual and then our rehearsal attempt got rained out. The veterans were ecstatic; pointing out that rain had always been a good omen. We called it a day and departed for the Holiday Inn in nearby Cortland . In one of those ironic twists, we found the other corps staying there was: The Troopers. It wasn't meant to be our night. The drumline took second at only .2 behind Santa Clara but a phasing problem during the last 8 counts of Mambo was probably the deciding factor as we wound up a mere .4 behind Madison and .95 behind Santa Clara. That 1.35 point spread still stands as the third closest in DCI Finals under the tic system, we had gained over 21 points in 2 months against overwhelming odds and re-established ourselves as title contenders. Sadly, we had no way of knowing that an era had ended that night: the Kingsmen would never again stand retreat at DCI.

·        Sunday, August 18, Syracuse , NY : The wildest contest I've ever seen. The top five DCI finalists in a daytime show held on a baseball field, complete with a pitcher's mound. Madison was still stung from the night before and seemed to be the only corps interested in winning. We came in forth with an 84.75; behind SC but ahead of those Troublesome Troopers.

·        EPILOUGE: The imports left for home, the Drum Bus Curse continued as the replacement gave up the ghost in Mansfield , OH and our 2 remaining buses pulled into some VFW hall in Anaheim late at night. The last hurrah of the 1974 Kingsmen was anticlimactic; a halftime performance at a US-USSR basketball game on September 3^rd and an exhibition show at the Golden Statesmen contest in San Diego on September 7^th officially ended the season.