October 12, 1967 . . . Two out,bottom of the ninth, seventhgame of the 1967 World Seriesand the Red Sox trail theCardinals 10-7. Bob Gibsondelivers a breaking ball andGeorge “Boomer” Scott strikesout.

The “Impossible Dream” yearended for the Boston Red Soxthat day. The dreams werecoming to an end for the I.C.Reveries at the same time.

The Immaculate ConceptionParish of Revere, MA, hadsponsored the Reveries Drumand Bugle Corps since itsinception in 1957. Like manyother Catholic church parishesthroughout the Northeast, adrum and bugle corps was part oftheir program of service to theyouth of the parish.

The Reveries competed inthe Catholic YouthOrganization circuit againstnational champions andcontenders such as St. Kevin’sEmerald Knights, St. Mary’sCardinals and the BostonCrusaders. The strongcompetition made the Reveriesstronger.

By the mid-1960s, theRevere corps was recognized asone that could hold its own innational contests such as theAmerican Legion Nationals,CYO Nationals, World Open anda contest that would prove to beinstrumental in the Reveries’fate, the VFW Nationals.

It was August 1966 and theReveries marched in a quietformation to the stadium gate

in Jersey City, NJ. TheVFW NationalChampionship contestfor 1966 was about tobegin. The only thingwrong was that theReveries did not makethe cut for the finals.

They foundthemselves just out offinals, finishingbetween the 12th-place Racine Scoutsand the 14th-placeMadison Scouts. Acomplicated series ofarguments, rule

interpretations and re-interpretations hadmoved the Madison Scouts into finals, leavingthe Racine Scouts in the final show as a13th-place competing corps and left theReveries out in the cold.

The Reveries’ management, enraged bythe VFW’s decisions, had the corps dress forthe performance of their lives and crash thegate at Roosevelt Stadium

Drum Major Gus Probert led the waythrough the staging area, but found St.Joseph’s of Batavia blocking their entrance onto the field. St. Joe’s had a fierce reputationas a tough corps to beat, on or off the field.

Probert sought out St. Joe’s drum major,Joe Eduardo, and explained what the Reverieswere intending to do. Eduardo ordered hiscorps to stand aside and allow the Reveries topass.

Before contest officials knew what hadhappened, the Reveries had taken the startingline and sat down, demanding to perform.(See photo on page 132 of “A History of

Drum & Bugle corps, Volume 1.”)The Reveries performed that night. They

weren’t judged, but they played to a crowdthat both applauded and scorned theiractions. The VFW Nationals got under wayone and a half hours late and the wheels wereset in motion toward the Reveries’ demiseand the 27th Lancers’ birth.

Father Gallagher, the pastor of theImmaculate Conception Parish, had made atough and unpopular decision during thefollowing summer. The VFW sit-down strikehung over the Reveries and the parish for theentire 1967 season.

The corps had attracted too manymembers from outside of the small parish, sothe churchdecided itcould nolonger supportthe class Acorps andwould onlysponsor theclass BReveriesJuniors.

Memberswere orderedto return theiruniforms andinstruments atthe end of the1967 season.The Reveries’10-year historyended in thefall of 1967.

September1967 . . . Inblack and white, with scratchy sound, ErrolFlynn entered a sun-drenched room in hiswhite uniform and strode across the floorconfidently. In six bold steps, he was acrossthe room and face to face with hiscommanding officer. He saluted and saidwith a wry grin, “Captain Vickers, 27thLancers, reporting for duty.”

Sitting in his old reclining chair, GeorgeBonfiglio watched that old 1936 movie, “TheCharge of the Light Brigade,” pondering whatthe future would bring for his desire toresurrect the recently deceased drum corps.At that moment, Bonfiglio knew his fledglingdrum corps -- with no home, no equipmentand no money -- had finally acquired a name:the 27th Lancers.

The 1968 season began for the Lancers atKelly Field, a tiny stadium in Boston’s HydePark neighborhood. Many drum corps fanswitnessed the premier performance, butnever made the connection between the oldReveries and the new 27th Lancers. To themit seemed as though the Lancers had comeout of nowhere, a theme that would stay withthe corps throughout its history.

During that first season, the corps wasliving hand to mouth. A large number of thehorns were rented from the Majestic Knightsof Charlestown. That rental agreement endedearly in the season, because the Lancers had

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(Top) The 27th Lancers at their firstWorld Open in Lynn, MA, 1968 (photo byMoe Knox from the collection of DrumCorps World); (far right) 27th Lancers in1972 (photo by Moe Knox from thecollection of Drum Corps World); (right)27th Lancers, in the mid-1970s (photo byJoseph Zepko from the collection ofDrum Corps World).

by Steve Groh

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the audacity to consistently beat the MajesticKnights in competition, leaving the Lancersto arrive at a contest site and immediatelyborrow a dozen or more horns for thatperformance.

Flags and uniforms were all made on thecheap as well. The Bonfiglio’s family roomwas turned into a seamstress shop withGeorge’s wife, Patsy, making flags, skirts, hatbands and a hundred other bits and pieces ofthe “Lancer look.” The first khakiuniforms came from an Army/Navysurplus store. The most expensivepiece of the entire uniform -- and theonly piece to be custom made for thecorps -- was the distinctive Aussie-style hat.

Inspections were an important partof a corps’ total score in the 1960sand, with uniforms assembled frombits and pieces, the Lancers foundthemselves at a disadvantage. Somekhaki shirts or pants were a differentshade or style from others. Slightvariations in uniforms could cause aloss of points.

The solution to the problem wasunique. When the corps lined up forinspection, they seemingly lined up atrandom and not by section. It was notrandom, though. In fact, each member’splace on the inspection line was carefullycalculated so that no two horn players,drummers or guard members stood next toeach other. The Lancers consistently cameout of inspection with high marks.

Theployworked . . .at leastuntil theVFWNationalsin 1969.

TheLancersbecame ahouseholdname indrum

corps by the end of the 1968 season.Audiences came to accept the corps as afavorite underdog by the season’s end.

Standing ovations were common at justabout any Lancer performance. The corpscompeted and made the finals in the bigshows at year’s end. They placed 10th in theWorld Open and 11th at the VFW Nationals inDetroit. The 27th Lancer penchant forfinding themselves in the midst of a

controversy was something that seemed tocarry over from the old Reverie days.

At the 1968 VFW Nationals in Detroit, thecorps had a practice site many blocks awayfrom their housing, so they marched inparade formation to and from the rehearsals.Apparently, the Detroit police department was

not a Lancer fan (yet) and some staffmembers were placed under arrestfor organizing a parade without thenecessary city permits.

It was 1969, the summer ofWoodstock. The Lancers still had nomoney, a fact of life the corps wouldalways live with. What the Lancersdid have was a growing popularity.

One of the issues that caused theImmaculate Conception parish tocast off the Reveries senior corpsand keep the feeder Reveries Juniorswas membership. The Reveriesattracted members from outside thechurch community. Now the 27thLancers were attracting membersfrom faraway cities and towns inMassachusetts.

They put all their new membersto work immediately selling cleaning

products and eggs by the gross to raisemoney. Selling ZIF was like an old “ThreeStooges” gag -- the corps sold it, but had noidea what it was for.

The egg wholesale business wasn’t withoutits glitches either. Put a few dozen teenagerstogether with a few gross of fresh eggs and,well, you get the picture.

In 1969, the Lancer staff started to craftthe musical and visual identity of the corps.Brass arranger and instructor Jim Wedgestarted to write music with an unmistakableBritish sound to it. Rule Brittania, WaltzingMatilda and other music associated with theBritish Empire became part of the Lanceridentity. The “bugle call” drum solointroduced in 1969 was the idea of percussionarranger and instructor Jim Buckley. Hestudied the distinctive sounds of Scottishpipe band drummers and adapted thosesounds and rhythms to a large drum line, adrum line that was now outfitted in BlackWatch kilts.

Wedge and Buckley were responsible forthe musical direction the Lancerswould take for the next eight to 10years, but the visual identity -- theLancer look -- was the domain ofRichard “Ike” Iannessa. Iannessa wasalso the driving force behind the 27thLancers’ incredible work ethic anddiscipline. He required each member ofthe corps to put his heart into everymoment on the competition orrehearsal field. Incurring Iannessa’swrath was not a smart move.

On a sweltering rehearsal day ontour, he had been pushing the corpsvery hard under a blazing sun. Late inthe day, 100 pounds of ice cubes weredelivered to the rehearsal field. Thecorps members had visions of therehearsal ending soon and holding a

cup of ice water or holding a handful of ice tothe backs of their necks, but Iannessa haddifferent plans.

The 100 pounds of ice was dumped on the50-yard line at the front sideline as hescreamed his usual, “AGAIN!” command foranother run-through. After each run-through, he checked the mound of ice andscreamed, “AGAIN!” When the last ice cubemelted into the ground, rehearsal ended.

The Lancers gained some respect from theEastern judging community in 1969. Thecorps placed second at the CYO Nationals andat the National Dream contest. The judgingphilosophies from one region of the countryto another were very different and, when theLancers faced judges from the Midwest orWest, the outcomes were very different.

The VFW contest director decided tothrow out the inspection marks after theprelims were complete. The Lancers’consistently high inspection marks could nothelp them and the corps dropped from 12thto 15th place at VFW that year, far belowcorps they had beaten only a week before.

The Lancers’ second year in competitionhad ended with some incredible victories anddisappointing defeats, but their reputation

27th Lancers, 1977 (photo by Art Luebke from the collection of Drum CorpsWorld).

27th Lancers, 1972 (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

27th Lancers, 1971 (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

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grew and drum corps fans across thecountry wanted more.

In 1970, the Lancers’ show themebecame more British with the additionof The Wee MacGregor as an openingnumber. MacGregor was actually amedley of English, Irish and Scottishfolk tunes arranged by Wedge. Herearranged and expanded this numberfor the 1971 season with great success.

The 1970 season was the beginningof great changes in the way the Lancerswould compete and operate through thesummer months. The Revere corps andthe Boston Crusaders both stoppedparticipating in the local EasternMassachusetts Circuit. Both felt their timewas better spent making short weekend tripsto Connecticut, New York and New Jerseyshows. In a way, this was the Massachusettscorps’ first step to their participation in the“Combine” and then DCI’s formation.

A typical weekend for the two corps was toget on thebuses earlySaturdaymorning anddrive toGarfield, NJ.The Lancersand Crusaderswould findrehearsal sites,practice allafternoon andcompete atGarfield HighSchool thatevening.

The Lancerswould beat the Crusaders by five-tenths orvice versa, both corps losing by two points tothe Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights. ALancer and a Crusader would get into afistfight and both corps would stand aroundand glare at each before being herded ontotheir respective buses to be shuttled off towhatever gymnasium floor they were sleepingon that night.

A case of beer would get smuggled intothe gym, some guys or girls would get caughtdrinking and everyone would fall asleepexhausted.

The next morning, the Lancers andCrusaders would get a nutritious breakfast oforange juice and doughnuts at theirrespective gymnasiums and then equipmentand bodies would get loaded onto the bus tohead back north for an afternoon show inBridgeport, CT. The Crusaders would get tothe show site early, rehearse and perform.One of the Lancers buses would break downon the Cross-Bronx Expressway, bodies andequipment would pile on to two buses andthe corps would get to the stadium withabout 10 minutes to spare.

Uniforms would get put on and buttonedup as the corps was running to the startingline, the Crusaders would beat the Lancers byfive-tenths or vice versa and both corps wouldlose to Blue Rock by two points.

A Lancer and a Crusader would get into afistfight, the two corps would stand aroundand glare at each other before the drinkingculprits from the night before (rememberthem?) would be ordered to load all theequipment by themselves. We would all drivehome aching, sunburned and laughing that

the Lancers hadbeaten the Crusaderson the field and off. . . or vice versa.

As the 27thLancers’ Britishtheme developedmusically and visuallyin 1971, the corpsbecame a muchsought after additionto contest lineups.The season was sobusy that logisticsdemanded a charteredflight to Dallas for theVFW Nationals

instead of a long, hot bus ride. The corps was invited to compete in more

invitational shows than ever before and theLancers tailored their travel schedule toparticipate in the most prestigious shows.

The 1971 season was a special one for

drum corps. There were at least 10strong corps capable of winning anational championship that year andthe season ended without just onedominant corps. You could almost saythere were three separate seasons in1971, with CYO National championBlue Rock dominating the month ofJune, the World Open champion 27thLancers on top through the month ofJuly and the Santa Clara Vanguardwinning the coveted VFW Nationals inAugust in Texas.

The Lancers entered the 1972season with high hopes and extremeconfidence. It was the first year of DCI

and the corps had purchased a fleet of threebuses for touring the United States andCanada. They were stronger in everycategory than the champion 1971 corps. TheLancers enjoyed victory after victory overEastern and Midwestern corps.

It seemed as though the Lancers wouldtake the season, until one humid July eveningin their own backyard. The corps was lookingforward to continuing its unbeaten streak andfinally taking home the CYO National title,and why not? Of all the powerful corpsscheduled to compete that night, the Lancershad consistently beaten all of them throughthe first half of the 1972 season.

They were about to re-learn a lesson theyshould have remembered from the 1971season. At the world class level of drumcorps competition, any corps and every corpscan be a fierce competitor and upsets happen.

The stories had filtered back East that theAnaheim Kingsmen were in toughcompetitive and financial shape and it was amiracle that they could travel east at all.They were rumored to actually be finishingtheir show while touring.

The Lancers were blindsided by aKingsmen corps that tore up the field atBoston College. It was a turning point inLancer history, marking the corps’ first long

slide down the ladder of DCI prominence.The Lancers did not win an importantshow for the rest of the season,continually frustrated by the Kingsmen.They finished in fourth place at the firstDCI Championships in Whitewater, WI.

The 1973 season still had the Lancersconsidered to be among the activity’sinnovators, but the corps was no longer aDCI front-runner. They were still indemand at shows throughout the country,but the standing ovations weren’t as longor as loud as they used to be.

The corps introduced an openingnumber that pleased the crowd, but reallydidn’t shake the earth, at least not in1973. Brass arranger Jim Wedge haddoubts about the piece when he heard theoriginal orchestral rendition of SirWilliam Walton’s Crown Imperial. Theselection was chosen only for the potentialof its “wall of sound” finale and really wasnot fully appreciated until it wasresurrected for the 1975 show.

In 1973, Wedge had also chosen a

27th Lancers, 1980 (photo by Jane Boulen from the collection of Drum Corps World).

27th Lancers, 1979 (photo by Dick Deihl from the collection of Drum CorpsWorld).

27th Lancers, 1979 (photo by Art Luebke from the collection of DrumCorps World).

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beautiful Scottish folk song calledMennenvien to replace the Danny Boy closer,thinking that using the Irish ballad two yearsin a row would be enough. Danny Boyturned out to be the most retired and themost resurrected tune throughout theLancers’ history.

The summer of 1974 was one of hard testsfor the corps and the country. PresidentNixon resigned in disgrace and it was theturning point for the corps in making a markamong the DCI elite. After the 1973 season,the corps lost more members due to age andother reasons than any time in their history.

The corps started the 1974 season with afull complement of 128 marching members,but a very large number of them were youngand inexperienced rookies. To make mattersworse, the staff saw no alternative but todesign a completely new show. The directionthe Lancers had taken for many years nolonger matched the types of shows that werebecoming successful in DCI.

The 1974 edition worked as hard or harderthan any drum corps in North America, butan open class drum corps filled out with 12-year-olds could not compete against the likesof Santa Clara or Madison Scouts. They were

edged out of the World Open Finals with 13thplace. Since their birth in 1968, the Lancersonly missed the finals once -- at VFW in 1969.

Despite drastic changes in the show andnon-stop rehearsals, the corps finished 20that DCI Prelims in Ithaca, NY, that year. Manyof those directly connected with the corpsand many of the corps’ close friends doubtedit could survive loss of members, status andincome resulting from 1974’s poor finish.

If 1974 was one of the lowest points inLancer history, 1975 was one of the greatest.By the time the corps filled all of the holesand polished up the show, the 1975 seasonwas about a month old. Crown Imperial wasback and so was Danny Boy. The 27thLancers were looking and sounding betterthan ever.

New staff members Joe Marella onpercussion and Ralph Pace designing thevisual show gave the corps new life. Thecaption heads inherited a lot of volunteeralumni to help teach and polish the show.Pace’s staff included Peggy Twiggs andStephen Covitz, two great color guardinnovators. A year later Denis Bonfiglio

would round out that guard staff.Together they would create aseries of legendary color guardsthrough the 1970s and 1980s.

He also inherited a youngteaching novice and budding starby the name of George Zingali.Somehow the Lancers attractednew, talented membership inspite of the previous season’sdismal outcome. The corps wasback in the elite class, on parwith the best of DCI. They fin-ished the season in fourth placeat the DCI Championship Finalsin Philadelphia that year.

Not all relations with other drum corpswere confrontational, as some had beenthrough the earlier years. Through the1970s, as the Lancers toured and spent moretime in the company of their competitors,there were special friendships developed withmany other drum corps. Perhaps thestrongest of thesefriendships was withSt. Andrew’s andlater known as theBayonneBridgemen. Thetwo corps trulyenjoyed competingagainst each otherand there wereentire seasonswhere the twotraded placementswithin one point ofeach other.

The mostnotable example ofhow competitive the two corps were was aweekend of shows in New Jersey in 1973. OnSaturday night in Hawthorne, the Lancersand Bridgemen tied. On Sunday afternoon inGarfield, the two corps tied again.

Members of both corps laughed andsuggestions were made to have a tug-of-waror arm wrestling contest to break the tie. Onthe field the competition was intense, but offthe field, the corps would be happy to share alaugh and a beer at the Bayside in Revere orthe Venice in Bayonne.

The late 1970s were the touring years.The bus fleet, which was now old by anystandards, was drivenor pushed 8,000 to10,000 miles eachsummer around theUnited States andCanada. It was acommon practice toleave one of the threebuses in a remotetown for repair whilecontinuing on withthe entire corpssquashed onto onlytwo buses.

By the late 1970s,air conditioning onthose buses was a

distant memory and toilets? . . . never hadthem to begin with.

With the extended tours came anotherproblem. Money. It was costing more andmore every year to operate the corps and thecash flow had not improved much from thefirst year’s hand-to-mouth existence. Themoney was spent long before it came in.

There wasa logisticalproblemdevelopingduring thoseyears as well.The Lancerswere drawingmore of theirmembershipfrom distantstates. Thismeant that allthe spotsweren’t filleduntil the verybeginning of

the season, sometimes well into the season.The corps would have slow starts duringthose years, only to come on strong duringthe last few weeks of the season.

In 1978, the staff seemed to have asignificant turnover. In reality, the torcheswere passed to staff members who hadcontributed a great deal to the corps over theyears. Mike Kumer passed the percussionsection on to Charlie Poole.

Poole would go on to have the longesttenure as the Lancers’ percussion head andwould produce some drum lines that werelegendary in the 1980s.

27th Lancers, 1983 (photo by Ed Ferguson from the collection ofDrum Corps World).

27th Lancers, 1976 (photo by Ed Ferguson from the collection of Drum CorpsWorld).

27th Lancers, 1981 (photo by Art Luebke from the collection of Drum Corps World).

27th Lancers, 1975 (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

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The responsibility for the Lancers’ visualpresentation was now in the hands of GeorgeZingali. He would make his fame throughmost of the 1980s with the Cadets and Star ofIndiana, but Revere, MA, was his home,where he fine-tuned his genius and creativity.

Of the many talents Zingali possessed, hisability to motivate and spread hisenthusiasm was probably his greatest.During the 1979 Drum Corps EastChampionships at Lynn’s Manning Bowl, helearned that the local Wendy’s restaurant wasoffering a free meal to the winning corps.Zingali knew food was always a greatmotivational tool to be used on the Lancers.

While ourcousins inyellow fromJersey marchedinto thestadiumchanting,“Wendy’s. . . hot andjuicy . . . ” totheir patentedhip arm swing,Zingali could beheard bellowingat the top of hislungs, “Thehungriestcorps wins!”The 27thLancers ate

well that night.In 1979, there was an entertainment

producer named Tommy Walker watching thePBS broadcast of the DCI Finals. Walker wascontracted by the United States OlympicCommittee to develop the opening andclosing ceremonies for the upcoming WinterOlympic Games to be held in Lake Placid, NY.

He contacted Bonfiglio and asked that heconsider making the mid-winter trip toupstate New York for the event. There was noquestion, the Lancers were going to theOlympics. The corps was outfitted inuniforms appropriate for performing insub-freezing weather and had to learn how to

march on ice with speeding figure skaters allaround them.

The Lancers enjoyed performing in LakePlacid and entertained an internationaltelevision audience numbering in themillions. It was the beginning of a great yearfor the corps.

The staff carried over most of the 1979show into 1980. By August the Lancers weresharing the top spot of DCI with the BlueDevils. The 1980 27th Lancers were a greatdrum and bugle corps and made their bestrun ever to capture the DCI Championship.

Wedge said he didn’t know which washarder to take -- dropping down to 20th placein 1974 or losing the championship by tenthsof a point in 1980. Regardless, he was proudof the effort and heart displayed by the corpsduring both seasons.

By 1983, the corps was feeling thebacklash of staff turnover. Zingali wouldmove on, as would Wedge. In 1984, the corpswas slipping in the DCI standings, withPoole’s percussion section holding the corpsin the top 12.

Halley’s Comet made a rare visit in 1985.In medieval times, the sight of a comet wasconsidered a bad omen. Unrealized by mostat the time, it was the beginning of the endfor the Lancers. With the exception of theCadets, the Eastern corps in general werefairly weak in 1985. The Lancers were 10 ormore points behind Cadets every outing.Again, poor recruitment and lack of moneywere taking their toll on the corps. They

27th Lancers, 1984 (photo by Art Luebke from the collection of Drum Corps World).

27th Lancers, 1981 (photo by Mark Boisclair from the collection of Drum Corps World).

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Steve Groh is a broadcast televisionengineer and freelance video producer inBoston. He produced two limited release

video documentaries on the 27thLancers -- “Once more in '94” was aninsider's look at the formation andlegendary performance of the Lancer's

1994 alumni corps and“Two-Seven” traced the19-year competitivehistory of the corps andwas produced as part ofthe Lancers’ 35thanniversary in 2002 .He was a member of the

27th Lancers from 1969-1974.He and his wife Maryhelen (also a

Lancer alumnus) travel as often aspossible to exotic destinations toparticipate in their favorite hobby,scuba diving and underwaterphotography.

dropped out of the top 12 at the DCI Finalsfor the first time in 11 years, causing evenmore money problems going into 1986.

The following season was a year that brokea lot of hearts. The “Challenger” disaster inFlorida and the Red Sox’s bizarre loss in theWorld Series all had deep impacts on NewEnglanders. The Lancers had taken greatchances for the 1986 season. The entireBritish theme was thrown out in favor ofcontemporary Broadway tunes. The uniformshad finallyevolved awayfrom kilts,the busbiesand the“Scottish WarMaiden”jackets. TheLancers hadtheir usualslow start atthe beginningof the seasonand started toimprove asthe seasonwore on. Thetenuousfinancialsituationfinally collapsed that summer. The corps lost“Lancer Hall,” loans were called in andBonfiglio was facedwith an importantdecision -- try tolimp through andkeep going or go outwith pride.

Ironically, failureto make finals forthe secondconsecutive yearwas not indicated asthe determiningfactor in the corps’demise.

In mid-seasonthe bus breakdownswere rampant. BillCook from Star ofIndiana borrowed a

bus from his friend Bobby Knight’s IndianaUniversity basketball team for the Lancerswhile one of the Lancer buses was beingrepaired.

When the Lancers’ bus returned, oneyoung woman was afraid to get back on thebus. She told Bonfiglio she feared for hersafety and was afraid to travel on the buses.Bonfiglio points to that incident as themoment he decided. He knew, regardless ofthe corps’ placement in Madison, that

they simply couldnot continue.That youngwomen’spremonition ofdanger made uphis mind. For thesecond time in asmany years, the27th Lancersfinished theirseason just oneplace short offinals.

After the 1986prelims inMadison, theofficialannouncementwas made. The 27th

Lancers had performed for the last time. Atthe finals that evening, Lancer fans and

competitors mourned their loss. Members ofStar of Indiana had left their shoes on thefield forming the numbers “2-7” in honor ofthe Lancers.

After their last appearance in competitionon August 15, 1986, the Lancers left a void incompetitive drum corps. They were the lastof the “blue collar” drum corps to perishunder the strain of touring economics.

They were mercenaries, largelysupported by 128 tattered wallets. They werealways a crowd-pleaser and were the subjectof many stories concerning the history ofdrum corps.

In a way, the 27th Lancers Alumni’sappearance at the 1994 DCI Championshipswas inevitable. Until 1994, the Lancer storynever had an ending. Ironically, 1994 DCIcame to Boston during the Lancers’ 27thanniversary year.

That exhibition performance to close the1994 finals will always be considered by themembers, friends and foes as the farewellperformance and for the 286 people who woreLancer uniforms that night, the greatestnight of their drum corps lives.

The 1994 performance in Foxboro was the27th Lancers’ way of saying, “Thank you andgoodbye.”

27th Lancers at the 1980 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies (photo bythe Lake Placid Olympic committee from the collection of Drum Corps World).

27th Lancers, 1985 (photo by Orlin Wagner from the collection of DrumCorps World).

27th Lancers, early 1984 (photo by Joseph Zepko from the collection of Drum Corps World).

The 1994 reunion corps at DCI in Boston, MA (photo by Ron Walloch from the collection of Drum Corps World).

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