(Top tobottom) St.Andrew’sBridgemen,1972(photo byMoe Knoxfrom thecollectionof DrumCorpsWorld);St.Andrew’sBridgemenat apre-contestexhibitionfor the1966NationalDream atRooseveltStadium inJerseyCity, NJ(photo byRonDa Silvafrom thecollectionof DrumCorpsWorld); St. Andrew’s Bridgemen, 1971 (photo by Moe Knox from thecollection of Drum Corps World); St. Andrew’s Bridgemen,1972, at American Legion Nationals in Chicago, IL(photo by Jane Boulen from the collection of Drum CorpsWorld).

by PatForker, George

Lavelle andBert Lynch

1965-1972In the spring of

1964, Father JosephDonovan wasassigned as assistantpastor at St. Andrew’sParish in Bayonne,NJ. With hisappointment camechanges. He

remodeled the old schoolbuilding, morphing itinto a youth center, madethe basement pine rooma place for dances andrecreation, and convertedthe third floor into awidely used meetingplace.

With the advent ofDonovan and beingknown for having the

largest dances in the area, the Catholic YouthOrganization’s popularity soared.

Despite what he had already built,Donovan was thinking bigger. He asked

several times if there was interest in a St.Andrew’s drum and bugle corps. The ideawas finally brought up at a CYO meeting inJanuary 1965, meeting praise andenthusiasm. Several months later, hornsarrived, drum sticks were distributed and thecolor guard began regular practices.

Every corps needs a director -- an adult todirect traffic, put out fires and lead thetroops. Ed Holmes, director beginning onday one, was a surrogate father. It’s a knownfact that he put plenty of his own money intothe corps. He was always there, spendingcountless hours of time on us. He didn’thave kids of his own, but took greatsatisfaction in the personal achievements ofeach and every one of us.

Several months later, the Bridgemen cameto be. The name was chosen based on theFort Lee Bridgemen, named for the GeorgeWashington Bridge. According to Donovan,who also favored the Fort Lee athletic teams,St. Andrew’s would be named for the BayonneBridge, thus giving birth to the Bridgemen.

Under Holmes, interest in the corps washeightened and turnouts became so large,horns had to be shared. The first instructorswere Dee Kazazian, horns; Dan Raymond,drums; and Bob Holton, color guard. Due tojob conflicts, Kazazian and Raymond fell bythe wayside and were replaced by Gus Wilkeon horns and John Iglasies teaching thedrum line. Iglasies lasted only two monthsbefore receiving an education fellowship,and he was replaced by his mentor, BobbyThompson, in 1966.

The St. Andrew’s drum corps made itsfirst appearance at the Bayonne MemorialDay parade in 1965. The color guardmarched without equipment and uniforms,but this was only the beginning.

The corps made its first field appearancemarching an exhibition at a Jets intra-squadgame. That day was also the first fieldappearance of quarterback Joe Namath.

August 1966 marked the Bridgemen’sfirst appearance at the National Dreamcontest at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City.Because August was prime time forvacationing, the corps performed anexhibition with a mere 20 horns, a handfulof drummers and a full color guard.Surprisingly, the performance was clean.

During the winter of 1966-1967, thecorps competed at standstills in Staten Island,NY, and Montvale, NJ, placing second andfourth. That winter, Bob “Jomba” O’Connorwas brought in to work the drum line as only

SStt .. AAnnddrr eeww’’ ss BBddii ddggeemmeenn

364

he could. The first true competition for St.

Andrew’s was a Garden State Circuit contestat Kane Stadium in Secaucus, NJ. St.Andrew’s took their lumps, gainingexperience and a lesson in humblenessthrough a number of competitions andfinally became worthy of competition.

The Bridgemen placed first and wonseveral more contests that year in theGarden State, later placing third in thecircuit championship contest. After somehard work and some very good arrangementsby Bucky Swan, the Bridgemen won theGarden State Circuit title in 1968.

As St. Andrew’s improved, their feedercorps, the St. Andrew’s Kidets, did as well.The Kidets, of junior high age, were taughtthe basics and performed in parades. Startedin 1966, the Kidets program was finallystarting to pay off, furnishing the Bridgemenwith trained, enthusiastic musicians.

The Bayonne corps developed a talent fora brass technique called triple tonguing. Itbegan as a warm-up exercise, but quicklydeveloped into a showpiece, later becoming aSt. Andrew’s trademark and a crowdfavorite.

After winning the Garden State Circuit forthe second year in a row in 1969, the corpshad moved up through the ranks and beganto compete on a national level.

The winter of 1970 brought Hy Dreitzer,arranger for the New York Skyliners, and lotsof hard work. Dreitzer wrote difficult music.The horn line practiced several nights a weekand all day Sunday under Wilke to learn toplay the music.

That year St. Andrew’s competed in openclass, winning a few shows and marching inmany parades. Being a local corps, we pickedup several jobs with only a few hours notice-- especially around Election Day -- inBayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken . . . anywhere.From Little League parades to politicalparades, if they had the cash, we had the shoeleather.

In 1970, St. Andrew’s placed 10th at theWorld Open in Lynn, MA. During the 1971season, we had a slightly smaller horn lineand corps. Frank Pasillo was brought in asan assistant instructor, helping clean up thehorn line. The same year, Larry Kerchner

was brought in to arrange for the horn line.It was the toughest season yet. Practicingfour nights a week and weekends, the corpstraveled farther away, competing at the U.S.Open in Marion, OH.

In 1972, St. Andrew’s competed locallyand toured New England. We also competedin the Midwest, visiting Ohio, Wisconsin,Chicago and Minneapolis. That same year,the Bridgemen earned a charter membershipinto the newly formed Drum CorpsInternational and placed 11th at DCI Finalsin Whitewater, WI. By virtue of St. Andrew’s12th place position in the prelims, they hadthe distinction of being the first corps tocompete in a DCI Finals competition.

Corps members dubbed the summer tourof 1972 the “two weeks tour.” St. Andrew’scompeted in American Legion and VFWNationals, finishing up the season by winningthe American Legion State Championship inWildwood, NJ.

1973-1980The Bridgemen enhanced their repertoire

for the 1973 season by introducing theirtrademark opener, William Tell Overture,followed by Unsquare Dance performed in 5/3time. My Favorite Things, Free and Summerof ’42 capped off a diverse and imaginativemusical show that saw them defend theirNew Jersey State VFW and American LegionChampionships, secure their first World Opentitle and earn a ninth-place finish at the DCIFinals that year, again in Whitewater, WI.

Drum corps rivalries on the field in theEast were intense between the Bridgemenand the 27th Lancers, HawthorneMuchachos, Garfield Cadets, St. Rita’sBrassmen, Blessed Sacrament GoldenKnights, Polish Falcons and BostonCrusaders.

It was all too common to have two tothreecompetitionseveryweekendbeginningMemorialDay weekendthroughmid-September,with paradesthrown infor goodmeasure as arequiredsource ofrevenue.

The two

week tours werebecomingcommonplace bythen, enticing theinvolved youth andchaperones to giveup their time andvacations to travelthe country by bus,sleep ongymnasium floors,

exist on meager morsels and rehearse forhours on end and enjoy every minute of theexperience.

By the end of the 1973 season, many ofthe original members had aged out and manylong-term members elected to pursue otherinterests. There was a change in staff as well,with those original instructors not beingrehired.

This left the corps with an immediatedeficit in talent that was only partiallysupplemented by the feeder corps additions,as well as new members that joined theranks from other smaller competing corps inthe area.

The 1974 season was not as successful asthe previous two years. Despite an earlyseason victory at the New Jersey State VFWChampionships, victories that year were fewand far between. The level of competitivenesswas not as sharp the rest of the season, whichculminated in a disappointing 26th-placefinish at the 1974 DCI Prelims in Ithaca, NY.

The exodus of talent continued into thenext season.Changes instaff werecontinuous tothe point that,at the end ofthe season, thecorps wasbasicallyself-taught.

The last-place finish atthe 1975Dreamcontest,behind St.IgnatiusAll-GirlsCorps, was thenadir of thecorps’existence.

TheBridgemenelected not to travel to Philadelphia tocompete at the DCI Prelims. Summoning thevery last vestiges of pride, the corpsconducted a work weekend prior to theSeptember New Jersey American Legioncompetition so as to break a score of 70.

That was the only goal accomplished forthe 1975 season.

The winter of 1975-1976 was one ofintense soul searching for the organization.The demographics in the drum corps activitywere changing. No longer was St. Andrew’s

The famous “collapse” at the end of the Bridgemen’s 1976 DCI Finals show (photo by Moe Knox from thecollection of Drum Corps World).

Bobby Hoffman, the man behind thetransformation from St. Andrew’sBridgemen to the unconventional andzany Bayonne Bridgemen in 1976(photo by Joseph Zepko from thecollection of Drum Corps World).

Bridgemen, July 1976 (photo by Ron Da Silva from the collection of Drum Corps World).

365

Parish the lifeline for new members, althoughthe Kidets were doing their best to promotetheir members into the ranks. Increasingly,the corps’ membership roster was becomingmore reliant on new members from not onlyout of town, but also out of state.

Holmes and Donovan, along with thesupport of the Bridgemen Boosterorganization, decided to roll the dice and giveit one more go to secure a competitive corpsfor 1976. It was decided that the corps wouldadvertise in local newspapers and drum corpspublications and hold an open house forprospective members.

Knowing that publicity alone would not beenough to retain those willing enough to jointhe effort, a change in direction, show design,uniform and attitude was required.

Behind the scenes, negotiations wereunderway to hire a program director thatwould not only change the direction andfortunes of the Bridgemen, but that of theactivity itself.

And so it was that the Bridgemen enteredthe 1976 season resurrected, redefined andready to challenge the many skeptics that layin wait. Under the tutelage of BobbyHoffman, a major overhaul was completed,discarding the cadet uniform of the past andintroducing the look of the future in theguise of the long coats and felt hats withscarves.

The only commonality was that thetraditional colors of black, white and goldwere maintained. The winter season hadyielded dividends in the form of increasedinterest and new recruits from the NewYork/New Jersey metropolitan area, as wellas those from as far away as Tennessee,Florida and North Carolina. Alumni pitchedin by working the Friday night bingo atCharity Hall.

The very capable Dennis DeLucia directedthe percussion section and the color guardwas reborn working under Tom Pratt. Thedrill instructors, Greg Pych and Jim Messina,worked closely with Hoffman to bring thedesign on paper to fruition on the field.

Kerchner, with an influx of renewedtalent, had free reign to write a score thatoffered imagination and modernity to theshow that featured a revamped William TellOverture, NYC Medley, Land of Make Believe,One and What I Did For Love from theBroadway hit “A Chorus Line.”

On the first Saturday in June, at the

“Tournament of Stars,” at VeteransStadium in Bayonne, NJ, the 1976corps made its first appearance inthe new attire, entering from therear sideline with a police escort.The hometown crowd was shockedat the sight that paraded before it.It took a while for the partisans toadjust to the new visual creationbefore them, but soon thereafter, itwas apparent the drum corpsactivity itself had witnessed its owntransformation.

The corps struggled at firstagainst the solid and strong

competition from its rivals during the firsthalf of the season. By early August, they hadfinished ahead of several DCI finalistcontenders and it wasn’t until the weekbefore finals that talk of qualifying could evenbe discussed.

At FranklinField, thecorpsperformed anenergized andemotionalDCI Prelimsperformance,which landedthem ineighth placeand onceagain restoredthe corps tothe rank offinalist.

For those remaining DCI veterans still inthe ranks from the Whitewater days, the waitin the entrance tunnel before the corps’ finalsappearance was nothing short of a sense ofredemption. That evening, once the firstglimpse of yellow appeared before the crowd,the roar of acceptance permeated the stadiumand the corps responded in-kind, adding thesignature “faint” to cap their sixth-place 1976DCI Finals performance.

Unknown to the members at that time,this would be the last official performance ofthe St. Andrew’s CYO Bridgemen, for in theupcoming months Donovan would bereassigned from St. Andrew’s and be namedpastor at St. John the Evangelist in

Bergenfield, NJ. Shortly after the announcement was

made, the corps and the parish ended theiraffiliation. Donovan saw the corps hestarted return to the national competitivearena and the kids who grew up with himthrough the ranks of the Kidets andBridgemen were sorry to see him depart. Hehad been our biggest supporter in both goodtimes and bad.

The Bayonne Bridgemen were serious titlecontenders in 1977. The corps’ show startedoff with Chiquita Banana drum solo, alongwith Pagliacci as the opener, complete withthe operatic tragic clown in tow. Jim Brady,arguably one of the finest horn players indrum corps history, was the featured solosoprano. The Bridgemen won the WorldOpen and DCI East titles before heading westto tour en route to DCI in Denver.

After theirannouncedthird-placeprelimsshow, severalmembers weresingled out by DCIpersonnel. Themembers underscrutiny weredeclaredineligible,subjecting thecorps todisqualification.

The Bridgemensued DCI to

contest the disqualification on the groundsthat there was no intent to have overagemembers march beyond their 21st birthday,since the corps had replacement members ontour to take the spots of those members inquestion on the day prior to their birthday.

A compromise was reached by which theBridgemen were allowed to compete in the1977 DCI Finals, but their score andplacement would not be recognized in theDCI annals. Now, 25 years later, DCIincluded the official recording of thatperformance for sale, with no change in theofficial standings. For the record, theannounced score put the Bridgemen infourth place.

The stain of disqualification wasdifficult enough to bear, but it wasuncertain if the Bridgemen couldrecover from such ignominy. TheHawthorne Muchachos could not fullyrecover from their disqualification in1975 and never again approached thatsame level of championshipcontention.

Again the members went back tothat endless well of inherent pride and,wanting to prove their critics wrong aswell as to restore their hard-earnedgood name, the Bridgemen returned in1978 and finished in fifth place, thehighest placement that year for anEastern drum corps.

Spanish Dreams was their

Bridgemen, 1976, at Giants Stadium (photo by Joseph Zepko from the collectionof Drum Corps World).

Bridgemen, 1977 (photo by Art Luebke from the collection of Drum Corps World).

The infamous National Dream in the mud at Roosevelt Stadium, July 29,1979 (photo by Ron Da Silva from the collection of Drum Corps World).

366

trademark number in the repertoire that year,along with the “Bridgemen Shuffle,” a blue-cloaked rifle line and endless hypedinnovations.

At the end of the 1978 season, Holmesretired as director. He had been the onlydirector the corps had known since itsfounding in 1965. Although Holmes and hiswife never had children of their own, healways made it clear to the members thatthey claimed 128 children when asked.

Jack Dames, another Bayonne native andlong-time drum corps fan, succeeded Holmesas director and served in that capacitythrough 1981.

The 1979 season introduced “Gene, Genethe Dancing Machine” and the “AndrewsSisters” to the field of drums and bugles.That year’s tour took the corps south toBirmingham, AL, along with the vestiges ofthe Northern Army of the Potomac to witnessa uniquely Bridgemen rendition of the “CivilWar Suite,” where by chance the “rebels”emerged victorious in the Heart of Dixie andthe corps finished sixth.

Thunder and Blazes led the parade ofcircus animals onto the field in 1980. TheBridgemen wrested their fifth World Open

title, dueling the 27th Lancers for easternsupremacy and keeping close tabs on theBlue Devils, with the Spirit of Atlanta in hotpursuit. The DCI Finals saw the top fourcorps separated by less than two points, theBlue Devils emerging victorious, 27thLancers a few tenths behind in second andthe Bridgemen placing third, their highestfinish in DCI Finals history.

The Bridgemen drum line won its first ofthree successive high percussion awards thatyear with high hopes for things to come in1981.

This culture gap led to repeatedinternal disagreements among themembers and between staff members.This had a pronounced effect on thecorps and its performance on the field.Arguably more talented then the 1980corps, it just didn’t have the sameBridgemen magic of the previous fouryears.

The corps kept half the show from1980 and replaced the Civil War Suitewith “West Side Story.” Inconsistentperformances were common for thecorps in 1981. It was at the DCI MidwestRegional in Whitewater, WI, that the corpswas bested for the first time since 1976 by theGarfield Cadets. The five-tenths of a pointvictory emboldened the Cadets to purposelymarch by the Bridgemen buses and revel indelight.

This act, as well as the appearance of animpaled banana caricature on their foodtruck at the 1981 CYO Nationals, served tomotivate the corps and enable others toresolve their differences. The Cadets did notbeat the corps again that year.

The corps finished fifth in prelims at theDCI Championships held in Montreal, beating

Phantom Regiment by one point. Butin finals, the corps did a lacklusterperformance and lost to PhantomRegiment by .005.

The corps had a one-tenth of a pointpenalty due to a shoe coming off amember. It was a fitting way to endwhat had been described as adisappointing season.

The percussion section, which hadbeen the strength of the corpsthroughout the whole year, had thebiggest highlight of the year by winningtheir second high drums trophy. Thedrum line, which was even better than1980, was near the top in every show itwas in.

A highlight from 1981 was the corpswinning its fifth World Open title. It was thecorps’ last title of any kind. After the yearwas over, Jack Dames, who became thesecond director in corps history, resigned.

1982As the 1982 season came, the members

who had caused some of the internal frictionof the previous season were gone. The newrookies coming in were excited to beBridgemen andunderstood what ittook to be a member.The members’attitudes were great,with the rallying cry,‘The Magic is Back.”The magic wascertainly back on thefield.

The show, whichincluded Shaft,Sophisticated Ladies(which is probably themost theatricalnumber the corps ever

did), Black Market Juggler (drum solo withintroduction of the roto toms) and BroadwayMedley, was a show for the members toperform and have fun. Audiences loved it.

The corps looked like it was headedtoward a top-six finish as DCI Championshipsneared, but a so-so performance at prelimsplaced the corps in ninth behind theFreelancers. True to Bridgemen style, theycame out in finals to give fans their money’sworth, performing their best show of 1982.At the end of the show, the corps put in theBridgemen faint, then got up and ran off thefield. The place went nuts!

This great show and the percussionwinning high drums for the third year in arow moved the corps up one spot to pass theFreelancers for eighth place. This was thefirst time since the corps became the Bananasthat they were out of the top six; a six-yearfeat had come to an end.

It didn’t matter to the members. After allthe problems the corps had in 1981, it wasfun to be a member of the Bridgemen again.

The percussion line of 1982 wasunbelievable. Its score at championships thatyear was 19.5. This tied the HawthorneMuchachos for the highest drum score everat a championship.

At a show in Pittsfield, MA, the drumsplayed a one-tick show, which in the day ofthe tick system was unheard of. Their scorethat day was 19.8 out of 20. The drum linewas in year three of its four-year dynasty.This line of 1982 is considered by many to bethe best during this run.

1983Many changes happened during 1983 for

the corps and for drum corps in general.Bobby Hoffman, the architect of the Bananas,and longtime brass arranger Larry Kerchner,were replaced with Dave Bandy and Frank

Bridgemen, 1979 (photo by Ed Ferguson from the collection of DrumCorps World).

Bridgemen 1978 (photo by Mark Boisclair from the collection of Drum Corps World).

Bridgemen’s “Andrew’s Sisters,” 1979 (photo by Art Luebke from thecollection of Drum Corps World).

1981After a successful third-place finish in

1980, there were high expectations for thecorps in 1981. The one factor thatcontributed to an underachieving 1981season can be attributed to a change in corpschemistry.

Gone were those members who had beenwith the corps when it was St. Andrew’s. Intheir place were members who had come tothe Bridgemen from other corps and weretaught different methods than those whowere familiar with the Bridgemen way.

367

Dorittie. The staff also wanted to change thecorps on the field. The gimmicks people wereso used to were replaced by a moresophisticated show.

At the same time DCI had decided to doaway with the tick system. In its place was anopinionated system. Both of those decisionswere fatal for the corps until midseason. Atthe first show in Lynn, MA, the corps scored a47.15, which was at the time the lowest scorethe corps had ever received and the corps isin the history books as being the corps thathad the lowest score to start the season andstill make DCI Finals.

The judges did not know where to put theBridgemen in the new system. One nightthey had the corps up on some corps, thendown on others. This “up and down”situationwas by many points.

The low point happened at the DCIMidwest Championship in Whitewater, wheredisaster always struck the corps. Here thecorps failed to make the cut, placing 13th andlosing to the Geneso Knights by two and ahalf points. This was the first time since1974 the corps missed a finals show of anykind. The next night in Rockford, IL, theBridgemen beat the Knights by four points, a6.5 point turnaround in one night.

At midseason, with the sophisticatedapproach not working, the staff changed halfthe show by putting in some gimmicks andmaking the show more appealing to theaudience. Also, a couple of days after theMidwest injustice, two judges talked to thecorps and explained and apologized for theinconsistency of the system and promisedthat it would not happen again.

The members who had dealt with all ofthis had hearts of a champion (which most allof the Bridgemen corps had except in 1981)and kept working hard to make sure thecorps would make finals.

At the DCI Championships in Miami thatyear, the corps did well in prelims, coming in11th place ahead of the Sky Ryders andCrossmen, whom the corps had battled allyear. In finals, they put in some moregimmicks, with the Bridgemen Bird making areturn by jumping out of a big present box.

Also the snare drummers put onblindfolds and played on roto toms during thefast part of their drum solo, never missing abeat. At the end of the show there was aripple Bridgemen faint.

The corps stayed in 11th place. Lost inthe entire shuffle was the color guard’sthird-place finish. Led by Scott Chandler (ofBlue Devil fame), the guard had its highestplacement.

The percussion’s quest for a fourthhigh drum trophy ended with athird-place finish. This was mostly dueto the corps going on so early in finals;they didn’t get the score they deserved.

Many believe they were the best linein the country and should have won thetitle. This ended a remarkable four-yeardomination of percussion, led by theircaption head and arranger, DennisDeLucia, and his right hand man, Bob

Dubinski. It was also supported by manyother instructors and alumni who came backto help continue the dynasty.

1984The 1984 season saw another chapter

come to end. Many of the members, who hadgrown up in the feeder corps, the Kidets, andwere from Bayonne, decided to move on toother things in their lives. This left only ahandful of people from the great town ofBayonne, a complete reversal from whenthe corps was started and everyone was fromthe city.

Once again, it was decided to have thecorps do a more sophisticated show instead ofthe gimmicks that were tried unsuccessfullyin 1983. This type of production was receivedwith more success in 1984. It includedOverture (from “Merrily We Roll Along”),Boogie Down, Aw Quitcher Moanin’ and TheCivil War Suite, which the corps did in 1979and 1980.

Ray Fallon, who had taught the corps in1977 and 1978, was brought back to run thehorn program. With Fallon at the helm andthe talent base better than years past, thehorn line became a big asset. The highlightof the season was at a show at theMeadowlands, where it won high horns forthe first time since 1980, beating theCavaliers, 27th Lancers and Crossmen.

The corps battled 27th Lancers all year asboth were fighting for one of the last spots inDCI Finals. At the DCI Midwest Regional,again held in Whitewater, the corps missedthe cutoff, as it had in 1983, placing 13th.The corps that knocked them out was theVelvet Knights, whose philosophy was thesame as the Bridgemen: entertainment.

This year was also the first one the corpshad its own food bus. It turned out to be ahuge mistake; food was left out and oftenbecame rotten, leaving the corps hungry.One night on tour, the corps came in from ahard day of practice and each member wasserved a plate of popcorn. Not only were themembers in a fight to make finals, but nowthey did not have food.

The organization could not replace thefood that was lost due to financial troubles itwas having. Other corps were helping out bysending food to the corps. It left theBridgemen in an unstable state in the eyes ofDCI.

An advertisement in Drum Corps Worldran a few days before DCI Prelims thatbasically said the corps was broke. The adread, “Don’t let the curtain fall on thegreatest show on earth” and depicted abanana having a curtain descend down upon

it. Some board members and other boosterswho didn’t want the corps to succeed put thisadvertisment in the paper.

When the corps reached DCI Prelims inAtlanta, they knew they couldn’t give up.They did a good enough performance to getinto finals, or so they thought. As the corpswas getting its picture taken, the score wasannounced and the members realized theydid not make it. Shock and disbelief cameover the corps.

They ended up in 14th place, losing to theVelvet Knights, who basically now had theidentity introduced by the Bridgemen, and tothe Troopers. It was a sad ending to a seasonthat the members had fought so hard tomake successful. As the corps finished takingpictures, the same people who had put thearticle in walked by and smiled.

1985Most of the staff from the 1984 season,

including Dennis DeLucia who had been withthe corps since 1976, were gone. DeLuciawould later have success with many othercorps, including the Star of Indiana andCrossmen. The board brought back BobbyHoffman, hoping he would be able to createthe magic again, as he had when he was withthe corps from 1976-1982.

The show that year was a great one for theBridgemen -- “Christmas in July” --complete with a great big Christmas boxunder which the corps started the show, thehorn line and drum line in elf outfits and theguard in Mrs. Claus outfits. They hadsnowball fights, Santa Claus and even BabyNew Year.

After the first half of the show, the corpschanged out of their getups and back into theyellow coats. The second half was Come OnDance With Me, followed by Imagination.This corps did not have the guns to pull it off.If this show would have been performed anyother year, it would have succeeded. It wasnot to be.

This season the corps was not verycompetitive, finishing near the bottom at

Bridgemen, 1983 (photo from the collection of Drum Corps World).

Bridgemen, 1980 (photo by Joseph Zepko from the collection ofDrum Corps World).

368

every show. At a competition in Waterbury,CT, the corps scored a 32.40, which is thelowest score the corps ever received. It isironic that this was where (just the previousyear) the corps won their last show ever.

The corps hit bottom at DCI East inAllentown, PA, where it had one of thegreatest moments in its history in 1977 whenit won the DCI East title. This year the corpshad one of its worst performances ever. Thecorps placed 25th out of 26.

At the DCI Championships in Madison,WI, the corps placed last in open class. Theboard had made the wrong decision by notgiving the 1984 staff another season toproduce a show. The outcome might havebeen a lot better had the staff from 1984returned.

After 1985, it was decided the corps wouldgo inactive for the 1986 season.

1987After a year’s absence, the Bridgemen

started up again. With a new staff and a newfinancial backer, the corps set out to capturethe magic it once had. The show was in twoparts. The first was a recap of theBridgemen’s greatest hits; the second wasHigh Crime, Moziak and Motown. Crowdsliked the show and were very happy that thecorps had reappeared.

An administration and staff meeting washeld in April to decide in what division thecorps would compete. The meeting decidedthe corps’ fate. It had only 65 members andcould not compete against open class corpswith 128 members. The right decision wouldhave had the corps compete in A-60 and goagainst corps the same size and re-establishthe program instead of going against the bigboys and getting slaughtered.

The decision was made to go open. Egorather than reality prevailed. The attitudethat the Bridgemen should not lowerthemselves by being anything less than anopen class corps won the day. This proved bedevastating. They were soundly defeated inevery open competition. At DCI East, thecorps finished last and at DCI Quarterfinalsthey were 23rd out of 24.

When you add the top 12 corps that werealready in semis, the corps actually placed35th. If the decision had been made tocompete in A-60, they might have had a

chance to be champions of that level. Due to the corps not coming out the year

before and not being a DCI member corps(falling out of top 25 in 1985), the Bridgemenwere forced to compete in the A-60/A-90 tour.On this tour the Bayonne corps beat groupsthat would wind up in the top three of A-60.This was the Bridgemen’s last showperformance at DCI.

The summer of 1987 was also the first onethe corps had its own buses, purchased fromAvant Garde. That proved to be another badmistake. In West Virginia, one bus came outof park and rolled down a hill into a wall.The bus was totaled.

The other bus would catch fire when inpark and when the gears were not shiftedright to go forward. This was a regularroutine. These problems contributed to thecorps losing much needed practice time.This year was a very tough year on themembers. What got the corps through 1987

was heart. 1988

The corps started out withbetter numbers than the yearbefore, having close to 85 kidsat the first camp. This did notlast, as over the next fewmonths the numbers started todwindle and the corpsstarted to have money problemsagain.

The executive directorinformed the staff at the end ofthe February camp that hewould be folding the corps. Thestaff pleaded with him to give itone more month and give the

kids a chance to obtain the money thatwas needed to go on.

He gave in, and at the March camp moneywas brought in by the members who, withthe staff, thought they had done enough tohave the corps continue. It was also decidedthat the corps would compete in A-60, adecision that was made a year too late.

At the end of camp, the corps marched inthe West Orange, NJ, St. Patrick’s Day parade,where the camp was held. It was here thatthe Bridgemen made there last public

appearance, because the executive directorfolded the corps the next day. He just forgotto tell the members or the staff.

What a sad ending for the greatestentertaining corps of all time -- a corps thatwas ahead of its time and that changed drumcorps for the better.

The Bridgemen will always beremembered as entertainers, innovators, acorps that just had fun and the rebelsagainst the drum corps establishment. Butmost importantly, it was a corps thatalways had heart -- heart that started in1965 and continued all the way to the end in1988.

This look back at the Bridgemen isdedicated to three men whose visions helpedmake this a great drum corps. The first twoare Edward Holmes and Father JosephDonovan, who had a vision to start a drumcorps in the St. Andrew’s parish and who gavethe corps its heart and soul. They also madeit a family atmosphere.

The third is Bobby Hoffman, whose visionwas to take the corps to absolute crazinessand create a corps whose main purpose wasto entertain audiences. HYPE!

Bridgemen, 1980, at DCI Finals in Montreal, QUE (photo by Art Luebke fromthe collection of Drum Corps World)

Bridgemen, 1977 (photo by Art Luebke from the collection ofDrum Corps World).

Pat Forker grew up inBayonne, NJ. He joined the St.Andrew's CYO Kidets, feedercorps to the St. Andrew's CYOBridgemen, in 1967. In 1969,he was promoted to theBridgemen’s horn line wherehe played baritone through the

1973 season. He marched one show in 1974and then returned to the ranks of the hornline with the contra bass section through theend of the 1978 season.

He is a sales account manager withLyondell Chemical Company covering theNortheast region of the United States.

He and his wife, Jean, live in Cranford,NJ, with their daughter, Nellie.

George Lavelle marched inthe St. Andrew’s Kidets from1972-1978. He then marchedin the Bridgemen from1979-1983. In 1987, he was amarching instructor. Since1981, he has been a visualinstructor/drill designer for

numerous marching bands and drum corps.He writes drill for six marching bands.

Lavelle is the founder and first director ofthe Raiders from Bayonne, whose philosophyin the early years was like the Bridgemen.

He is a computer operator for BMW NorthAmerica. He and his wife, Teresa, have adaughter, Riley Ann, who is 14 months old.

Bert Lynch marched in St.Andrew’s Bridgemen from 1965through 1972, the New YorkSkyliners in 1973 and 1974and Bayou City Blues parttime from 1992 through 1999.

He now lives in Texaswith his wife, Kelly. Theyhave three children and one

granddaughter.

369