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The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps (also known as "The Scouts", "Scouts", or "Madison") is a World Class ''(formerly Division I)'' competitive junior drum and bugle corps. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, the Madison Scouts was one of the thirteen founding member corps of Drum Corps International (DCI) and is a two-time DCI World Champion. The Madison Scouts is one of only two remaining all-male corps, with the other being The Cavaliers. ==History== In 1938, a group of Madison businessmen saw a performance of the Racine Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps. They decided that Madison should also have a Boy Scout drum corps, and they formed the Madison Scouts, which they affiliated with the local Scout council. They named Clarence H. Bebee as the corps' first director, a position he would hold for thirty years, until his death in 1968. In its early days, the corps performed concerts and appeared in many local parades. During World War II the corps participated in War Bond rallies. The corps was split in 1951, with the older members becoming the Madison Explorer Scouts and the younger assigned to the Madison Junior Scouts, a cadet "feeder" corps for the older unit.〔A History of Drum & Bugle Corps, Vol. 2; Steve Vickers, ed.; ''Drum Corps World'', pub.; 2003〕 In 1954, the Explorer Scouts entered field competitions and, in their first "national" competition, finished second at the VFW Nationals in Philadelphia. They repeated as runners-up at Boston in 1955. In 1956, they attended the American Legion Nationals in Los Angeles and were second there, too. They then were finalists at VFW Nationals from '57 through '62 and also made American Legion Finals in '58 and '59. In the early 1960s the corps switched from Explorer Scout uniforms to West Point cadet style uniforms. While attending VFW Nationals from 1964 through '69, they failed to make a finals appearance. In 1969, Bill Howard became corps director, and the corps returned to wearing Explorer uniforms. The corps made immediate improvements and returned to VFW finals in 1970 and '71.〔〔 In 1971, at the urging of Cavaliers founder Don Warren and Troopers founder Jim Jones, the Blue Stars, Cavaliers, Madison Scouts, Santa Clara Vanguard, and the Troopers formed the Midwest Combine. This action was taken in reaction to the rigid, inflexible rules of the American Legion and VFW (the primary rule makers and sponsors of both corps and shows) and the low or nonexistent performance fees paid for appearing in the various competitions. The corps felt that not only were they having their creative potential as artistic performing groups stifled, but they were being financially starved. (A similar group of Eastern corps, the United Organization of Junior Corps (also known as the "Alliance"), was formed by the 27th Lancers, Garfield Cadets, Boston Crusaders, Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights, and Blue Rock.) The Combine members felt that the corps should be making their own rules, operating their own competitions and championships, and keeping the bulk of the monies those shows earned. For the 1971 season, the corps stuck together, offering show promoters the five corps as a package. Despite pressure on show sponsors, judges, and other drum corps, the Combine corps were not only booked into a number of shows together, but they found a host for a show of their own, which was a spectacular success despite fears of failure that lasted until a standing-room-only crowd arrived literally at the last moment.〔()〕 In 1972, the Madison Scouts, along with the nine other corps from the Midwest Combine and the Alliance, plus the Anaheim Kingsmen, Argonne Rebels, and De La Salle Oaklands were founding members of Drum Corps International, which remains as the sanctioning body for junior corps in North America. At the first DCI World Championships in Whitewater, Wisconsin, the Scouts finished in fourteenth place in a competition that featured thirty-nine corps from the East, the South, the West Coast, the Midwest and Great Plains, and Canada. In 1973, the Scouts rose all the way up to fourth place. The following year, they were DCI runners-up, and in Philadelphia in 1975, the Madison Scouts became the third corps to win the DCI World Championship. The Scouts would remain a DCI Top Twelve Finalist until 2002, and has missed Finals only three times through 2011. In the Seventies, the Scouts would also become Regulars in CYO Nationals, making Finals in 1973 through '79 and winning in 1974 and '75. In 1980, after sixteen previous appearances and ten prior Finals, the Madison Scouts won VFW Nationals in Chicago, probably the last year that VFW Nationals held any relevance. That year, they toured Canada; they finished sixth at the DCI Finals in Birmingham, Alabama, where there was only a 3.55 points difference between first and sixth; the corps started working toward the entire staff being composed of Scouts alumni, with Bill Howard stepping down and being replaced by Scott Stewart as corps director.〔〔 Through the Eighties, Madison was mostly an also-ran in DCI Finals. In 1988, after winning their first five Drum Corps Midwest (DCM) shows, as part of their fiftieth anniversary festivities, the Scouts left the country and the North American continent. The Madison Scouts went to Europe that June, where they presented clinics and performed in exhibition at contests that included all of the corps from Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Germany. The corps returned to find themselves trailing Phantom Regiment, Star of Indiana, and The Cavaliers at the DCM Championships in DeKalb, Illinois. At DCI Midwest in Whitewater, they were behind the Santa Clara Vanguard and Blue Devils. Improving as the season went on, by DCI South in Birmingham, Alabama, they trailed only Santa Clara. And, by DCI Semifinals in Kansas City, Missouri, the Madison Scouts were in command, with a performance that left the crowd screaming for more. They gave the more in Finals and won their second DCI World Championship.〔〔 In 1990, the organization dropped the name Scouts from the corporate name and allowed the charter for Boy Scout Troop 600 to lapse, although the corps remained affiliated with Scouting for another two decades. The Scouts began the conversion to three valve horns in 1991. By 1992, Madison was marching more than a dozen members from outside the U.S., with members coming from Canada, Great Britain, Japan, and the Netherlands. In 1995, the Junior Scouts merged with the Capitolaires Drum and Bugle Corps, an all-girl corps from Madison. The resulting coed Capital Sound Drum and Bugle Corps would operate under the Madison banner, and the Capitolaires' bingo game would further solidify the Madison organization's finances. Southwind Drum and Bugle Corps would be brought into the Madison organization in 1997, relocating from Montgomery, Alabama to Lexington, Kentucky to be able to compete in DCM. Through the Nineties, the Scouts would continue to be a Finalist in DCI with a continuing series of crowd-pleasing programs.〔〔 The century turned with the Madison Scouts still in the DCI Top Twelve. In 2002, South Africa was added to the list of countries represented in the corps' membership, and Scott Stewart retired after a disappointing fourteenth-place finish at the 2002 DCI Finals, at home in Camp Randall Stadium. It was only the second time that the Scouts had missed Finals in DCI's thirty-one seasons. The corps would return to Finals in 2003-06, but, with seemingly constant staff turnover, would fall to fifteenth in 2007 and again in 2009. The Organization would also sever its ties to both Capitol Sound and Southwind. In 2010, Jim Mason, former director of Star of Indiana and its offshoots, was hired as program coordinator/artistic director, and the Madison Scouts would return to DCI Finals under his guidance in 2010 through 2014.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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