Boston Crusaders

https://bostoncrusaders.org

The Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps is a junior drum corps located in Boston, Massachusetts and currently holds 3 CYO Championship titles.

The Boston Crusaders is one of the charter corps of Drum Corps International

## Corps History

Founded in 1940 as the Most Precious Blood Crusaders as a youth activity of the Most Precious Blood Catholic Parish in the Hyde Park section of Boston. The Corps eventually parted ways with the parish in 1956 and took a new name, the Hyde Park Crusaders. By 1959 the corps have become the Boston Crusaders, although they were (and still are) referred to the "BAC" or Boston Area Crusaders and became an east coast powerhouse corps in the 1960's.

in 1971 the Boston Crusaders along with the 27th Lancers, Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights, Blue Rock and Garfield Cadets formed the United Organization of Junior Corps (also known as the "Alliance"). This formation was taken in reaction to the rigid and inflexible rules of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). Later on a similar organizaiton of corms known as the Midwest Combine which consisted of the Blue Stars, Cavaliers, Madison Scouts, Santa Clara Vanguard, and Troopers both felt as if the corps themselves should be making the rules of Drum Corps which later the combination of the two organizations lead to the formation of Drum Corps International in 1972.

### Corps Traditions

#### Conquest

The Crusaders first performed Alfred Newman's "Conquest" from the 1947 motion picture, *Captain from Castille,* ever since then, the song had become a signature piece for the Boston Crusaders

#### Waldo

The famous symbol associated with the Boston Crusaders is King Richard's split-tailed lion. Affectionally known as Waldo by corpmembers and alumni, it can be seen on the corps' fleet, the member jackets, merchandise and tattoos on members and alumni of the Boston Crusaders

#### The Corps Song, Giant

The corps song is based on the main theme from the 1956 movie "Giant"

### The G7 and Animal Farm

Around the 2010's, then Cadets corps director, George Hopkins issued the G7 Report to the DCI board of directors. In that report he highlighted that the top 7 corps at the time, the Blue Devils, Bluecoats, Carolina Crown, The Cadets, The Cavaliers, Phantom Regiment and Santa Clara Vanguard should hold more power and even be compensated for drawing in the most money and views for DCI, the report even called for a reclassification of corps which would place the G7 at the top and left the rest of the corps with basically no power. This however was shut down, and the G7 remained fairly silent until around 2013. The G7 began to take over DCI, with George Hopkins pushing for the G7 Report to go into effect, understandably, the Boston Crusaders leadership team was pretty unhappy about the G7 taking over DCI, since the Boston Crusaders had been one of the founding corps of DCI and the G7 pushing for a return to when those 13 founding corps basically had most of the power, and thus, Boston's 2014 production; Animal Farm would take place.

Animal Farm in The Boston Crusaders context is pretty similar to the novel, the animals are DCI in general, but the pigs represent the G7 which corrupted DCI. For the skill level the Boston Crusaders were at in 2014, it was a hard show and many DCI fans blamed the Boston leadership for giving the members a show they cannot execute well, but in reality the leadership team asked the corps whether if they should perform an easy show and do well, or perform a hard show but score worse, but be loved by fans.

Throughout the show, many hints to what Animal Farm represents in the real world are made, the first is the "G7" set about 10-30 seconds after the conclusion of the ballad. The second is the use of baby powder before and after the show, before the show it can be seen on the side 1 drum major's podium, and seen after the show with a guard member taunting the audience with the baby powder. The reason why Boston decided to use baby powder in this way is a reference to their 2013 production, ~Rise. After using baby powder to simulate an eruption in Allentown with no penalty or warning, pulling the same thing at prelims made the corps receive a penalty. A third reference to the G7 throughout Animal Farm is the use of the "Hoof and Horn" representation of the Hammer and Sickle commonly associated with communism, posted on the guard silks, in the background of the silks is the DCI Logo. The final reference is in the closer, a voiceover can be heard uttering the words "All Drum Corps are created equal, but some are more equal than others". Animal Farm was effective in uttering the point that the G7 should not completely take over DCI and to allow non-G7 corps to grow, which is exactly what the Boston Crusaders did. in the later 2010's the corps would soon rise past 8th place, whilst in 2022, tieing with a G7 corps, the Bluecoats.

## Notable Events/Shows

1963 - Boston Crusaders drum majors make then President John F. Kennedy an honorary member of the corps

1964 - The Corps marched at President Lyndon B. Johnson's Inauguration

1985 - Despite the rule, the Boston Crusaders used a synthesizer in their 1985 production, which lead to the corps receiving a two point penalty at semifinals resulting in the corps finishing in 20th place

2013 - The Corps marched at President Barack Obama's second inauguration parade

2014 "Animal Farm" - Called out the "G7" corps at the time as they attempted to corrupt DCI. The show was made in an attempt to show what not should be happening in Drum Corps. See this video for more information (Credits: @Cj's Music on YouTube.)

2022 "Paradise Lost" - Currently the Boston Crusaders highest scoring and placing show.

## Corps Summary

The Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps competed in DCI Open Class 1973 - 1991, DCI Division I 1992 - 2007, and DCI World Class 2008 - 2024. These are the same tier, just renamed

## Caption Awards

At the annual DCI World Championships, DCI presents caption awards to the corps with the highest average scores between prelims, semifinals and finals. With five captions, the Boston Crusaders have won the following

### George Zingali Best Color Guard Award

* 2018
* 2019
* 2022