The 1924 American Legion National Championship.
In 1924 the American Legion National Convention was held in St. Paul, Minnesota, from September 15th through the 19th. What appears to be most significant about this convention as far as drum and bugle corps history is concerned is that for the first time a scoring system is reportedly used and for the first time the top 5 bands and drum and bugle corps as judged in the parade were to compete against each other in a stadium setting in a final competition for the championship. In essence we have the beginning of both a scoring system and field competitions.
1924’s American Legion National Convention was expected to be the largest gathering in the history of the American Legion with 65 floats, 300 bands and drum and bugle corps coming from every section of the country to compete for honors.
Wisconsin alone sent at least 17 bands and drum and bugle corps to St. Paul, Minnesota for the 1924 American Legion National Convention. Thirteen bands came from American Legion Posts in Kenosha, Baldwin, Milwaukee, Stanley, Ladysmith, Bloomer, Beaver Dam, Waukesha, Juneau, Milwaukee Ladies Band, Cadott, Baraboo and Chippewa Falls. Four Wisconsin drum and bugle corps came from American Legion Posts in Racine, Fond du Lac, Eau Claire 40 & 8, and Stevens Point.
En route to the National American Legion Convention at St. Paul, the Racine American Legion Post 76 Drum and Bugle Corps stopped in Milwaukee to attend the annual 32nd Division Veteran’s Association reunion being held there. On Sunday at 1:30 pm, September 14th, the 32nd Division Veterans Association staged a military parade which went through the principal downtown streets of Milwaukee. The Racine American Legion Post 76 Drum and Bugle Corps took part in this parade prior to leaving for St. Paul from Milwaukee on a special American Legion convention train at 9 pm Sunday night. A number of 32nd Division veterans attended both conventions.
The Racine American Legion Post 76 Drum and Bugle Corps arrived at St. Paul at 10:30 am Monday morning. Monday night the drum and bugle corps marched through the streets of St. Paul to the Athletic Club where a full concert was given. Street corner opinion of the corps was that it was the classiest outfit seen there so far.
Contest rules for drum and bugle corps at the 1924 American Legion national convention at St. Paul, MN:
1. No legionnaires or conductors shall be allowed to compete as members of more than one band or drum and bugle corps.
2. Drum and bugle corps shall be selected to enter contests for final judging while the column is passing the reviewing stand on the parade day in the following manner: They shall turn out of the column, take a position opposite of the reviewing stand and play the units composing their division or their portion of their division of the parade by the reviewing stand, and then fall in behind their proper units and resume the march.
3. Five drum and bugle corps of no less than fifteen pieces will be selected from the parade. They will be judged on the following points: Uniforms, 20 points; marching appearance, 20 points; Rhythm, 20 points; Cadence, 20 points and Maneuvers, 20 points.
4. Drum and bugle corps shall be required to march U.S. Army standard time of 128 steps per minute; these marches to consist of 2-4 and 6-8 tempo.
The big parade of the national American Legion Convention was held on Tuesday, September 16th, with all but five drum and bugle corps eliminated. Those that were selected to compete at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds on Wednesday night for the championship were as follows: Walter Craig Post No. 60, Rockford, IL; Kankakee Post No. 85, Kankakee, IL; Omaha Post No. 1, Omaha, NE; Major A. M. Trier Post No. 75, Fond du Lac, WI, and Racine Post No. 76, Racine, WI.
Receiving honorable mention were St. Paul Post No. 8, St. Paul, MN; Logan Post No. 7, Logan, UT; Clausen Worden Post No. 101, Mason City, IA, and Earl Faulkner Post No. 6, Everett, WA.
The American Legion’s parade in St. Paul was reported to be second in size only to New York’s welcome to the returning dough boys back in 1919. Between 25,000 and 30,000 Legionnaires marched or took part in the parade. The parade was five miles long and took four hours to pass the reviewing stand. American Legion officials and a majority of newspapers at the time agreed that the crowd must have been between 350,000 and 400,000. All St. Paul and Minneapolis places of business were closed for the occasion.
Wisconsin had by far the largest contingent in the parade. The Racine American Legion Post 76 Drum and Bugle Corps, accompanied by two huge floats, was the highlight of the parade.
After the parade, the streets of St. Paul looked like a tornado had struck. Paper, showered from sky-scraper windows, was reportedly piled a foot deep at the curb.
“Well,” said National Commander John R. Quinn, “we gave you some show, didn’t we?”
Following the American Legion’s big parade on Tuesday, the Wisconsin Legionnaires went to Minneapolis where they put on a program of music, vaudeville and dancing at the armory. The Racine American Legion Post 76 Drum and Bugle Corps paraded the Minneapolis streets before going to the armory. It was estimated that 15,000 people attended the armory program which included a concert by the combined Wisconsin American Legion Post bands.
The finals for the American Legion National Championship were held Wednesday night, September 17th, at the Minnesota State Fair grounds as part of a spectacular production of entertainment climaxed by fireworks. More than 25,000 people were crowded into the fair grounds’ grandstand and a like number were scattered over the hills that surrounded the race track to view the contest. For the third consecutive year the Racine American Legion Post 76 Drum and Bugle Corps had proved itself superior to any other drum and bugle corps in the American Legion and won the first prize purse of $750.
Nine judges scored. Each one judged all five captions totaling 100 points for each judge. Twenty points each were given for cadence, rhythm, uniforms, marching and appearance. So a perfect score of 100 points from each of the nine judges would have resulted in a perfect total score of 900 points. Two judges scored Racine 100 and two gave it 99. With a total of 850 points, the Racine drum and bugle corps averaged 94.4. Second place, with $500 went to Omaha with a total of 815 points. The Fond du Lac, WI, Drum and Bugle Corps, only six months old, made a fine showing and took third place with 805 total points. Third prize was $250.
The Walter R. Craig Post No. 60, Rockford, IL, placed fourth and Kankakee Post No. 85, Kankakee, IL, fifth.
As the Racine American Legion Post 76 Drum and Bugle Corps went through maneuvers and marched and counter marched to a continuous ovation from the thousands packed in the state fair ground’s grandstand to witness the finals competition, C. O. Kalman, chairman of the committee in charge of the judging remarked: “It’s as near perfect as anything can be.”
Another man in the judge's stand remarked “It looked like a bunch of amateurs competing against professionals.”
Competition that the Racine drum and bugle corps met this year was the hardest ever according to Max J. Zirbes, Post 76 Commander. “Many persons think that all Racine had to do was march down the street and then stand around until the prize was handed us,” Zirbes stated. “But we had to perform our best. All the Racine boys were nervous before the final competition.”
After winning for the third time in a row, Joseph Oliver, drillmaster of the Racine American Legion Post 76 Drum and Bugle Corps, stated that this was to be the last time that the Racine outfit will compete in any contest at the conventions. Hereafter it will appear only in exhibition and will not compete.
The Sioux City, Iowa, Band took first place among the five bands picked from the parade in the finals competition for bands at the state fair ground Wednesday night. Wichita, KS, second; Cedar Falls, IA, third; Logansport, IN, fourth and the Beaver Dam, WI, Band finished in fifth place.
The Hastings, Nebraska, Girls Drill Team performed an exhibition drill at the finals competition at the state fair ground Wednesday night. The Wednesday, October 10, 1924, Badger Legionnaire magazine reported:
"Probably the greatest applause during the evening was given them as they performed almost faultlessly in their striking uniforms before the stands. They executed nearly every difficult maneuver of the drill regulations without a mistake and with a short, snappy step that added charm to the drill cadence."
Racine’s victorious drum and bugle corps arrived home Saturday night at 10 pm on September 20th to a welcome of hundreds of cheering supporters at the North Western train station. The welcome was as fully enthusiastic as the welcome accorded the drum and bugle corps upon its victorious return last year and two years ago.
While due back in Racine at 7:30 pm, the drum and bugle corps didn’t arrive until 10 pm. The delay was caused by the several specials which were run over the North Western line from St. Paul to the south. All the regular trains were sent through first and the specials held.
Several hundred persons awaited the drum corps at the train station. Loyal, they waited as train after train went by. But when the boys did arrive, their feelings were given forth in a cheer that rivaled the greeting given them when they came home from war.
Cars were parked along State Street from the train station to Main Street in a continual line. They had been there since before 7:30 pm awaiting the victory parade that would happen after the drum and bugle corps arrived. They never gave up waiting and stayed to the end.
Shortly after their arrival, the drum and bugle corps donned their white uniforms and glistening new steel helmets and marched down State Street, south on Main Street and west on Sixth to the H. and M. (Huppmobile and Mitchell) auto body plant, where the members disbanded.
As the drum and bugle corps marched down the parade route, hundreds of automobile horns were sounded and persons lining the sidewalks behind the cars shouted their welcome. Along Main Street traffic was halted by police motorcycle officers so the parade could continue. Crowds filled all the space on sidewalks and windows of apartments were filled. The drum and bugle corps paraded along to continual cheering from the thousands of spectators.
Although the people of Racine never saw how the Racine American Legion Post 76 Drum and Bugle Corps looked in St. Paul, the corps paraded with the intent to show their home town what they did to win the highest honors for the third straight year at the national American Legion convention.
