Thunderbolts

Other Names:Mercury Thunderbolts

Cedarburg, WI United States
Founded: 1953

Inactive Junior

Year	Position	Score	Theme/Songs
1972	28	59.450	(Repertoire not available)

Position 200+ indicates Division II, Position 300+ indicates Division III, Position 400+ indicates Mini Corps.

CORPS Photos

1971 1 Photos

The Thunderbolts, formed in 1953, was a junior marching and maneuvering corps based in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

The corps was born when a group of Cedarburg High School students persuaded their band director, William Loebel, to help them organize a corps. Loebel had experience with a senior corps in Port Washington.

Originally called the Cedarburg High School Drum and Bugle Corps, it was made up of students who wished to learn the extra flash and skill that performing in a corps required. The students had seen many corps perform in the annual Cedarburg Festival of Music, sponsored by the Cedarburg Fire Department. They wore their band uniforms, and a group called the Music Parents helped purchase a set of brass-colored bugles.

Mr. Loebel soon approached Mr. William Kiekhaefer, a local manufacturer of outboard engines. The Kiekhaefer Mercury Corporation agreed to help sponsor the corps. In honor of this sponsorship the students and Mr. Loebel chose the name "Mercury Thunderbolts." The Mercury outboard engines had a feature called Thunderbolt ignition.

The Thunderbolts' inaugural colors were pink and grey, with a winged foot symbol of Mercury on the back, eventually to be replaced by a red thunderbolt.

By 1963, the corps had broken its ties with the high school, thereby allowing students to march beyond their graduation.

In 1968, after some hard years, Mr. Loebel resigned as director. His replacement, Walter Ulekowski, proceeded to recruit a much larger corps. The rejuvenated Thunderbolts were able to win their first contest since 1965, actually beat the slumping Madison Scouts.

The corps competed in the Midwest VFW and American Legion circuits in the 1970s. Their only known DCI appearance was in 1972, when they finished 28th in Open Class Preliminaries. Their horn line, however, scored higher than the first-place Anaheim Kingsmen in the Whitewater contest.

The Thunderbolts merged with the Imperials of St. Patrick from Milwaukee in 1973 to form a group that eventually evolved into Pioneer of Milwaukee. The Thunderbolt name was perpetuated, however, by the group's cadet corps, formed in 1971, which competed until 1978 and was continued by a successful color guard and parade unit that appeared until 1995.

[Mike Michna; http://my.execpc.com/~thbolt/thunderboltpage.html]

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CORPS 7 items

Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts,Cedarburg,WI,BS1-Hornline(Site)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection

Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts,Cedarburg,WI,BS2-MercuryThunderbolts(Site)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection

Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts,Cedarburg,WI,Patch1-Mercury(Site)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection

Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts,Cedarburg,WI,Patch2-Thunderbolt(Site)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection

Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts,Cedarburg,WI,Pin1-Hornline(BJA-2.75x1.75)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection

Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts,Cedarburg,WI,Pin2-Mercury(DCOM)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection

Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts,Cedarburg,WI,Pin3-MercuryRedThunderbolt(Site)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection

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Thunderbolts

1958 2 Photos

1962 2 Photos

1965 1 Photos

1971 1 Photos