1969 marked the second year SCV traveled outside of California, and the first year the Corps went all the way to the East Coast…
The corps finally made it onto a record (the famous old Fleetwood Records) by placing 9th at the Finals of World Open. At VFW Nationals in Philadelphia, the corps missed making finals by 0.15 of a point and lost to Argonne Rebels for 12th spot.
Following VFW, they traveled to Washington, DC where they played a standstill on the steps of the Capitol Building, The next stop was New York City for four days of “cultural enrichment” before making the long bus & station wagon trip home. On that long home stretch, one of the two station wagons broke down outside Aurora, Nebraska. As a result, not everyone made it to the next stop. The corps did exhibition performances in North Platte, NE and Elko, NV without two soprano soloists, a 3rd soprano, two lead baritones, and the entire french horn section.
While traveling east that summer in Omaha, Nebraska, the guys who were 18 and over learned the Military Draft Lottery number that had been drawn for each of their birthdays.
1969 also marked the birth of “The Chicken”. This duty was originally the responsibility of Dan Pritchard. In later seasons the famous Starting Line Call was made by Charlie Anderson.
* Note: Even though it was played throughout much of the pre-season, “Turkey Lurkey Time” was never actually played in competition.
