Southwind Legacy Project
Drum corps is an activity fueled by legacy, by the familiar stories told in the show lot on a warm summer night – a history created in the enduring present. Because of this, losing a corps is always a tragedy. The present and future are cut short and the stories often untold.
The Southwind Legacy Project strives to tell Southwind’s story and keep their memory a permanent part of the future. Aspects of the project include adding the former Director of Southwind to the Spartans Board of Directors, member scholarships, alumni connections during the Spartans’ 70th season, and including Southwind’s history on their website and during the corps’ annual history night. Southwind’s material assets live on through the generous donation of a kitchen trailer, equipment truck, and instruments to the Spartans, all which will help the corps grow and maintain their program for the next generation of young performers. This groundbreaking initiative affirms that Southwind’s mission, generosity and sisterhood is a treasure that can’t be forgotten – because it lives in the present tense.
About Southwind
Inspired by the 1980 DCI Championships in Birmingham, five Alabama high schoolers yearned to be part of a drum corps. When there were no corps nearby, they approached their instructor Michael D. Terry about forming a corps locally. Terry initially had “much trepidation and very little confidence”, but he founded Southwind just months later and named it after the Chicago-to-Miami passenger train “The South Wind” that passed through tracks next to the corps’ practice field. Within two years of their 1980 founding, the corps had toured to contests throughout the South and as far north as Montreal.
After a six-year hiatus to secure finances, Southwind returned to competition in 1989. They quickly grew from less than 60 members in 1989, to two undefeated seasons in Class A/Division II, to full membership in Division I in 1993. By 2000, the corps had entered a brief partnership with Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps, moved their headquarters to Lexington, Kentucky, and had a historic highest-scoring season in 2000. The 2000 show featured the piece “Legends of the Fall” by James Horner, which became the corps song.
When economic conditions forced the corps to enter a period of competitive inactivity in 2007, it marked the end of the corps’ participation in Division I. Following years of financial rebuilding by the Southwind Alumni Organization, the corps returned in 2014 with a SoundSport team that paved the way for growing participation in the Open Class tour. Having moved their headquarters back to Mobile, Alabama, the organization focused their performances in the South until their full return to DCI Championships in 2017 – exactly a decade after they became inactive.
The 2017-2023 seasons saw notable growth in the corps, both competitively and for offering Southern students accessible participation in drum corps. Throughout the 2023 season, Southwind and Spartans had a special connection through performing at both home shows, a joint performance at Kings Dominion amusement park, and sharing several housing sites together. Southwind’s program “Cowboys in the Sky” earned their first DCI Open Class Championship medal and their first performance as World Class Semi-Finalists since their return. Like so many times before, they marked the occasion with performances of “Legends of the Fall”, an homage to the storied history of a corps that began with just five students and a dream as determined as a train called “The South Wind”.
