DCI The First Decade 1972-1981

DRUM CORPS

INTERNATIONAL THE FIRST DECADE • 1972-1981

Table of contents

■ Foreward.................................................................................................... 4 ■ Chapter 1 ................................................................................................... 5

The Pre-DCI Backdrop

■ Chapter 2 ................................................................................................. 13

Life Under the Veterans Organizations

■ Chapter 3 ................................................................................................. 21

High Noon in a Wisconsin Bathroom

■ Chapter 4 ................................................................................................. 28

1971 -- The Combine

■ Chapter 5 ................................................................................................. 36

“Where Does That Leave Us?”

■ Chapter 6 ................................................................................................. 47

1972 -- Destination Whitewater

■ Chapter 7 ................................................................................................. 54

1973 -- A Honeymoon of Sorts

■ Chapter 8 ................................................................................................. 65

1974 -- Growing Pains and the Era of Public Relations

■ Chapter 9 ................................................................................................. 76

1975 -- From Public Relations to Public Television

■ Chapter 10 ............................................................................................... 88

1976 -- “May We, Mr. Mangione?”

■ Chapter 11 ............................................................................................. 102

1977 -- Future Shock

■ Chapter 12 ............................................................................................. 117

1978 -- DCM, WGI and B-I-N-G-O

■ Chapter 13 ............................................................................................. 132

On the Other Side of the Clipboard: The Transformation of DCI Judging

■ Chapter 14 ............................................................................................. 150

1979 -- The Opening of the South

■ Chapter 15 ............................................................................................. 169

1980 -- The Height of How They Used to Do It

■ Chapter 16 ............................................................................................. 195

1981 -- Ask Not What DCI Can Do for You, But What You Can Do for DCI

The Pre-DCI Backdrop One of drum and bugle corps’ lone consistencies, the relentless August sun, bakes the aluminum bleachers of a college football stadium in rural Wisconsin.

The fate of an infant organization, Drum Corps International (DCI), intended to rescue the youth activity from the perceived stranglehold of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, rests largely on the stadium’s scorching hot bleachers being filled with drum corps enthusiasts.

Heat and humidity aside, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus, with its pastoral expanses, its intimate amphitheater stadium, and its community feel, is a perfectly idyllic locale for the inaugural DCI Championship to put drum and bugle corps’ future, once and for all, in the hands of its participants.

That is, if it ever gets going.

David Kampschroer, a native Wisconsinite, believed the moment Whitewater became available that it held potential well beyond an area businessman’s humble suggestion that it might be an ideal setting for a local drum corps show. A few months later, while visiting Whitewater in the endless expanse of February snow, Hugh Mahon, a New Jerseyan, developed just the opposite impression.

Kampschroer stood knee-high in snow, excited with possibility. Mahon sunk, pessimistically.

Since that February 1972 morning, Kampschroer and Mahon have spent countless hours fostering this new organizational body while simultaneously fathering something inherently closer to them, a drum and bugle corps.

David Kampschroer has been selected by a small group of his peers to be DCI’s Western Coordinator. He simultaneously directs the First Federal Blue Stars, one of the 13 corps responsible for forming it.

Hugh Mahon, also selected by his peers, serves as DCI’s Eastern Director, in addition to directing the Garfield David Kampschroer. (Dick Deihl) Cadets from New Jersey.

Both Kampschroer and Mahon are painstakingly aware that time spent on one effort translates to neglect of the other.

Thus, standing next to each other, just hours before the first DCI Championship is scheduled to take place, they face a duel anxiety. And the damn sun isn’t helping.

Ordinarily, such a delay would give Kampschroer and Mahon time for a few deep breaths and to make the last-minute adjustments necessary to ensure their marchers and staffs are primed and ready.

But there is too much at stake.

Why isn’t anyone arriving?

Miles down the Wisconsin countryside, on the only two-lane highways connecting Hugh Mahon. (Dan Scafidi) Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago to Whitewater’s Warhawk Stadium, cars are packed at a standstill. By dusk, the bleachers will be full, however, and it will appear that the lack of highway infrastructure is the only thing that Kampschroer has overlooked in his efforts to provide the perfect setting for DCI’s first championship.

That, and drum corps’ other uncontrollable consistent, rain, which will have emptied the stadium before the final results can be made known.

Kampschroer and Mahon’s corps will find out, while soaking wet, that their corps occupy the two most excruciating positions in all of drum corps -second and thirteenth, respectively.

Neither Kampschroer nor Mahon, nor the thousands of drum corps fans and enthusiasts who questioned the ambitions of this new organization, and even accused it of inside dealings, would ever have believed that these two corps would finish in those unenviable places. But since they do, Drum Corps International is ensured its success. ______________________________________________________ Drum and bugle corps is ironic. Either that, or the muses of evolution within the activity have remained every bit as undecided as its participants and enthusiasts as to whether drum corps belongs to military or art, sport or marching band, technology or tradition, community or the world spotlight.

While social dynamics, wartime drafts, economic conditions, and political motivations have affected every recreational activity in 20th and 21st century

America, rarely has the very essence of an activity been argued over like it has with drum and bugle corps.

Baseball, despite its historical controversies of fixed games, corked bats and performance-enhancing drugs, will almost assuredly remain America’s national pastime. Football, with its proclivity for danger and its ability to induce weekend-long escapism, will continue to capture the country’s imagination. Broadway and theater will similarly endure, as they have through 9/11, as chances to see the big city and to dream as big as it.

Drum and bugle corps, conversely, has evolved so far -- from military function to patriotic pageantry, through an era of church and veteran organization sponsorship, out of community-minded ideals, beyond marching band, back toward marching band and into the merged world of international sport and performance art -- that its future seems permanently uncertain.

With so many twists and turns, traditions and transitions, drum corps’ history has sometimes been equally as amorphous. Most of the tangible evolution and change in drum and bugle corps has been a direct result of the participants’ simple but powerful desire to compete.

Drum corps competition has proven time and again to hurl even the most pious of men along a path of frenzy, political maneuvering, and self-retreat.

For drum corps competitors, neither spectator applause nor personal growth are entirely satisfactory results. As long as drum corps performers, instructors and directors maintain their desire to compete, the activity will always be reliant on a tangible result.

The problem with such a result, however, is that the nature of arriving at a drum corps score has become increasingly more subjective than mainstream sports, where a great majority of rulings and results are clearly defined. If a football passes through the uprights, regardless its aesthetic, a team earns three points. On the other hand, a well-executed drum corps drill, a beautifully choreographed dance sequence and a successful apparatus toss do not net a specific number of points.

In addition to the subjectivity of its scores, drum corps’ adjudicators have historically operated closer to the action and have been more influential to the final result than have officials, umpires and judges of other competitive activities. Therefore, as drum corps has continued its evolution toward an abstract art, its scoring system has continued to move in that direction as well. Drum corps adjudication has not only become an art unto itself, but its objectivity and exactitude will likely continue to remain unattainable as well.

To further complicate the matter, throughout the early developmental history of drum corps, judges simultaneously served as the activity’s instructors, clouding the fine line between evaluation and promotion.

The desire to participate and remain involved, regardless the fashion, has always been part of the legacy and allure of drum corps. Few have ever entirely or permanently left drum corps. That is why the drum corps fraternity will likely always harbor an active nostalgia, and also why senior and alumni corps have become so popular.

Thus, while some have strived to push the activity beyond its pre-conceived artistic and musical boundaries, others have simultaneously struggled with equal verve to return it to where it has been. Somewhere in the middle, a generation set out to create its own drum corps history, and succeeded in doing so - Drum Corps International.

DCI’s creation can therefore be attributed to drum corps participants’ desire to gain control of their activity, an activity that outsiders, to the longstanding chagrin of its enthusiasts, have perpetually categorized as marching band. While that comparison pained virtually every drum corps soul in the 1960s and 70s, the passing of time has made the two activities’ affinity a tremendous source of pride for some of the very same individuals.

Only the future will tell whether or not drum corps and marching band will merge entirely, and prove just how ironic drum corps and DCI’s history has been. ______________________________________________________ When the GI Bill of Rights was enacted in 1946, veterans of World War II were suddenly afforded opportunities to improve their lives in ways they might never have imagined. Upon returning from service, veterans secured homes, pursued higher education, began families and sought recreational and diversionary pursuits.

Whether they had been previously exposed to musical instruments while in high school or during their time in the military, or now for the first time in college or as a member of the VFW or American Legion, drums, horns and flags became perfect tools to maintain camaraderie with their fellow veterans.

Those instruments simultaneously served as a means of paying homage to the veterans of World War I. As the veterans became fathers they passed drum and bugle corps’ virtues onto their children, or more specifically, to those who had yet to develop their views of the world. Those ten- and 12-year-olds, no matter what their parents engendered in them, hadn’t participated in war and therefore didn’t harbor the same military patriotism as their veteran fathers and uncles.

A horn was simply fun to blow. Drums were fun to beat. And bus trips?

To Miami, FL? For a chance to compete for the national drum and bugle

“Combine . . . Shmombine!” which clearly intended to suggest the drum corps public had overreacted to recent developments: The birth of the now infamous term [Combine] came from unnamed sources in the Midwest and was blown out of all proportion by the same sources . . .

The Western Combine came about in the fall of 1970. The major Western and Midwestern corps simply got together on their plans to make an Eastern tour in July. Because of the length of time these corps must be on the road in the summer, it was decided, and very wisely, to make the Eastern swing earlier because the two veteransbacked shows were in Texas in August and 10 days apart from one another.

It doesn’t take anyone long to know that drum corps is a very expensive hobby and that each year the expenses go higher. It goes without saying that many of the top 20 corps in the U.S. and Canada need enough show bookings on any tour just to survive. The tongue-waggers are quick to say that the corps will price themselves right out of competition and that sponsors will not foot the bill to higher prize money.

Well, I’ve got news for you wagerers. The prize money has steadily risen and you’ll find many of the top shows do pay the expected rise in prizes. Without good corps, you won’t get good attendance; without the prize monies, you won’t get the good corps.

We at DCN, and particularly as a major sponsor, can see no wrong in the combining of the corps toward the end result that everyone profits by such an act and again, may I stress -- the corps, the audiences and the sponsor. 21

both regular competition and corps attendance.

In the weeks leading up to the 1971 season, the Combine’s alleged selfishness fueled a steady outpouring of disgust, anxiety and outrage throughout the activity. Letters to the editor asking where the Combine corps got the right to act the way they did littered drum corps newspapers.

The drum corps public insisted that the little corps were doomed, contest sponsors were being cheated, and that drum and bugle corps was no longer about the youth, but instead politics, driven by the new, “Combinite” party.

The disquietude extended beyond contest sponsors to the various drum corps circuits and associations who braced for the worst, as rumors of boycotts pervaded the forthcoming contest season. Judges became unsure of their assignments or whether they would still be part of the competitions that they had been judging for years.

The overall drum corps climate was perhaps best personified in satirical cartoons, the most infamous of which graced the back cover of Drum Corps Digest in May 1971. The “Combine Cartoon,” reminiscent of the pastoral advertisements that helped make Olds Bugles a leading brass instrument distributor, clearly depicted the disillusionment many felt toward the Combine. Don Warren’s cigar and Jim Jones’ cowboy hat reflected the larger-than-life stature of the two everybody knew were responsible. ________________________________________________________ As a result of drum corps’ heavy Combine scrutiny, the UOJC also began receiving criticism for its initiatives. An anonymous Drum Corps News letter to the editor captured the growing concern in the East: It is deeply disturbing to hear rumors that some Eastern corps intend to isolate themselves from others by pushing for package deals involving a certain group of corps that must be engaged in any contests regardless of the sponsors. An attitude of this type is a deterrent to promoting goodwill among corps.

The UOJC and Combine possessed a very important supporter, however.

Drum Corps News’ editor Dick Blake produced a sweeping editorial in the early summer of 1971 attempting to quell the mounting letters of opposition toward the Combine, many of which were surfacing in his paper.

Blake’s placation began immediately in the title of his editorial,

As Blake suggested, real-life contest sponsors would not need to be quite as confrontational as certain cartoons suggested. In fact, the relative infancy of many Midwest shows compared to those long-established contests in the East suited the Combine well.

Midwest contest sponsors were far more tractable in meeting demands. The success of their shows were much more dependent on the contest lineup. Few contests had spanned enough time to develop their own reputations.

Furthermore, the new string of competitions in the West -preparatory measures Jones had undertaken prior to the formation of the Combine -- were either run by the Troopers, their supporters or by those interested in becoming so.

Challenging the immense popularity of Jones and Warren would not be as easy or popular as the cartoon depicted.

The 1971 Contest Season By virtue of the Combine and UOJC’s formation, the 1971 season offered both more consistent regional competition and twice as many opportunities for corps to measure themselves nationally prior to VFW (in Dallas, TX) and American Legion (in Houston, TX) events. All 10 Combine and UOJC corps accepted invitations to the World Open and, as Blake had indicated, they asked that the traditional August date be moved to July to accommodate the corps’ tours.

The Blake-Samora duo not only complied with the request but also advertised their largest prize structure ever. If the activity’s largest private contest sponsors were willing to make such concessions for their show, it was logical that the smaller, less influential contest sponsors would follow suit.

By the start of the season, eight sanctioned Combine shows had booked, where at least three of the five member corps were scheduled to compete.

The UOJC slated seven official contests, with additional competitive exposure and judging feedback generated by the host corps now competing rather than simply performing in exhibition.

The national level competition began early at the newly created Western contest series, “Drums Along the Rockies.” The Madison Scouts, Santa Clara Vanguard and Troopers tangled with Argonne Rebels and the Sky Ryders at competitions in Cheyenne and Casper, WY, and Denver, CO. Santa Clara’s hat trick in front of Trooper-heavy crowds immediately propelled the Vanguard to early-season favorite status.

In the Midwest, the Cavaliers swept through regional competition, gathering eight victories in a row, including another near 10-point margin at the Illinois VFW State Convention. For the time being, Midwest judges did not have much to measure the Cavaliers’ show against. Consequently, they leaned in the direction of the awe-inspired side of the faction of the corps’ circus-themed show.

The Blue Stars, despite gaining full-fledged respect and praise from spectators and drum corps writers alike, weren’t able to position themselves 21

Dick Blake, “Combine . . . Schmombine!” Drum Corps News, June 12, 1971.

On The Other Side of The Clipboard: The Transformation of DCI Judging “In Angelica We Trust, Sort of” While judging had always ranked at the top of debate-worthy issues in drum corps, up until the mid-1970s there had never been a singular person synonymous with judging and, therefore, potentially directive of its course.

Once Donald Angelica became judging coordinator for DCI -- then also Drum Corps East and Winter Guard International while still retaining his influence in many other individual judging associations along the East Coast, it was alleged that one person was steering drum corps judging in a particular direction.

By 1979, Donald Angelica had become, in the opinion of many, drum corps’ most influential and most polarizing figure.

Angelica’s multiple positions of influence led some to assert that he was also capable of, and did, guide drum corps as a whole along the creative path he viewed most appropriate. Others suggested that this was not (DCI archives) within the bounds of his role as DCI Judging Coordinator, and that adjudicators should refrain from influencing the direction of the activity regardless of capability.

Judging had taken a bumpy evolutionary path long before Angelica entered the picture. The first significant shakeup came when the Central States Judging Association (CSJA) reconsidered what drum corps judging should be. Rather than simply provide a ranking of the corps, CSJA’s goal became to improve, including instructing if necessary, the drum corps it adjudicated. While that philosophy went almost universally unchallenged in the tick era of supposed outright objectivity, it persisted through the mid-1970s when drum corps was moving speedily toward greater musicality, artistry and individual expression.

Jay Kennedy (eventual DCI Hall of Fame judge and DCI Judging Coordinator) was initiated into the activity during this period in which more subjective evaluative systems were emerging and the tick approach, by extension, was also becoming viewed as increasingly subjective. Despite the subjective nature of newly implemented captions like Musical Analysis, CSJA’s pragmatic philosophy toward judging held fast, this included the association’s long tradition of fostering its member judges as teachers.

Kennedy’s judge training from his DCI mentors included a new and additional emphasis on being a teacher to the corps as well as ways to use cassette tape Jay Kennedy (DCI archives) commentary and critique discussion to help corps improve their achievement. This judge-as-teacher role was increasingly considered by many, DCI directors especially, as a conflict or contradiction and tended to intensify the objectivity vs. subjectivity debate. Kennedy reminded, “Despite judges’ attempts to remain objective and consistent, there were inevitably suspicions favoritism.” 405 The question DCI corps directors would finally raise in 1978 was whether 405

Jay Kennedy, phone and internet interviews, July 2009.

406

Brian Tolzmann, “2007 junior drum corps census shows numbers keep declining,” DCW.com.

407

Wayne Downey, phone interview, March 2009.

408

Jim Elvord, phone interview, March 2009.

409

Lloyd Pesola, phone interview, May 2009.

410

Don Pesceone, phone interview, February 2009.

411

Ralph Pace, phone interview, March 2009

judging had gone from operating as a support system that provided drum corps with the most level playing field possible, to instead promoting, championing and even rewarding certain creative directions. Angelica, who seemed convinced that this new direction in judging was for the good of drum corps, was there to fan the flames of the debate. _______________________________________________________ As a whole, the late 1970s marked a key period in drum corps’ new attempt at re-regionalization. While the activity had advanced musically, adopted new instrumentation and incorporated new forms of artistry, the number of corps able to afford that new expression of drum corps was shrinking. The activity had lost over a fourth of its active junior drum corps during the span of the 1977 and 1978 seasons 406 and the hope became that greater regional strength and organization would stimulate more local contests, 407 reduce the amount of travel and keep smaller drum corps viable.

Attempts to save money, such as requiring fewer judges to be flown to their competitions, for example, were not without political consequences. A localization of the activity’s “first season” meant a potential renaissance of one of drum corps’ unwritten rules -- that judges “took care” of the corps from their area.

Judges did not intend to simply favor their local corps in terms of scoring or competitive results. More importantly, as DCI Hall of Fame brass instructor and judge Jim Elvord suggested, judges took liberty to be more critical of the corps in their area, resulting not only in a greater adjudication, but also an instructional, investment. 408 Nobody could dispute that as DCI’s Jim Elvord (Bob Scholl) Judging Coordinator, Donald Angelica had more interaction with DCI directors than he did with non-member corps directors. By the same logic, as judging coordinator for Drum Corps East and Winter Guard International, Angelica was required to invest more time in and have more frequent communication with the instructors, managers and judges associated with those organizations. Here was where, for many, Angelica’s polarizing influence began.

Angelica’s influence did not stop there, however. He possessed a profound ability to place himself and others in positions and with drum corps where he could all but guarantee their success. In many instances, as DCI judge Lloyd Pesola suggested, Angelica could see an individual’s potential before he or she did. 409 Angelica’s longest running DCI colleague, Don Pesceone, credited him similarly: “Donald was like a cousin. He was always available to help. He loved to discover, promote, lobby for and Lloyd Pesola (Photo by Dick Deihl)) showcase talent. And he was quite good at seeing potential.” 410 Angelica’s posturing included headhunting for instructors for the biggest name corps in the activity, including, Gary Czapinski to the Santa Clara Vanguard, Ralph Pace to the 27th Lancers, 411 Bobby Hoffman to a number of DCI member corps, and later, during his DCI Judging Coordinator tenure, George Hopkins and Michael Don Pesceone (Photo by Cesario to Rich Bircher) the Garfield Cadets. 412 Czapinski recalled one afternoon in Gary Czapinski (Photo by Bob 1969 receiving a phone call from Angelica telling him he was being mailed a plane Scholl)

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back By the spring of 1980, it appeared that some potential public relations remedies -- time and cooperation -- were on DCI’s horizon.

In the midst of Kampschroer and Pesceone’s admission that DCI’s public relations needed attention, the organization announced the hiring of an associate director of public relations, Donna J. Ashe, in January 1980. 1085 Later that fall, the DCI Management Seminar produced its documented gracious welcome to the activity. The DCI directors and staff had worked as diligently as ever to produce quality presentations for the activity and this time the content catered directly to the health of the activity and its “smaller” participants.

Don Whiteley’s 30-second promotional videotape provided contest sponsors the ability to add voiceover details about their individual shows.

Drum Corps World’s Christopher Bragg referenced the videotape and DCI’s effectiveness: “Contest directors should know DCI has the tools . . . to help in making your show a success. Don Whiteley awaits your call to Villa Park, IL. The 30-second video can make the difference. It did last year for the Malden, MA, show.” 1086 In addition to Whiteley’s promotional spot, he headed up a panel that covered topics like, “Under $3,000 a Year Budget Shows” and “Things a First-Year Sponsor Should Know from a 1979 First-Year Sponsor.”

Bob Lendman and Scott Stewart explored several areas of drum corps management, including establishing corps support groups and ways to select corps staffs, and the Blue Stars’ Emile Latour grounded drum corps in its earliest ideals with a presentation titled “The Management of Drum Corps as a Youth Activity.” 1087 The 1980 management seminar, however, turned out to be the last major direct contribution Don Whiteley would make to DCI. Long-time Public Relations Director Don Whiteley has resigned his position effective May 27, 1981.

Don Whiteley has done a great deal for drum corps since it found him late in the 1960s, working with KBTV in Denver. Through his efforts, drum corps audiences are greater and the people around the world know about the North American movement. All of us are thankful to him for his dedication and efforts, and wish him well. 1088

references in George and Patsy Bonfiglio. Pesceone hired Walsh that summer and he began his appointment as DCI’s new PR Director on August 3, 1981. 1090 During the course of Whiteley’s tenure, his role -- or at least his title on paper -- appeared to have shifted toward the public relations side. Upon his official hire in 1975, DCI deemed him Publicity and Public Relations Director.

Upon the announcement of his resignation, he had been referred to solely as DCI’s Public Relations Director.

Whether the omission of public relations from Whiteley’s title was accidental or an indicator of how his role was to have changed in terms of the DCI office operations, the effect was non-existent. The directors’ goal for Whiteley remained unequivocally, from beginning to end, to promote the activity. That was exactly what he had done.

The change in Whiteley’s title nevertheless appeared to make room for DCI to appoint a new person, Chris Allen, as Publicity and Promotions Manager in January 1981.

As publicity and promotions manager of DCI, Allen will be responsible for writing news releases on the member corps, helping to conduct promotions seminars, writing articles for the DCI publication, Contest Guild, putting together press packets on each corps and working on local, regional and championship contests. 1091

Allen’s job description sounded like a carbon copy of Chris Allen.

Don Whiteley’s.

(Unknown) That certainly didn’t mean the job was all roses. Allen assumed the unenviable task of producing two of the more unpleasant DCI press releases of the time: announcing the cancellation of the DCI PBS telecast and another announcing a concept change to DCI Rules Congress participation. _________________________________________________________ At the spring 1980 board of directors meeting, Jim O’Brien proposed that the DCI Task Force meeting that April be expanded to include the key instructors in the three major captions (M&M, brass and percussion) from all 25 or 26 DCI member corps. Jerry Seawright seconded O’Brien’s motion and the directors passed the proposal with an 8 to 4 vote.

Though the expanded approach worked against Angelica’s initial reaction to the unwieldiness of a larger task force, the concept gained traction. An invitation to 78 instructors, as opposed to a small handful, opened up discussions to a far greater representation.

Ironically, the directors’ support of the 78-person group led to a decrease in overall drum corps representation; either that, or it spoke to a change in the condition of the activity. Bill Howard recommended that DCI change the parameters of its rules congress so that all proposals come from the 75 to 78 member-corps instructors, working in concert with DCI’s sanctioned judges.

The 25 or 26 DCI member directors would then vote on their proposals. 1092 DCI’s Publicity and Promotion Manager, Chris Allen, described the changes in a DCI press release:

Don Whiteley’s resignation had contained a Don Whiteley. degree of inevitability. The DCI directors were well aware of Whiteley’s reluctance to move to the DCI office in Lombard, IL, from Denver before voting to relocate him. Once there, Whiteley’s longtime assistant, Doris Wentland, confirmed Whiteley and Pesceone’s oil-and-water personalities. 1089 And yet, Whiteley’s resignation also provided an example of how the directors, preoccupied with their drum corps, were often in a poor position to Beginning this year, rule-making will become a distinct, manage beyond their corps. In the spring of 1981, two-step process, providing time for a review of the proposals and this included failing to follow up on the reasons for for thorough discussion before action is taken. Instead of a resignation of arguably their most important one-weekend congress in which everything from proposing changes employee. to voting on them is done at once, the process will be divided into Time was a major culprit once again. News of caucuses which will propose the changes. The actual congress will Whiteley’s resignation broke in May, less than a then vote on the proposals. month before the After this year, rules congresses will be held every other year, as 1981 season was Lee Carlson and Doris Wentland working in the past, but the caucuses will be held in the off-year. to begin, The activity’s competitive requirements and procedures have sandwiched on a slide presentation for a DCI banquet become extremely sophisticated and proposals made to the between the in Chicago. (Unknown) congress should have time for study, testing and interpretation bi-annual board before being submitted for vote and implementation. 1093 meetings earlier that winter and weeks before the DCI directors would convene at a 1085 DCI press release, Drum Corps World, January 1980. regional competition. Thus, none of the directors appeared to consult with either 1086 Christopher Bragg, Drum Corps World, January 14, 1981.

Pesceone or Whiteley on the decision, 1087 DCI press release, Drum Corps World, November 1980, pg. 1. ascertain if things could have been worked 1088 James Walsh. (Photo by Ed out or considered if the decision wasn’t even Chris Allen, DCI press release, Drum Corps News, June 10, 1981.

Whiteley’s at all. Pesceone and the directors Ferguson) 1089 Phone interview with Doris Wentland, October 2009. simply accepted Whiteley’s resignation and life went on.

1090 Internet interview with James Walsh, November 2009.

In the meantime, Don Pesceone had begun searching for Whiteley’s 1091 DCI press release, Drum Corps News, June 10, 1981. successor. In the mid and late spring of 1981, James Walsh had first interviewed by phone and then in person for DCI’s Public Relations Director 1092 February 1981 DCI Board of Directors meeting minutes. position. A year earlier, Walsh had successfully spearheaded the 27th Lancers’ 1093 Winter Olympics promotional efforts and thus had generated important Chris Allen, DCI press release, Drum Corps News, April 15, 1981.