Three to be inducted into DCI Hall of Fame, Class of 2020

Established in 1985, the Drum Corps International Hall of Fame honors the outstanding achievements of marching music's passionate and committed administrators, creators, instructors, judges, and others who have made significant contributions through years of hard work, innovation, and direction.

Joining the DCI Hall of Fame ranks in 2020 will be Tony DiCarlo, Harold “Robbby” Robinson and Sal Salas.

Tony DiCarlo
DCI Contest Director

With his unmistakable Boston accent and charm, for decades Tony DiCarlo has made sure that Drum Corps International’s biggest competitions including regional events and the DCI World Championships go off without a hitch.

Serving as DCI contest director since the late 1990s, DiCarlo has played a key role, managing all of the on-the-field coordination of an event between organizers, adjudicators, the participating drum corps, and more.

“Tony might be considered the face of DCI,” said DCI judge administrator John Phillips who was inducted into the DCI Hall of Fame in 2015. “He is the first point of contact for every corps during the events he manages. He greets the drum majors and all corps members with enthusiasm and respect. There are few people involved with drum corps today who do not equate “Tony” with Tony DiCarlo.”

In his important role, DiCarlo has his hand in a number of facets of the show-day experience, from keeping corps entrances, performances and exits running on time and on schedule, to making sure that the judges have what they need and are ready to go for each corps’ performance, and that sideline and field conditions are consistent and safe throughout the course of the contest.

“Without Tony and his contest crew, none of this would be as satisfying to our members and our fan base,” said longtime DCI judge and 1992 Hall of Fame inductee George Oliviero. “They are constantly behind the scenes doing the work that makes an evening with our corps so entertaining. Tony’s work has had a direct and indirect impact on the total experience of thousands of performers at contest sites in dozens of states.”

DiCarlo got his start in marching music as a teenager in the late 1960s with the Annunciators Drum and Bugle Corps before joining the Boston Crusaders as a percussionist in the early 1970s. Enjoying a long and successful career in the finance field, DiCarlo would later return to the Crusaders as DCI Hall of Fame member Dave Richards noted to “use his business skills to help the then struggling organization turn things around on their long journey to financial solvency and competitive respectability.”

DiCarlo additionally served for a number of years as the executive director of Drum Corps East which ran summertime events across the Atlantic Seaboard. In this position he provided a key voice and support in the decision to bring the DCI World Championships to Foxboro, Massachusetts for the first time in 1994 and again in 2005.

Outside of Drum Corps International, DiCarlo has worked extensively as part of the Boston-area marching band scene, serving as contest director and on the board of directors of the New England Scholastic Band Association (NESBA). For his longtime work with the organization he was inducted into the Massachusetts Drum Corps and Music Educators Hall of Fame in 2001. He additionally is a member of the Boston Crusaders Hall of Fame, inducted in 2005.

Harold “Robby” Robinson
Crossmen Founding Director

A snare drummer with the Tri Community Cadets in the 1950s and later a drum corps instructor administrator and judge, Harold “Robby” Robinson would most notably go on to be the founding director of the Crossmen.

“As daunting of a task as it is to run a drum corps, an even more daunting task — arguably the most daunting task — is to create a drum corps,” said 2019 DCI Hall of Fame inductee Bob Morrison. “And the greatest of all tasks is to create a drum corps that goes on to have a significant legacy in both DCI and the marching arts. This is precisely what Robby Robinson did.”

Robinson got the Crossmen up and running in 1974 as a merger between two smaller suburban Philadelphia-based corps, the Keystone Regiment (where Robinson was a staff member) and the 507 Hornets. First competing on the Drum Corps International stage in 1975, the new Southeastern Pennsylvania corps quickly rose to prominence as a perennial DCI World Championship finalist.

According to Morrison, who was a member of the Crossmen from 1979 to 1982, running the corps became an “all in” endeavor for Robinson and his family members. “The Crossmen became their way of life,” he said. “Their home in West Chester (Pennsylvania) became the ‘corps hall’ serving as the administration office, sleeping quarters for members who traveled in for weekend rehearsal, food hall, equipment truck parking lot, and instrument repair shop … Robby even helped finance the organization with his own personal funds.”

In addition to his work starting the Crossmen, Robinson is also credited with playing a part in the founding of Spirit of Atlanta in the mid 1970s. While touring the southern United States, DCI Hall of Fame member Freddy Martin invited the corps to perform for a local Atlanta television station. Martin says that Crossmen performance is what convinced the head of the station to sponsor Spirit, consequently allowing Martin to get his new corps up and running in 1976.

“There has never been a doubt in my mind that Robby was as responsible as anyone for creating the Spirit of Atlanta,” Martin said. “During those formative years, Robby was always there for me and the corps … It is hard to believe that one great man could have been responsible for the creation of two of our greatest corps.”

As the Crossmen experienced its fair share of ups and downs over the years, at the center of all that Robinson did and sacrificed for the corps always was the experience offered to the young performers within its ranks.

“The caring he had for all of his ‘kids’ was amazing. It was a true family,” said 2015 DCI Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Sacktig, who joined the Crossmen in 1982 at 14 years of age. “In my short time there I learned the ideals of teamwork, community, striving to be your best and a never-give-up attitude.”

Robinson is a charter member of the Crossmen Alumni Association Hall of Fame, inducted in 1999.

Sal Salas
Color Guard Designer, Program Coordinator

Getting his start as a percussionist with the Stockton Police Commodores in California during the mid 1960s, it would be the color guard section that Sal Salas gravitated toward when he joined the Madison Scouts as part of the corps’ World Championship-winning season of 1975.

In Madison, Salas found himself in a unique position as both a performer and an instructor of the corps’ rifle line, a position in which he helped to transform color guard design across the marching arts.

“When Sal left California to become a member of the Madison Scouts, he synergized his percussion roots, his award-winning color guard talents, and his optimistic personality to revolutionize what a rifle line could accomplish,” DCI Hall of Fame member Scott Chandler said. “There are several quintessential moments in color guard rifle lines including the introduction of double-time, the evolution of higher toss rotations, and the use of ‘carving’ as a means to create a three-dimensional kinetic use of space. Sal excelled in the developmental process of these areas and added a unique, standard-setting approach to an already mind-boggling use of rhythm.

“Sal added theatrical character to color guard choreography. As the use of the body became more inherent in color guard writing, Sal took an athletic, stylized jazz technique and transcended the sheer interpretation of musical phrasing. He was one of the true pioneers in this approach.”

“His memorable Madison Scout color guards with their swivel hips and jazz moves electrified stadium after stadium,” said Michael Cesario, DCI Hall of Fame Class of 1996. “It’s impossible to recall those magnificent ‘Men of Madison’ without remembering their swagger and whip-fast equipment moves.”

Salas made an exit from the Madison Scouts after 1982, heading to Spirit of Atlanta to hone his skills as a drill designer. Writing the corps’ visual packages from 1983 to 1990, Spirit of Atlanta would win two color guard caption awards at the DCI World Championships (1985, 1987) during his tenure.

“His ultra-romantic Spirit of Atlanta corps were the originators of casting men and women in stage relationships whose roles brought emotions to life,” Cesario said.

Salas made another transition in 1993, this time to Toledo, Ohio’s Glassmen where over the course of a decade he went from color guard designer to program coordinator as he helped design some of the most successful productions in the corps’ history. In 2003 he returned to the Madison Scouts in another new role, this time as corps director, honored by his peers at the 2005 DCI World Championships as Drum Corps International’s Dr. Bernard Baggs Leadership Award winner. In the 2010s, Salas additionally spent time on the design teams of the Santa Clara Vanguard and Cadets.

Today, even after more than 50 years after he began his career in the marching arts, Salas is still bringing fresh new ideas and innovations to the table, most recently as program coordinator and artistic director of Sprit of Atlanta where he returned to the staff in 2017.

“Sal’s contribution to todays’ Spirit of Atlanta is immense, bringing our production to life in a way that has inspired the staff and performers and brought drum corps fans out of their seats,” Spirit of Atlanta director Chris Moore said. “He has a vision and a feel for design that goes beyond expectation and has defied the test of time. Sal just has that ‘it factor’ about him.”

Outside of Drum Corps International, Salas directed the State Street Review winter guard of Madison, Wisconsin with his wife LuAnn throughout the 1980s. The two were jointly inducted in the Winter Guard International Hall of Fame in 1993. Salas also holds distinction as a hall of fame member of the Winter Guard Association of Southern California, Midwest Color Guard Circuit and Spirit of Atlanta.