Seneca Optimists

The Seneca Optimists was a junior marching and maneuvering corps based in Toronto, Ontario. The corps was created in 1976 as a merger between the Seneca Princemen and the Toronto Optimists. Al Tierney was the founding director.

A very successful corps, the Optimists were Canadian national champions 13 times in their 20-year history, including 11 in a row (1958-1968). The Optimists competed in DCI Finals in 1976 and 1977, one of only four Canadian corps to make finals. Their highest finish was eighth, in 1977. Their highest major finish came when they won the championship of the 1977 U.S. Open.

In 1976, Toronto became the only city ever to produce two DCI finalists in the same year, the other being the Oakland Crusaders.

The corps even dressed optimistically, in bright, eye-catching yellow. They supposedly picked up the name "Mellow Yellow" when a drunk in the stands began yelling that at them in a 1976 show.

In 2003, the Optimists Alumni Corps took shape to "celebrate the existence of Canada's most successful competitive drum and bugle corps."

[http://www.in2corps.com/legends/opti/optimist.htm; A History of Drum & Bugle Corps, 2002; Gary Cuzzocrea, RAMD, 3/9/99; DCW, 6/27/03, p.3; DCW, 7/6/90, p.14; DCW, 12/03, p.3]

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