The Blue Knights Drum And Bugle Corps

The Blue Knights from Denver, CO is aWorld Class Drum Corps International (DCI) member corps sponsored by Ascend Performing Arts of Denver, Colorado. The corps was founded in 1958 by Fred and Fae Taylor, who hosted local television shows for teens and taught music in their Fred and Fae Talent School. Fred was also a drummer in the Denver Grenadiers (American Legion) Senior Drum and Bugle Corps who saw that a junior drum and bugle corps would provide performing opportunities to their students. The corps was officially established in 1958 with Fred Taylor, George Young, and Ray Route as both the board of directors and the instructional staff. Plan A had been for the corps to be only a parade corps. Plan B saw them enter their first field competition in the corps' inaugural season and travel to VFW Nationals the following year. Although not very competitively successful in its early years, the corps kept plugging away, while many of its contemporaries fell by the wayside and became defunct. They attended their first Drum Corps International (DCI) Championships in 1975, finishing in 11th place in Class A prelims. They returned to DCI as the hometown hosts at Mile High Stadium in 1977, but they finished 41st of the 45 corps in Open Class prelims in Boulder, Colorado. (Blue Knights also hosted the DCI Championships in 1978 and 2004 -- in '78, the corps was only a parade corps, but in 2003, they finished in 10th place). The corps marched as only a parade corps in 1978 thru 1980, but in 1979, they renamed their home show "Drums Along the Rockies" (DATR) which became and remains a major national show and is one of the corps' primary fundraisers. The corps' bingo fundraiser, started in 1983, was wiped out when Colorado legalized casino gambling in the early 1990s. 1986 was a crucial year in the corps' history when, not only was recruting low, but some members were injured by a lightning strike on the practice field. Mark Arnold (7) was brought in to stabilize the situation, and he helped the corps rebuild, as he brought in noted instructors and designers like George Zingali, Jim Prime, and Ralph Hardimon. Under Arnold's leadership, the corps improved to 22nd place in '87, 17th in '88, 16th in '89, 13th in '90, and gained its first DCI Finals slot with a 9th place finish in 1991. The corps was a DCI Finalist 1991-94, 1996-2000, and 2004-2017, and Arnold was inducted into the DCI Hall of Fame in 2014. In addition to the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps, Ascend Performing Arts sponsors the Blue Knights Percussion Ensemble, which has competed in Winter Guard International (WGI) since 1994 (longer than any other unit) and won the WGI Independent World Championship in 1994, 1999, 2000, and 2003. Ascend also co-sponsors the BKXperience-Perform! clinics held for middle school through college band students in conjunction with both DATR and the Corps Encore show that the organization also hosts in Ogden, Utah. The Blue Knights also developed and produces The Broncos Stampede, consisting of the Broncos Stampede Drum Line (formed 2003) and the Broncos Brass (formed 2009), the official percussion line and brass ensemble of the Denver Broncos of the National Football League. [Ascend Performing Arts; Drum Corps World (multiple issues); Dave Strickler; A History of Drum & Bugle Corps, Vol. 2; Steve Vickers; Drum Corps International]