Jerry Davidson (welcome back - where have you been?) and others have mentioned the possibility of Blue Devils going undefeated this year. I'm not sure that's as tough to do as it once was, because it seems like it happens every few years now. But I wonder how many truly "undefeated" corps there have been. Both 1975 Madison and 1976 Blue Devils claim to be "undefeated", but they both lost a prelims show in those years (both to Santa Clara at Whitewater). Before that I think you go back to the 1961 Cavaliers, and before that I think St. Vincents actually went a couple of years straight undefeated.

Any thoughts? Should undefeated include only night shows and not prelims? What about those little winter contests that were around in the 50s?

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arrnager

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Bob, I'll have to check on that St. Vincent's thing. While they WERE very good, I have never heard of them being totally "undefeated" in any year.

As far as what counts ... IMHO, ANY field show counts. "A contest is a contest". Some people might include the indoor standstills too .. but there was no field drill, so it seems like a stretch.

Dave didn't we beat the Cavaliers at a standstill
contest in 61'or was it some other time?

What did you do in the Corps? French Horn

What years were you a Corps member? !957 thru 1963

Rich, yes .. it was the Lane Tech Standstill in the winter of 1961.

I was in the Cadets in 1961 and do remember attending the standstill at Lane Tech and the Imperials beating the Cavaliers.

Somehow that doesn't get mentioned in the history of their undefeated season. But of course standstills really were more like "spring training" in that they were opportunities for the corps to see how their music program was doing versus the other corps.

I also remember that Norwood hosted a standstill in 1965. We didn't compete in any standstills that year and used our event to debut our new music and sound. My recollection is that Cavaliers, Royal Airs and Vanguard were there. The Cavaliers won. Our exhibition was judged and we had a higher score than any of the other corps. We also played our entire repitore. So the staff felt pretty good about our show for the year.

I also recollect that the Royal Airs played "Don't Rain on My Parade" at that event. It was the only time I recollect them playing that song. I assumed they dropped it because of the difficulty as it wasn't in their 1965 field show.

I have NEVER heard that before now! Please - tell us more.

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arrnager

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Since Dave and Rich were in the 1961 corps they might be able to elaborate more on the standstill.

I remember it because the Cadets were in the standstill as well and I remember the Imperials winning. So the Cavaliers might have been undefeated on the field in 1962 but Norwood beat them in that standstill in spring of 1961. I don't expect that is mentioned in any of their website stuff or Don Warren's book, etc.

I also seem to recollect that the Royal Airs beat the Cavaliers in the same standstill in 1962. That was the first time they'd ever beaten the Cavaliers. Of course when the first show of the year occurred at Mount Prospect the Imperials win the show with the Royal Airs in second (the Cavaliers were back east competing in the preview of champions). The Royal Airs did finally beat the Cavaliers in 1962 at Spring Valley which was a bigger deal.