VFW (the primary rule makers and sponsors of both corps and shows) and the low or nonexistent performance fees paid for appearing in the various competitions. The corps stated that not only were they having their creative potential as artistic performing groups stifled, but they were being financially starved. (A similar group of Eastern corps, the United Organization of Junior Corps [also known as the "Alliance"], was formed by the 27th Lancers, Garfield Cadets, Boston Crusaders, Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights, and Blue Rock.) The Combine members further declared that the corps should be making their own rules, operating their own competitions and championships, and keeping the bulk of the monies those shows earned. For the 1971 season, the corps stuck together, offering show promoters the five corps as a package. Despite pressure on show sponsors, judges, and other drum corps, the Combine corps were not only booked into a number of shows together, but they found a host for a show of their own, which was a spectacular success despite fears of failure that lasted until a standing-room-only crowd arrived literally at the last moment. But 1971 was not as much of a success for the Cavaliers. Their show with the guard doing an Irish jig and a circus section was not well-received, and the corps fell to eighth at CYO Nationals and, with most of the top corps opting for VFW VFW Nationals, they finished in second, two points behind the Argonne Rebels at the Legion Nationals in the Houston Astrodome. The beginning of DCI In 1972, The Cavaliers, along with the nine other corps from the Combine and the Alliance, plus the Anaheim Kingsmen, Argonne Rebels, and De La Salle Oaklands were founding members of Drum Corps International, which remains as the sanctioning body for junior corps in North America. At the first DCI World Championships in Whitewater, Wisconsin, The Cavaliers finished in ninth place in a competition that featured thirty-nine corps from the East, the South, the West Coast, the Midwest and Great Plains, and Canada. The 1972 Cavaliers also won another VFW National Championship in Minneapolis, their seventh. 1973 was a troublesome year for The Cavaliers. Money was tight; recruitment was difficult; the staff was having a hard time dealing with a rapidly changing activity It was not widely known until later that Don Warren was considering shutting down The Cavaliers. But The Cavaliers persisted and