Colts Drum and Bugle Corps

Pre-DCI

The corps that is now the Colts began in 1963, when the Dubuque American Legion Post and its senior drum and bugle corps, the Dukes of Dubuque started the all-boy "Junior Dukes." With old, used instruments from the Dukes and a uniform of white shirt, black pants and shoes, and a black and white overseas cap with a red tassel, the first year corps entered parades with twenty-four buglers, ten drummers, and a four-member color guard. The instructional staff was Dick Davis, who taught horns, drums, and marching. The instructional staff doubled in size in 1964, as Clarence Hagge joined Davis in teaching horns and marching.

When the Dukes ceased operations in 1965, Davis, Hagge, and corps manager Bob Buelow assumed the leadership and changed the corps' name to the Legionnaires and took the corps from being strictly a parade corps into field competition. When the majority of the 1964 members did not return, however, the age limit was lowered to thirteen, allowing the corps to field forty-eight members, and after the season, recruitment problems were somewhat eased by the decision to add girls and make the corps coed. On November 16, 1966, the Parents and Boosters Club was formed. The following fall, the Legionnaires B Corps (which is now the Colt Cadets) was founded as a "feeder" for the "A" corps, with Sonia Hickson as director and members of the "A" corps as instructional assistants. With two corps, the organization also took the step of incorporating as a not-for-profit youth organization. In 1968, the Legionnaires had a budget of $13,000, and the "A" corps undertook its first major tour. The eighty-three member corps traveled more than 4,000 miles, won eight first-place trophies, and earned official recognition as "Dubuque's Junior Ambassadors of Goodwill".

The success of the 1968 corps fostered a desire to compete in more than American Legion sponsored shows and brought about a second name change for the corps. The renamed Colt .45 toured in new uniforms with a Western theme, "...because they were the cheapest" and adopted a Western theme for the music for their field show. The eighty-six member 1969 Colt .45 corps toured Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, competing in Class A at eighteen shows, winning most of them, including the Mid-American Drum Corps Circuit Championship and the Iowa VFW Junior State Championship. The corps' first "big" investment also took place in 1969, when the corps purchased its first equipment truck. In 1970, the corps became a drum corps ground-breaker when they performed the "Colt .45 Stomp" in their field show. The piece is believed to be the very first use of an arrangement written for a drum corps in a non-standard meter. "Colt .45 Stomp" was written in 7/4 time, and many judges gave them "ticks" (demerits) for marching out of step on the downbeat of every other measure. Nevertheless, the Colt .45 won the Iowa State American Legion title. In 1971, the Colt .45 spent approximately $6000 for all new horns and drums. With Harlow Haas replacing Bob Buelow as director, the corps toured Wisconsin and Kansas and attended the VFW Nationals Championship in Dallas, the corps' first "national" competition and its first time performing on artificial turf.

The DCI Era

In 1972, the first of Eldon "Fritz" Biver's three years as Director, the corps traveled more than 6000 miles, placed twelfth place at the American Legion Nationals in Chicago and ninth at the VFW Nationals in Minneapolis but was not among the thirty-nine corps that competed in the inaugural Drum Corps International World Championships in Whitewater, Wisconsin that August. The 1973 Colt .45's, marching the largest corps to date (one hundred seven members, only a third of whom had more than a year's experience), placed fifth at VFW Nationals and first in the VFW Nationals parade. The corps performed the half-time show at a Chicago Bears game in front of 54,000 fans, and they attended their first DCI World Championships, finishing twenty-eighth of forty-eight corps at Whitewater. The corps did not return to DCI in 1974, but it did return to Soldier Field to play for another Bears game. The hundred member corps traveled to Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Ohio and placed eighteenth of twenty-nine corps at the U.S. Open in Marion, Ohio.

Dick "Sarge" Feipel was director of the 1975 corps that toured New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The corps also visited Washington, D.C. and returned to the DCI World Championships, starting an unbroken string of appearances that has continued to the present time. The corps made its third and final name change in 1976. Citing the negative association with both firearms and beer and the lack of sufficient appropriate "Western" music, the corps dropped the ".45" and became known simply as the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps. Under the leadership of Tom Faulkner, the corps, which fluctuated between eighty-two and one hundred and five members, the Colts placed sixteenth of thirty-two corps at the U.S. Open prelims, twenty-first of forty prelims corps at VFW Nationals, and twenty-fifth of forty-seven in DCI prelims, earning the corps "Top Twenty-Five" Associate Membership in DCI for the first time. (Note: The wide fluctuation in marching numbers throughout the season would almost become a Colts signature between 1976 and the early 1990s. This was due to the corps' willingness to allow members to miss some early and mid-season shows while working jobs at home in Dubuque. When it was time to depart on the corps' final tour of the season, which ended at the DCI World Championships, the "holes" in the corps' field show would suddenly all be filled.)

Jim Mason became Corps Director in 1977, with Jim Killoran serving as Executive Director. The corps debuted the orange riverboat gambler uniforms that would remain in use either entirely or in part during Mason's tenure. The one hundred twenty member corps finished twenty-sixth at DCI, but, when the third-place Bridgemen were disqualified, the Colts were elevated back into the "Top Twenty-Five", a status that would not recur until 1982. In 1978, the corps bought 63 new bugles, with a brass lacquer finish for $21,354, but due in part to a large membership turnover, the Colts fell to twenty-seventh place and out of the "Top Twenty-Five." It was at that time that the corps rededicated itself to a concept of family and self-satisfaction derived from mutual hard work toward a common goal. 1979 saw another huge membership turnover, and, although the corps played for President Jimmy Carter, who was traveling down the Mississippi River on the Delta Queen and told Drum Major Dave Kapp that the corps, "...sounded great...", the Colts limited their touring in order to save money. They did attend DCI in Birmingham, Alabama, but placed only thirty-fifth among forty-three corps. In 1980, to honor Robert M. Buelow for his 17 years of service to the corps, the Colts established an award bearing his name that is awarded each year to the person who, "...contributed leadership, loyalty and personal commitment to the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps during the preceding years."

1981 saw the Colts make a major move into public relations and high-level fund-raising. They sponsored the premier of the motion picture, "Take This Job And Shove It" and the local appearance of the Carson and Barnes Circus. These efforts were successful, despite 32,000 flyers being mailed out that stated the circus was sponsored by the "Colts Drug and Bugle Corps". The corps was able to buy three used motor coaches (christened by the members as Poseidon, Lusitania, and Titanic) before embarking on two tours for the first time. The first tour took them through the South, where they heard that the corps had lost its lease in the Colts Building. On the second, northern tour, the Colts earned Finals slots at the U.S. Open and the DCI North and DCI Canada regional competitions, although they would once more finish in twenty-eighth place at the World Championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In August, the corps signed a new lease in Dubuque's Fischer Arcade building, which would be home to the corps' the bingo hall for almost twenty years.

In 1982, director Greg Orwoll joined the staff and the Colts returned to memberships in DCI by finishing in twenty-fourth place at Montreal;, the corps has never since fallen from ranks of DCI member corps. In 1983, the Colts once more broke new ground in the Drum Corps activity, as they became the first corps to perform a show designed with a single theme and design concept; the "Mississippi Suite" told a musical story on a football field. The audience so bought into the idea that, at the Columbia, Tennessee show where the Colts finished in second place, the crowd booed the decision, insisting that the Colts should have won. At the DCI World Championships in Miami, the Colts placed twenty-second. The 1984 Colts were the "Kings of Swing", complete with a "trap set line" (four trap drum sets lined up) as part of the front ensemble. They purchased the horns of the defunct Memphis Brass Blues Band Drum and Bugle Corps, giving them a complete set of "modern" two-valve bugles. The corps finished in twenty-third place at DCI in Atlanta, but, at the end of the season, Jim Mason departed, having been named director of the brand new Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps.

With Jim Mason's departure, current Corps Director Greg Orwell took over in 1985. The corps continued its swinging, crowd-pleasing shows, surprising many with their sixteenth-place finish at DCI in Madison and being named "Iowa's Ambassadors of Music" by then-Governor Terry Branstad (who is again the Iowa Governor). The 1986 Colts came out with a "New look, new sound, new direction," wearing new uniforms provided by Star of Indiana founder Bill Cook. The jazzily swinging corps finished in twenty-first place at Madison, Wisconsin. For the corps' 25th Anniversary in 1987, the Colts kept up the jazz, dropped the trap drum line after three seasons, and, under the baton of the corps' first female drum major, Julie Yanda, finished in twentieth place at the DCI Championships, held once more in Madison. The 1988 Colts were still playing jazz, but, with new arrangers, it was jazz of a more mature form. Volunteers chrome plated the corps horns at a local auto body shop, ending the corps' history of performing on brass lacquer horns. 1988 also saw the end of the corps' always losing to the rival Troopers; after trailing the Troopers' scores by a wide margin early in the season, the Colts defeated the "Troop" for the first time on August 3 in Morgantown, West Virginia. At DCI Championships in Kansas City, the Colts were in twenty-first place after quarterfinal. but moved up in semifinals to an eighteenth-place finish. 1989 was notable for "Music in the Mud", when a rainstorm struck ninety minutes into the Colts' "Music on the March" home show; the sudden down pouring of three quarters of an inch of rain bogged down fifteen buses where they had been parked, and it required five tow trucks working until 3:00 AM to free them. The corps finished in twenty-first place at DCI in Kansas City.

1990 saw the Colts rebuilding, as there was major staff turnover and a change of musical direction. The new style was jazzy interpretations of classical and new-age music that the corps called, "New Age-Classical". Additionally, a five-year-plan was put in place developing the corps' program, staff, and membership, with a priority of marching, "...only the members who wanted to be a Colt." The corps finished the season in twenty-third place at the DCI World Championships in Buffalo. In 1991, the Colts continued to build on the previous year, restructuring rehearsal procedures and redefining members' responsibilities, while continuing to emphasize entertaining the audience and maintaining the corps' family atmosphere. At DCI in Dallas, the Colts finished in twenty-second place. While continuing their developmental plan, the 1992 Colts recruited heavily within Iowa and took twentieth place at DCI in Madison.

The 1993 Colts celebrated the corps' 30th Anniversary. They co-sponsored a parade with a local theater group that was producing Meredith Willson's musical, "The Music Man" with Mr. Wilson as Grand Marshal and the other corps performing at Music on the March also participating in the parade which drew a crowd that the Dubuque Police Department called the largest in modern times. The corps also initiated both the Colts Alumni Association and the Colts Hall of Fame. Additionally, the Colts began transitioning to three valve bugles, with the mellophone section receiving the corps first brand new horns since 1977. The highlight of the year, however, was the one hundred and five member corps' surprising finish at the DCI World Championships in incredibly hot and humid Jackson, Mississippi. Having set a pre-season goal of a seventeenth place (semi-finals) finish, the corps surprised almost everybody by taking thirteenth place in quarter-finals, then vaulting into eleventh place in semifinals, assuring the corps of its first-ever DCI World Championship Finals spot. The Colts' final placement of twelfth was not a disappointment.

1993 was the Colts' first time in DCI Finals but not the last; the corps finished in twelfth in 1994, ninth in 1995, eleventh in 1996, twelfth again in 1998, 1999 and 2001, and tenth in 2007. In the years since that first Finals, the corps has changed its look and musical direction several times, but it has been consistent in maintaining its family atmosphere, dedication to entertaining the audience, and the commitment to being "Iowa's Corps."

Sponsorship

The Colts Drum and Bugle Corps is sponsored by the Colts Youth Organization, a 501(c)(3) musical organization that has a Board of Directors, corps director, and staff assigned to carry out the organization's mission. The Executive Director is Jeff MacFarlane and the corps director is Vicki Schaffer MacFarlane. The Colts Youth Organization also sponsors the Colt Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps; Vocal Fusion, a singing group for students in grades 3 through 8; PanrhythmiX and Pandemonium, steel drum performance groups for elementary and middle school students; and the Colts Summer Band for students in grades 4 through 8.

Show Summary (1972–2016)

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Gold background indicates DCI Championship; pale blue background indicates DCI Class Finalist; pale green background indicates DCI semifinalist.