Holy Name Cadets
Garfield Memorial Post No. 225
Garfield, NJ
American Legion Jr National Champions
1948 1949 1950 1953 1957 1960 1962 1964
1952
Bob (Kid) Bella Rosa
June 16th 1951 Roselle Park, NJ
Former Publisher of the Eastern Review
Present Publisher of the Drum Corps Heritage Magazine www.geocities.com/dcheritage/index.html
Contributer of many pictures to our website
Corps History
The Holy NameCadets were born in 1934. They won their first national championship, the American Legion Nationals, in 1940. Between 1940 and 1964, they won 10 Legion crowns, more than any other Jr. corps, retiring the trophy twice.
(Which means they twice won three times in a row.)
The corps became the Garfield Cadets in 1958 when the church dropped their sponsorship. There was a season when the corps wore white shirts and shorts as uniforms instead of the uniforms we all know. Garfield brought girls into the corps in 1969 which was also the first year they made VFW finals in a number of years.
They placed 11th that year, 10th in 1970 and 7th in 1971. Their 1971 show was one of the first theme shows. Unfortunately they did get into a bit of trouble with the peace sign with the VFW. The Cadets are one of the five original members to attend every DCI
Championship. In 1977 they placed in 13th but made finals due to a tie in prelims.
They are a 21 time finalist and 7 time champion, including being the only open class corps to win three consecutive DCI titles. Since 1983 they have won more DCI titles than anyone with some of the most innovative shows of all time.
They changed their name in 1989 to the Cadets of Bergen County.