History of Grand National Championships
In 1976, the first Bands of America (originally founded in 1975 as "Marching Bands of America") marching band championship was held during the Summer National Championship in Whitewater, Wisconsin, as part of the Summer Workshop/Festival. Four years later, the first Grand National Championships (now commonly referred to as "Grand Nationals") was held at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, which was won by the J. M. Tate High School.
Beginning in 1984, the organization officially changed its name to Bands of America. In 1994, the competition was moved to Indianapolis, Indiana's Hoosier Dome (later renamed the RCA Dome. Except for 1987 and 1988, when the Grand Nationals were held in the Pontiac Silverdome, the event has remained in Indianapolis.
In 2006 BOA merged with Music for All Foundation to create Music for All, Inc. Bands of America is used as the organization name for all marching band competitions through the Music for All, Inc.
With the start of the 2008 marching season, the Grand National Championships has been held in the Lucas Oil Stadium located immediately south of the former site of the RCA Dome. Fans and competitors who were previously thrilled by the sight of the dome's roof appearing on the city's skyline were disappointed to learn of its deflation and subsequent demolition which allowed for the expansion to the Indiana Convention Center and the construction of Lucas Oil Stadium. The expansion will ultimately benefit the competition's student workshops and various demonstrations held there during the Grand National Championships when completed.
Read more about this topic: Bands Of America
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, grand and/or national:
“Perhaps universal history is the history of the diverse intonation of some metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“The allurement that women hold out to men is precisely the allurement that Cape Hatteras holds out to sailors: they are enormously dangerous and hence enormously fascinating. To the average man, doomed to some banal drudgery all his life long, they offer the only grand hazard that he ever encounters. Take them away, and his existence would be as flat and secure as that of a moo-cow.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)