1981 Troopers
12th Place, 78.100
After falling to 14th place in 1980, Troopers came into the 1981 ready to charge back into the DCI World Championship Finals held for the first of two straight years at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.
The repertoire of the corps’ 1981 production looked much like it did in 1980, repeating four of six total tunes, most of which followed a longstanding tradition of music that transported audiences back to the American frontier.
As described in the 1981 DCI Yearbook publication: “Anyone who likes the Wild West, and whose heartbeat quickens when an old-fashioned hoedown is in the air, loves the Troopers. When this Casper, Wyoming corps takes the field, one can almost hear the cavalry coming.”
It was just as easy to see that cavalry coming thanks to the Troopers’ Civil War-style uniforms modeled after the Union Army’s 11th Ohio Cavalry. Brass players wore dark blue jackets with brass buttons down the front and a leather waist belt with “U.S.” buckle. A yellow neckerchief added a pop of color as did the yellow stripe down the legs of the light blue pants. White gloves and gauntlets and the Troopers’ iconic Stetson hat with yellow braiding and crossed-saber pin completed the look. Color guard performers wore similar accoutrements with pants traded out for flowing skirts and knee-length black boots.
1981’s opening tune helped set the frontier-like scene for another iconic Troopers production with “Overture to The Cowboys,” from the 1972 film starring John Wayne. The soundtrack, by prolific film composer John Williams, was his second of four film collaborations with director Mark Rydell between 1969 and 1984. A vanguard of color guard members spinning flags led the corps onto the field from the corner of stage right, propelled forward with some aggressive shots from the percussion section before the brass entered with the main melody.
“The Cowboys” proceeded past the two-minute-thirty-second mark of the production before the corps transitioned to an arrangement of the American folk song, “Turkey in the Straw.” Primarily a percussion feature for the marching keyboards and drum line, the piece brought the 10-person snare line down the 50-yard line flanked on either side by the marching timpanists and tenor drummers. The bass drummers and cymbal line followed behind.
The color guard section switched to rainbow-colored flags that were affixed to both ends of a single flag pole for this piece. In one of the most eye-catching visual moments of the entire show, the corps’ 12-person rifle line marched into a file on the 50-yard line. The rainbow flags marched and spun through this line of rifles from either side which triggered a sequential rifle toss starting simultaneously from the back and the front before terminating with the final rifle tosses near the center mark of the field.
Not to be outdone, the snare drummers added their own flair to the musical segment with some fancy stick work while playing drum to drum before the horn line re-entered with the main melody. A quote of “Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits” and a whiney from the horn line as if pulling on the reins of their galloping horses closed out the piece.
As per this era of Drum Corps International competition, the corps next featured its “concert standstill” piece—“Central Park” by jazz pianist Chick Corea—which positioned the drum line at the center of the field with the brass section on either side and the color guard across the back in a stationary position. Released by Corea on his “Secret Agent” album of 1978, the driving piece was another brought back from the Troopers’ 1980 production, helping to give a modern twist to the show.
For the first time in DCI history in 1981, front ensemble percussionists were allowed to “ground” their instruments on the front sideline instead of marching with them. Troopers chose to keep their marching timpani line, however during the concert standstill they grounded the timpani for one kettledrummer while the other performers knelt in front to feature other percussion implements including Agogo bells, shaker, tambourine and cow bell. As the piece slowly built intensity, two soprano bugle players traded solos on the 45-yard line as the brass and percussion drove the piece home.
Another high-note-playing soprano soloist made a bull fight-like entrance as the transition out of the concert section into “En Sueno” by Albert Kunzelmann, one of the new additions to the repertoire of the 1981 production. The rifle line, spread out across 40 yards, spent most of the piece positioned up front, as the brass and percussion sections marched their way into a company front formation to present the major impact of the piece.
Next, playing to the backfield and end zone, the horn line took a mild breather with another traditional American folk song, “Shenandoah,” which was interspersed with interjections of bugle calls and bits of “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the piece that would soon close out the show.
After a slow build, the brass finally turned to the front of the field to unleash “Battle Hymn” to a boisterous reaction from the audience. A staple and crowd favorite throughout Troopers’ history, the piece was perhaps even more sweet in 1981 as it had been more than half a decade since the corps had worked it into its competitive production.
The corps marched toward the front of the field led by a color guard member carrying the Bennington flag—the Revolutionary War-era American flag that features a large “’76” for the year that the Declaration of Independence was signed. The color guard served as a centerpiece of the visual display, with the rifle line out front closely followed by the rest of the section spinning the iconic white and yellow Troopers crossed-sabers flags.
The fight for a return to the Top 12
Following a 14th-place finish in 1980, the 1981 Troopers looked to regain the competitive footing that they had achieved in 1979 after clawing their way back into a finalist position after two straight 20th-place finishes in ’77 and ’78.
One of the Wyoming corps’ closest competitors in ’81 proved to be fellow Pacific-region rival, the Freelancers. Like the Troopers, Freelancers also finished behind the Top 12 corps at the 1980 World Championships but even further back in 19th, disappointing for the Sacramento-based corps that had finished in eighth place just three years prior.
As 1981 competitions got underway in California in early July, the Freelancers held a strong lead over the Troopers, finishing 2.5 points ahead in their first matchup in Stockton, California. Three more wins by the California corps including a 1.250-point advantage on July 5 in Los Angeles would be the last time the two corps saw each other for more than a month.
In the weeks that followed, Troopers managed to make their move. In Whitewater, Wisconsin, at the DCI Midwestern Championship—a televised event due to PBS being unable to broadcast from the DCI World Championships in Montreal — Troopers finished 11th in the Prelims competition, 1.7 points ahead of the Freelancers in 14th.
While Troopers looked to be a shoe-in for a return to the Finals with just two weeks to go before the DCI World Championship Prelims in Montreal, Freelancers had some work to do. As competition got underway at the World Championship Prelims at McGill University's Molson Stadium, Freelancers managed to grab the 12th-place spot, just 0.95 points behind the Troopers in 11th. Both corps had regained a spot in the Finals.
The Freelancers, however, weren’t finished with their upward trajectory. The following night at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, they edged the Troopers in the music and general effect captions on the judges’ sheets, slipping ahead by just over a tenth of a point into 11th place.