Crusaders

The Crusaders drum and bugle corps traced its roots back to the Millstadt American Legion (AL) Post 502, organized in 1946 by Legion members as a senior corps. Gradually, the group was being filled by younger membership and in the fall of 1954, the unit became entirely “junior” for the first time.  

Under the sponsorship of the Millstadt AL Post 502 and eventually the Millstadt VFW Post 7980, a contest was held in the spring of 1954 to choose a new name for the junior Post 502 and the Crusaders were born. The corps’ colors were red, white and black.

Under the leadership of Thomas Ryan, the Crusaders spent the first two years as a parade and exhibition group before entering the field of competition in 1957 as members of the 49^th State drum corps association. The following year, under the direction of Kent Hollerbach, they placed 3^rd in the 1958 Missouri AL state championships and 7^th in the IL State Fair in the preliminaries. They were also members of the Southern Illinois-Missouri drum corps association.

The corps attended the 1959 AL Nationals where they finished in 14^th position in the prelims and succeeded in making the finals in the State Fair with a 3^rd place finish. From 1960 to 1964, the corps remained active competitively, appearing in several fairs and state championships over that span that included both the 1960 IL AL and VFW state finals, placing 6^th in both, 8^th and 9^th place in the finals of the 1961 IL VFW and Legion championships, respectively and were a finalist in the 1962 State Fair, placing 5^th and 7^th in the Legion state convention finals.

In 1963, the Crusaders placed 8^th in the IL AL state preliminaries before a group of approximately 30 individuals of the Millstadt community met in January 1964 to reorganize and preserve the corps by hiring Roger W. Kaiser, a man with many years of drum corps experience, to run the program. The 1964 season saw the unit consistently third in the IL-MO association however in state competitions, they didn’t make the finals at both state contests.

The following year, going coed, the unit increased its membership from 45 to 60 and became a constant threat for the 1965 IL-MO championship title and went from underdog in state competition to placing as one of the eight finalists in both the AL and VFW on their way to the 1965 VFW Nationals, representing the Millstadt VFW Post 7980, placing 33^rd in the preliminary round. They also finished 7^th in the IL State Fair. By 1966, the Millstadt unit increasingly included members from the Belleville area as they performed in the finals of both the IL VFW state and IL State Fair, placing 4^th and 3^rd respectively.

They also traveled on tour in the Eastern region with appearances at the World Open “Class A” finals, finishing in 8^th position as well as both the 1966 AL and VFW Nationals, where the placed 14^th and 17^th in the preliminaries. The Crusaders qualified for their only National finals at the 1967 VFW championships, finishing in 8^th place along with 5^th place finishes in both state contests. In their final appearance in the 1968 VFW Nationals, placing 16^th in the prelims and competed in the US Open championships, captured a finalist spot in the “Open Class” with a 7^th place finish. That year, they also finished in the finals of both state contests and the IL State Fair. 

Over the course of the 1969 season, their final year of competition, the Crusaders found themselves migrating from Millstadt to Belleville as they continued to rank as a finalist in both state conventions, placing 7^th and a 3^rd place finish in the IL State Fair contest. After proudly representing the Village of Millstadt for 23 years, the corps officially moved to Belleville in 1970 as a parade and exhibition group. In their last season, the Crusaders were once again on the move, this time to Vandalia, where they performed in parades for the last time.

The corps disbanded in 1972.

Members (5)