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De La Salle "Oaklands"
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| Alumni Corps
member, John Petti marched with De La Salle. |
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De La Salle "Oaklands" Drum & Bugle Corps began as
the bugle band of De La Salle College, way back
in 1910. This made it one of the oldest
corps in North America. The actual drum corps was
formed, and began competing, in 1958. That same
year the Toronto Optimists was also formed and,
for the next 17 years Del and Opti were
cross-town rivals.
In the early years the scores of Del and Opti
often were close
but Del always seemed to be "the bridesmaid", while
Toronto Optimists was "the bride". In 1961
Del almost did it — for the first time they beat Opti, just before nationals; however, once again
they lost to the Optimists — by .05, a mere
twentieth of a point! Finally, in 1969, Del
broke Optimists' string of 11 straight Canadian
National Championships. Ironically, this time
they they won by
a twentieth of a point! Del also took the
Canadian Nationals in 1970 & 1971. When DCI was
formed in 1972, Del was one of its founding
members.
In 1974 De La Salle became the first Canadian
corps to make DCI Finals, finishing in seventh
place. At the end of 1974 the school dropped its
sponsorship of the corps and De La Salle "Oaklands"
merged with the Etobicoke Crusaders to form the
Oakland Crusaders.
For more of Del's history, view the
50th anniversary book on their website.
Article on "Del" from May, 1965 Drum Corps
Digest (Acrobat file) |
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Del on steps of the school (about 1962) |
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Nationals, 1971 |
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