By TOM RANGE — SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
UNIVERSITY PARK — Though this year marks the Blue Band’s 125th anniversary, another subsection of the group, the Blue Band Silks, turned 50 this year.
The current squad can trace its beginnings to 1974 when Colleen Schaeffer Rickenbacher created the group. Before 1974, there were “flag bearers” in the Blue Band, but the group rarely did any type of drills and was filled with Blue Band musician alternates. An alternate in the Blue Band is a person good enough to be in the Blue Band, but due to the drill size of pregame or halftime, they do not have a permanent spot. Currently, you will see alternates holding ladders, placing yard markers or simply standing where the Blue Band sits during pregame.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, these alternates would be on the field holding large flags to help the other musicians orient themselves.
In 1974, after seeing this Blue Band Flag Corp “perform” at a game, Schaeffer Rickenbacher made an offhand comment to James Dunlop, the director of the Blue Band at the time. She stated that she could do a much better job with the flag group, to which Dunlop replied, “Fine, then do it.”
She immediately shortened the poles so the flags could be twirled and then created drills for the newly formed Blue Band Silks.
Since women had just joined the Blue Band in 1973, the Silks were very male-oriented, but over the years, it has become primarily comprised of female participants.
If Schaeffer Rickenbacher is known as the founder and the brains behind the Silks, Kathy (Smith) Seaward Bamat would be considered the heart.
Seaward Bamat took over the reins of the Silks when she became the coordinator during the 1982 season. She retired in 2019, working 37 years out of the total of 50 years the Blue Band Silks have existed. She is the longest-tenured Silk coordinator.
During her tenure, the Silks expanded and started performing more intricate drills. The Silks would often change uniforms during those years as well.
She would also ask alumni Silks to help with the squads. Both Blue Band Silk alumni Russel Bloom and Charlie Robey assisted Bamat over the years.
Bloom was in the Silks in 1983 as an undergraduate student and then again in 1987 as a grad student. He worked as an assistant coordinator from 1988 to 1991.
Robey was in the Silks during the 1976 and 1977 seasons and would become the assistant instructor during the 1990s.
Currently, Kristy Bagley is the Blue Band Silk’s coordinator. In college, Bagley marched with the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps for three seasons. She spent one season on staff with Beatrix Drums Corps in Hilversum, Netherlands. Bagley also worked with numerous high school marching bands in Maryland and North Carolina.
Though she did not attend Penn State, her husband Brendan, son Christopher and daughter Elizabeth fostered her love of Penn State.
