Glassmen Drum and Bugle Corps

History

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In 1961, Richard (Dick) Ford and Jack Schnapp founded the Maumee Suns under the sponsorship of American Legion Post 320 of Maumee, a suburb abutting the south side of Toledo. For its first three (3) seasons, the unit was strictly a parade corps. In 1964, the corps entered American Legion field competitions, and the name was changed to the Glass City Optimists in 1967, recognizing the co-sponsorship of the local Optimists and honoring Toledo's heritage as a major center of the glass industry. In 1971, the "Glass Capital of the World" was even more fully recognized when the corps' name was changed to the Glassmen.

The Glassmen first entered DCI competitions in 1975, placing 5th of 19 corps in the Class A championships in Philadelphia. The corps then went inactive for four seasons. It returned to the field in 1980 as a Class A corps, but by DCI Finals in Birmingham, Alabama had moved to Open Class, finishing 42nd of 44 corps. In 1982, the Glassmen began competing in Drum Corps Midwest (DCM) shows, joinng the circuit the following year, when they placed 4th of 24 corps at the DCM Championships in DeKalb, Illinois. The corps then went on to place 24th of 51 corps at DCI in Miami, Florida, earning DCI Associate membership. However, the corps dropped to 28th place in 1984 and 39th in 1985. In 1985, Dan Acheson, the current executive director and CEO of DCI, was named executive director of the Glassmen. From 1985 through 1995, the corps moved up in the DCI standings every year, regaining DCI membership in 1988, placing in semifinals for the first time in 1991, and making the DCI Top Twelve Finals for the first time in 1993. The corps had been a Finalist for three years when Acheson was elected chairman of the board of DCI in 1995 and later that year was appointed to his current position.

After Acheson's departure, the Glassmen fell from DCI Finals in 1996, only to return the following six seasons under new Executive Director Brian Hickman, placing as high as 5th in 1998, '99, and 2001. The corps dropped from Finals again in 2003, returned for another seven-year run from 2004 through 2010. During this period, the Glassmen made four appearances with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, performing Respeghi's “Pines of Rome” in 2004, 2008, and 2012 and Tchaikovsky's “1812 Overture” in 2006 and 2012. Once more dropping from Finals in 2011, the corps began to fall victim along with many other non-profit organizations to difficult financial times with the national economy faltering. After slipping from 13th in 2011 to 14th in 2012, the organization found itself deep in debt, with no recourse but to sell off its assets to settle some of the debt load, and became defunct as a result of a Federal Bankruptcy Court ruling in 2014.

In June 2015, the Glassmen Alumni Association announced the first step in bringing back the corps with the scheduled return of the Glassmen Winter Guard to WGI competition in 2016. However, they did not compete. As of January 2017, there is no representative unit under the Glassmen flag, and the Glassmen Alumni Association website has been idle for nearly two years.

Sponsorship

The few remaining assets of the Glassmen are held by the Glassmen Alumni Association, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Fort Wayne, Indiana; the president of the Association's board of directors is Jamison Eige. The association has announced its intention to assist in returning the corps to the field either as the Glassmen or as a new entity.

Show Summary (1972–2015)

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Gold background indicates DCI Championship; Pale shaded background indicates DCI Top 12 Finalist.

In addition to their regular show music, the corps maintained a selection of encore tunes that were used for non-competitive events such as parades and stand-still concerts, including:

Traditions

The Glassmen had a variety of traditional elements that reappeared often in their programs. Chief among these is the modern corps symbol, a triangular shield (shown at top). Most shows had at least one occurrence of the shield in the drill, even if it appeared for only a couple of seconds. Triangular forms were also prevalent in drill design. In addition to this, the color gold had been a traditional element, most notably in the successful seasons of 1997 through 1999. Another annual tradition was to modify the shield that goes on the left breast of the Glassmen uniform. Each year had a different variation on the corps symbol that corresponded to the show and added individuality to each season without changing the simplistic, clean-cut look of the overall uniform.