A SOUND LEGACY
Bruce Englehart, 90, started a drum and bugle corps that would take the world by storm
It’s carefully crafted chaos: a whirlwind of sound and movement.
The music seems magnetic, its rhythm guiding the black-clad ensemble of drummers and trumpeters as they glide across the field.
Dancers twirl purple flags, swirling and dipping in synch with the tune.
They march together and apart, in patterns somehow both completely harmonized and entirely unpredictable — just like the music they’re playing.
The melody swells, and Bruce Englehart can’t help but smile as he watches the scene on his big basement TV.
“This is the really cool part,” Englehart says, as the Reading Buccaneers Drum and Bugle Corps performance — an adaption of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” — crescendos to a finale.
For that act, the Buccaneers
took the 2019 Drum Corps Associates world championship.
“Up in the stands watching that show, it came out so perfect,” Englehart said, “and they won! Your chest
is exploding, it’s so emotional.”
That legacy of victory is a point of pride for Englehart — at 90 years old, he is the last living member of the Buccaneers’ iconic “five
founding fathers.”
“I get all choked up,” Englehart said, “Thinking hey, maybe they wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t been part of the start of it.”
Sowing the seeds
Englehart — a lifelong bugle player — said his love affair with performing began as a grade schooler in the 1940s.
He said he was transfixed watching the Kenhorst Fire Company’s junior corps play.
“I was in the band in school. That band, we were terrible,” Englehart said with a laugh, “then I see this drum corps. Wow! They were sharp. I said, that’s for me, I want to do that.”
Members of the Kenhorst corps noticed Englehart’s enthusiasm and invited him to join.
He honed his skills competing with drum corps in Kenhorst and Temple, until eventually leaving to serve in the Korean War.
Serving four years on a Navy ship did little to dull
Englehart’s passion, and the whole time he stayed in touch with fellow corps players.
In the spring of 1957, shortly after his return, Englehart, along with Carl Bagenstose, Ron Fisher, Roy Miller, and George “Fritz” Price, sowed the seeds of a new corps among old friends.
Rippling rumors became waves of intrigue as flyers and cards bearing skull and crossbones and the statement “watch out for the Jolly Rogers” were passed around Berks’ musical circles.
That excitement led to a legendary meeting atop the steps of the castle on the hill.
Outside Reading High School, a ragtag group of 36 Korean War vets, junior corps age-outs and band fanatics gathered for the first meeting of the Buccaneers.
“I knew we were going to be good,” Englehart said, “but I didn’t think we’d ever get to this stage.”
Passion for performing
That stage was set for greatness ever since the Buccaneers’ first parade in August 1957 in Muhlenberg Township.
Englehart wore a handme-down uniform, and played a bugle bought on a loan, but he and the other Buccaneers’ passion for performance shone as bright as the summer sun.
“They called us the dumb Dutchmen because we would get beat on a Saturday and come back and say, we could’ve done better,” Englehart said, “that’s how we went up the ladder, until we beat ‘em all.”
He said that in the weeks leading up to competitions, the Buccaneers would practice as much as 12 hours per day, perfecting their music and march formations. That practice paid off. Only two years after their founding, the Buccaneers claimed the 1960 VFW National Championship in Detroit.
They took that title two more times, becoming the last VFW champions before that circuit combined with others to form the larger DCA world championships
in 1965.
The Buccaneers won that too, first in 1965, and 16 more times since then, facing off against corps from across the nation and even countries such as England and Japan.
“Through the years, we kept going up, until we were number one,” Englehart said, “I knew what it was like coming up the ladder. I never took it for granted that we were gonna win.”
Despite the pressure of performing on a global stage, Englehart said he never felt nervous.
“I just loved to play,” Englehart said, “I knew what I was doing, where I was going. I was always comfortable with it.”
He said the exhilaration that comes with playing with a crowd was a major motivator.
“We never got a penny, none of us. We never got paid, we just did it,” Englehart said, “but when that crowd liked what you were doing and they let you know, it just pumped you up and you did better.”
A lasting legacy
Englehart’s devotion to the craft — as well as his skill and ingenuity as a solo bugle player during competition — earned him a spot in the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 1999.
His contribution to music has also been recognized locally. In 2017, the Pagoda Arts Council awarded Englehart the Visionary of the Arts award.
Just like Englehart grew up admiring a local drum and bugle corps, Rob Danner — president of the Buccaneer Alumni Association — said he grew up watching Englehart in awe.
“He was one of the solo soprano players, he was the guy that was out front there,” Danner said, “really someone that I respected.”
Danner — who became a Buccaneer in 1995 — said he and Englehart still get together and play for alumni association meetups.
“It’s a way of life. Once you get it, you get it in here,” Englehart said, pointing to his heart, “and you can’t get rid of it. You don’t want to get rid of it.”