While the Bluecoats were officially born on December 3, 1972, the corps did not hit the competitive field until summer of 1974. The first Bloo summer was as a parade corps that stayed fairly close to headquarters at the Canton Police Boys Club. But in 1974 the corps fundraised for traditional corps uniforms and produced its first field show and hosted the very first Innovations IN BRASS.

30 years ago this past weekend, the Bluecoats were coming off their 5th consecutive Easter Weekend Drill Camp. In 1990 the corps returned to 5th Regiment Armory in Baltimore, Maryland, where they had first come in 1986. The idea of “hitting the road” for a drill camp was something that (then) Director Ted Swaldo liked as a way to do a dry run on touring to get the kinks out six weeks before setting out on Summer Tour for real. In the first few years, the corps did standstill performances in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor tourist destination before hundreds of downtown spectators.