1958 AL - CHICAGO, IL

Major Scores:
Prelims were held at Hanson Park Stadium, Chicago. Finals were held at Soldier Field.

Junior contest (no Finals - 30 corps competed). Winning junior corps performed in exhibition at the Senior Finals.

1. Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights 91.85
2. Holy Name Cadets 91.55
3. Cavbaliers 90.37
4. Belleville Black Knights 90.29
5. Audubon All Girl 89.43
6. Madison Scouts 88.9
7. Norwood Park Imperials 87.56
8. Paterson Cadets, NJ 87.44
9. St. Vincent’s Cadets 86.42
10. St. Catherine’s Queensmen NY 85.98
Note: Kilties were 11th, Skokie Vanguard was 16th, Royal Airs were 25th
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From David Borck:
This was a local show, so we just met at Hanson Park Stadium (at Fullerton and Central) for the contest. It was great seeing so many eastern junior corps … we didn’t see them often.

The Holy Name Cadets showed up wearing new, temporary uniforms (Bermuda shorts and polo shirts, with Aussie style hats!) Seems their church withdrew sponsorship due to financial problems are confiscated the corps uniforms and equipment. The Cadet members traveled to Chicago on their own, with some help from their Legion sponsor. They borrowed bugles from the Hawthorne Caballeros senior corps and used the Cavaliers drums! Talk about determination. They wanted to defend their National Title (won in 1957) .. and lost it by only THREE TENTHS to Blessed Sacrament! Bummer! (Both corps were really excellent though).

Going to the Senior Finals at Soldier Field was great. A great stadium for drum corps. The senior corps were amazing! Great music and field shows.
We’d see them again the next year at Minneapolis.
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From Rich Biver:

Another National contest comes to mind as well, and that was 58'American Legion Nationals right here in Chicago. It was held at Hanson Stadium which is still there, about 20 minutes or so from my house. From what I can remember, most of the top Corps were there from the East, junior and senior, as well from the Midwest, both junior and senior. That was one
contest we didn't have to get on a bus together and drive there. We were all told what time to be there and that was that.

The junior contest was held during the day at Hanson Stadium while the senior contest was held the next evening at Soldier Field. Blessed Sac who won the junior contest put on an exhibition at the senior show before the seniors went on.

The junior show was another contest where they posted the scores as they were tabulated on a very large board they had set up at the opposite end of field from where the starting line was. And this time I don't think Blessed Sac was too concerned about any Corps beating them, because they were on top of their game that year. I think that year they only
had a 27 man horn-line.

This contest was the one where Garfield lost their sponsorship with their church along with their uniforms and equipment. They wore white shorts and white tee shirts and borrowed horns and drums from the Caballeros (horns) and the Cavaliers (drums) to use in the contest that day.

The scores were a lot closer than people thought they would be that day, especially between Blessed Sac, Garfield and the Cavaliers. We round up 7th in finals, and again that wasn't bad considering there were 30 junior corps there. And no prelims either.
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What did you do in the Corps? percussion

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63