1968 Alcorn Golden Girls 1st Ever Collegiate Dance Line


Brave

Da Better U get, Da Better we get & That's IT
The Golden Girls aka the GG's were the first dance line to perform as a featured squad with rhythmic synchronized movements as a group to a showbands' tune. (i.e. spits, kicks, spins, and shakes). The style of dance was dubbed "tastefully risqué." Before then, the most you'd see was majorettes twirling batons in conservative attire. The GGs introduced a new style of presentation along with their featured dance moves which included; the noted 'Gold Boots' & "the caped phenomenon" unveiling of flashy eye catching gold sequence uniforms underneath which sent crowds into a frenzy. The Alcorn Golden Girls gave crowds another reason to be seated at halftime. Their legacy leaves a piece of Alcorn in every HBCU styled show today.

Read below on how "The 8 Caped Black Beauties" became 'Renowned'...

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From L to R: Gloria Liggins Gray, Mar Deen Boykin, Deloris Black, Pat Gibbs (RIP), Barbara Heidleberg, Paulette McClain, Josephine Washington, Margaret Bacchus.
Dancing girls during half-time- The Golden Girls made their National debut in Miami, Florida during the Orange Blossom Classic. But no one had ever seen dancing girls at half time. And then a hush came over the crowd as eight caped black beauties took the field. The capes were flung off revealing Alcorn's secret weapon - The first edition of the Alcorn Golden Girls- Tastefully risqué would be the most likely category or genres the girls could be placed in back in the day. The ear shattering noise by the crowd was the meter that measured the approval rating the band and the Golden Girls received that night in South, Florida.
Dave Washington article


http://sportales.com/football/who-dat-talkn-bout-beating-dhem-saints-and-braves-who-dat/
 
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Were they dancers and majorettes too? All appear to have batons in their hand including the drum major.
 
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Were they dancers and majorettes too? All appear to have batons in their hand including the drum major.

they were a dance line, the majorette is the lady in white her name was Betty Brown.
The guy was a Twirler along with Betty (in white)

The GGs danced with & without the batons back in that time (but they weren't twirlers/majorettes)
 
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I guess one could call them dancers and sometimes twirlers. But the outfits they have on do look like the typical majorette uniforms.
 
I guess one could call them dancers and sometimes twirlers. But the outfits they have on do look like the typical majorette uniforms.

This history speaks for itself... in regards to the outfits the GG's wore stuff like that all the way to the days I marched which was late 90s.

1985
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more Historical pics of the Golden Girls


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SU had Dancelines that performed with the band before 69 and 68. I've seen pictures in my Dad's old yearbooks. They just weren't called the Dolls. They were a part of the band and they performed during halftime.
 
SU had Dancelines that performed with the band before 69 and 68. I've seen pictures in my Dad's old yearbooks. They just weren't called the Dolls. They were a part of the band and they performed during halftime.
I have my uncles and dad's old year books. And yes, but they were more like Majorettes.
 
Yea even Alcorn's majorettes were twirling and dancing before 1968. It was happening in the 50s at Alcorn. They only marched and twirled prior to 1950. It wasn't until 1968 that a HBCU took that line of twirlers and branded them into an official danceline, which happened to be Alcorn Golden Girls.
 
I see some folks like commenting without reading the ATTACHED article. In that article, Alcorn basically was the first school to do everything that is known to Black college football in just that one game against FAMU in 1968. The article was supposedly written to shine some light on how the now famous New Orleans Saints "Who Dat" chant had gotten started. But as I read the complete article, the writer made it seem like Alcorn was the first school to do a lot of things that is known to Black college football, such as the first dancing girls and the first band to play Motown music while dancing at the same time. The writer even hinted that the name Human Jukebox was started by Alcorn. Also, the writer kept referring to Alcorn's band as this hundred plus marching band going up against FAMU's band a.k.a. Da Marching 100 or Da Hundred. Ironically, the writer failed to mentioned that Alcorn was the first land grant HBCU, which is the truth. The article is more proof that Black folks would rather spend majority of their time at creative writing on things that are about much of nothing while their true history go completely unnoticed.
 
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The writer did get some things wrong obviously, but the Golden Girls, the response the band got, and Who Dat is all correct.

The only thing seriously wrong was the name of Alcorns band. It was called The Band of Distinction

The game was huge to the black college world back then. So much so that it was televised. My Dad remembers watching it on TV. He was going to go to FAMU but chose Alcorn in 69 after viewing that game. The Alcorn football and band was never invited back because of what happened in that day. Griff told us about that game during practice as well. Alcorn & FAMU didn't play again till the 80s.

The Orange Blossom Classic parade

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No pissing contest but there are clear inaccuracies. I'm not saying SU was the first but we had dance lines that performed with the band before 68-69.


All bands had majorettes back then. My grandmother was one at Alcorn way back when.

This is Alcorn 1950
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What the GGs started in 68 had not been seen before. It was different. It moved bands forward.
 
This is pretty interesting. What happened that day of the game? And why has the name been changed from band of distinction to SOD? No smack, serious questions.
 
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This is pretty interesting. What happened that day of the game? And why has the name been changed from band of distinction to SOD? No smack, serious questions.

well that game changed the landscape & craft of halftime for showbands. Dancing girls became a feature & focus at halftime. It was viewed on TV so plenty of people saw the game. More Bands followed suit after that as well. The GGs "stole the show" so to speak. It was one of the main reasons why they were so popular back in the day. It put them on the map.

In terms of football. Alcorn's team was never that good before this year (other than late 40s/early50s). They dominated FAMU in that game and were deemed Black National Champions. The 1st of 4 of Casem's during "The GodFather's" run. Alcorn became a power house in the SWAC for years after that. Some Alcornites felt because of what happened in that game is why they were never invited back.

Griff wanted something more catchy & changed it to Sounds of Dynomite in 1973 (according to a Griffins statement). A lot of students didn't like the name & wanted to change it as well (according to a close source). It became official with uniforms in 75.
 
Also, Brave not sure if you knew this but our band also was known as "The Show Band of the Southland" "The Explosion of Sounds" before becoming what it is today "The Sounds of Dyn-O-Mite". In the old band room, there was a painting of "The Explosion of Sounds" hidden behind the old uniform closets. We discovered that when moving the uniforms out of the band room. Far as the GG's go, Griff stated that no one had just girls dancing in front of the band and he need something for FAMU band. So he told the Majorettes that they was getting rid of the baton and was going to dance for this game and that was the beginning of the Golden Girls.
 
Also, Brave not sure if you knew this but our band also was known as "The Show Band of the Southland" "The Explosion of Sounds" before becoming what it is today "The Sounds of Dyn-O-Mite". In the old band room, there was a painting of "The Explosion of Sounds" hidden behind the old uniform closets. We discovered that when moving the uniforms out of the band room. Far as the GG's go, Griff stated that no one had just girls dancing in front of the band and he need something for FAMU band. So he told the Majorettes that they was getting rid of the baton and was going to dance for this game and that was the beginning of the Golden Girls.

Great info @Mr. Thunda, I didn't know what the other name was but I knew Griff was trying to come up with something in 73, he settled on SOD in 75 with the new unis. I got most of that from some old cats who marched back then.

Yeah that FAMU game put pressure on the Sounds to find another angle of attack.
 
Also, Brave not sure if you knew this but our band also was known as "The Show Band of the Southland" "The Explosion of Sounds" before becoming what it is today "The Sounds of Dyn-O-Mite". In the old band room, there was a painting of "The Explosion of Sounds" hidden behind the old uniform closets. We discovered that when moving the uniforms out of the band room. Far as the GG's go, Griff stated that no one had just girls dancing in front of the band and he need something for FAMU band. So he told the Majorettes that they was getting rid of the baton and was going to dance for this game and that was the beginning of the Golden Girls.

You can thank JJ of Good Times for Alcorn's band nickname! I guess you can thank the Golden Girls parents for all the "pleasing and teasing" they have given the fans over the past 47 or so years!
 
You can thank JJ of Good Times for Alcorn's band nickname! I guess you can thank the Golden Girls parents for all the "pleasing and teasing" they have given the fans over the past 47 or so years!

Oh I know the story about The Sounds
yea the GG's sure have done that
 
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