How we got Started

Scott was a sight when he answered the door, but invited me in, anyway. I had first seen his quartet from the Madrigal Ensemble, "The Victorian Principles," during the previous school year, and once I'd joined up and realized he'd formed a new quartet, I told him that I would have been interested in singing in the group. He said he'd keep it in mind. Well, it seems he did - we talked for a few minutes and then he asked if I'd be interested in singing in a barbershop quartet to audition for Cedar Point Amusement Park. I asked about the time commitment and we agreed that it would prove a good addition to my activities. 

Little did I know at that moment how much of my life that addition would consume... 

My first rehearsal with the group was in late November of 1982. The folks I sang with were Scott (a portly, energetic musician, on Lead), Bob Hartley  (a 5'6" smart-alec with a devastating wit, on Tenor) and Paul Hansen (a lumbering, 6'5" bartender, on Bass). Scott and Paul had tried working with another baritone and tenor, but their recent departure had left them to make other choices. The new combination gelled immediately and with little rehearsal, procured the summer job as the official barbershop quartet of Cedar Point. We needed a name for the group and Scott had developed a list - being a rather preppy-type, the name "The Ivy League" appealed to me. It also appealed to our sense of being college students and the name itself was in reference to the four schools that made up the original league: Yale, Rutgers, Harvard & Princeton. The Roman numeral IV, or "four", was the reason for the name, not the vine. It seemed evident as a perfect name for a college quartet.

Following the commencement of the summer at Cedar Point, a young member of Scott’s chorus, Dave Drouillard, became the bass of The Ivy League.  We picked up at full force when school started again that September, gearing up for our first District Convention.

We had booked several shows during the summer that would commence in the fall, and had also been engaged to put together a series of performances for Eastern Michigan University at a variety of functions. We worked very quickly to develop a tight show package (which ended up working to our advantage later on) and competed in our first District Contest in the middle of October, winning the Novice Championship. Our shows tended to be what we lived for - the freedom of a cappella performing lent itself to a very experimental period for us, which encouraged our creativity, but also reminded us that not everything we envisioned would work well in practice. 

During the following years, the group members developed their stage savvy, garnered television appearances, radio spots, performed around the Midwest United States and generally had a great time. We'd skipped our next district contest in order to perform on the Ft. Wayne, IN chapter's 40th anniversary show and worked toward the next contest, in which we took a tremendous risk, developing a package in which we portrayed characters... the "nerds" package was our first foray into developing a contestable performance with characters. 

We were a tremendous hit. Going to the following International Contest and seeing The New Tradition win with the same type of packages inspired us to continue to create the same kind of package for ourselves. The following District Contest became the first District Championship for all of us. 

We'd spoken in previous months about a replacement for myself, as I knew I would be graduating from the University and following my desire to become a professional performer. The first person in all of our minds was a guy we'd seen in a VLQ (Very Large Quartet... composed of more than 8 members, anyway...) whom we thought could fit in quite well. As it turned out, Jim Pollard had always wanted to sing baritone in the worst way.

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Tourists
April '87
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Cub Scouts
April '88
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Crazy
April 89'
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WhiteTux
July '89
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