Since then, the corps has failed to make DCI Finals only once (1999), and the Bluecoats have become a consistent DCI contender.
As a full-fledged Open Class corps the Bluecoats improved with each passing year until, in 1987, the corps became the first corps from Ohio to earn a place in the DCI World Championship finals, finishing in eleventh place. With successful fund-raising projects and a solid business plan in place, the corps returned to the field after only a one-year hiatus. One of Swaldo's first moves as corps director was to see that the organization was run like a business, a concept that has since been spread to numerous non-profit youth organizations around the country. When he told his father, Canton industrialist Ted Swaldo (now the corps' Director Emeritus), the elder Swaldo stated his determination to prevent it and stepped in to try to save the corps. In 1983, it was announced that the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps would cease operations.Īt the time that the corps' folding was announced, present-day corps President Scott Swaldo was a marching member. In the next two seasons, the corps attempted to compete exclusively in Open Class, but they met with small success. With the return to the field in 1980, the corps was competitive in Class A competitions but only managed a thirty-eighth-place finish of the forty-four corps performing in Open Class at the DCI World Championships in Birmingham, Alabama. 1979 saw the corps performing only in local parades, as it attempted to reorganize its financial situation. The Bluecoats made their first DCI appearance in Denver in 1977, scoring in thirty-fifth place among forty-five corps.Īlthough the corps was maturing musically, it was struggling to survive financially. Open finals in 1976, taking second place in 1977 and third in 1978. The corps improved year by year, and began touring in both the U.S. The corps made its competition debut in 1974 and, in their first major show, finished thirty-second of thirty-seven corps in the U.S.
The corps members chose the name both because of their sponsorship and to honor the city's police officers, particularly those who had retired from the ranks. The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps was founded in 1972 by Canton businessman Art Drukenbrod and Canton Police officers "Babe" Stearn and Ralph McCauley, the director and assistant director of the Canton Police Boys' Club.