Indians Win Minnesota A.L. Title

By Jim Ward
DCN Aug. 29, 1962 issue

DULUTH, Minn., July 27 - Taking top scores in all captions and picking up the coveted Tommy Forestner drum trophy, the Hamm's Indians of St. Paul won the second consecutive Minnesota State Legion title here today. Taking top honors in the Junior division were the Spamtown Lancers of Austin.

Hamm's came off the line last with a powerful "Rhapsody in Blue" fanfare and then went into their "Sky Blue Waters-Totem Tom Tom" theme. Their colorful and unusual uniforms, long flowing blue silk flags, and all-musical theme won the acclaim of the small crowd and the favor of the judges as the corps scored a 91.7 to top second place St. Peter Govenaires by 3 1/2 points. The drum line scored a 28.5 to easily win the Forestner trophy. The Bob Altmann directed concert of "Blue Moon" was the highlight of the evening and the corps brought cheers with numbers like "My Blue Heaven" and "Blue Tango".

The second place St. Peter Govenaires could manage to put only 17 horns and a five man drum line on the field. The bugles were clean and the soloist did a very fine job on the "Cherry Pink" concert, ala Hawthorne. Size and drill obviously hurt this corps.

The Laidlaw Toreadors came off with a fine Spanish fanfare and "Lady of Spain" but from there the show was rather flat. Their 24 horns sounded good in spots and they were the only senior to have 3 snare drummers. M&M hurt them and probably kept them out of second place. As always, they looked impressive but the old Toreador spirit seemed to be missing that night.

Spamtown was easily the best Junior on the field and should have defeated the second place LaCrescet Applearrows by much more than four points. Their horn line was clean and very powerful in spots but the drums were not up with the horns. M&M and GE scores suffered from a poorly written drill. With good instructors, particularly on drums and M&M, this corps could go places in the midwest.

Best musical offerings were "Night and Day" and "September in the Rain". This number is an exact copy of Skokie's arrangement but the corps does a very nice job on it. Their concert is "Malaguena" and this one sounds far too much like the Cambridge Cabs. Their Blessed Sac type uniforms are very sharp but some of the effect is ruined by the awful blur blouses worn by the drum majors and color Sgt.

LaCrescent and the St. Peter juniors were the other corps in the junior division.

Conspicuous by their absence were the defending junior champions, the St. Paul Scouts, who were in Seattle that weekend for the Worlds Fair. Also missing were the once-powerful Ely Dillonaires, who have folded, and the East Side Northernaires of St. Paul, who have reverted to parade corps status.

Winning the senior color guard contest were the Richfield Rifles of Richfield, Minnesota, while the Babcock Debs took the juniors. In copping the state Legion title the Indians became the first senior in Minnesota to win both state championships in one year. The corps topped St. Peter by one point to take the state VFW title in Austin on June 9.