ROLL WITH IT
The 35th Wearin’ of the Green St. Patrick’s Day Parade is Saturday, March 19, at 10 a.m. Find the route map and info at wearinofthegreen.com.
It’s mid-March in Baton Rouge. Winter is fading, the temperature climbing into spring territory, and the city teems with green in observation of the local sacrament that is St. Paddy’s Day.
Somewhere along the Wearin’ of the Green parade route, whistles and the sharp percussive punches of basketballs hitting pavement can be heard.
Following the sounds proceeds a group of men young and old. Some of them sport referee uniforms, dark glasses and mobility canes. They take shots on the basketball goals fastened to the back of their parade float, encouraging the crowd to toss back the bright orange balls and do the same. This is the Krewe of Ancient Athletes.
“For a long time, we weren’t sure if they were laughing with us or laughing at us,” says Baton Rouge Ancient Athletes Society board member Kerry Beuche. “But it’s fun to see them having fun watching us. … It’s one of our favorite events of the year.”
It’s been a while since those bounces and whistles have been heard on the streets of Baton Rouge. As was the case for so many other traditions that define the city, the yearly Wearin’ of the Green Parade has been on hold for the past two years as the pandemic has strangled social gathering.
Now, Red Stick denizens yearn to reprise this favorite tradition, and the Ancient Athletes are right there with them. If all goes according to plan, the parade will return this year two days after St. Patrick’s Day. The morning of Saturday, March 19, it will roll along its historic route through the Garden District and Perkins Road Overpass area.
It will mark the 35th edition of the Wearin’ of the Green, which the Krewe of Ancient Athletes has walked—or dribbled—in every year since the first parade in 1986.
That first procession was five years after the club’s inception in ’81, and the parade was a good representation of the group’s equivalent athletic and social orientations. The basketballs and referee costumes give a nod to the group’s history as a men’s athletic club. The group aims to offer companionship with like-minded sportsmen and opportunities to compete in sports like basketball, flag football and golf.
And their St. Patrick’s Day antics—all for the crowd’s entertainment—indicate the club’s lighthearted social side, complete with regular events like family nights and “Long Neck Lunch Clubs” at Uncle Earl’s on Perkins Road.
“The value, to me, is the social aspect. One hundred percent,” Beuche says. “I’m an old washed-up athlete like everyone else, and I still enjoy playing. But I much more enjoy the cold beer after the game—the camaraderie with the guys—more than anything.”
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With the ebbs and flows of the pandemic mercurial as ever, there’s been so much uncertainty about the parade over the last two years. But as Adams says, it’s a “rite of springtime” in Baton Rouge.
“The entire community is looking forward to it,” says Pete Adams, a founding member of Ancient Athletes. “Hopefully we will turn a corner with this crazy COVID thing and start getting back to normal. And this would be a great step in that direction.” brancientathletes.com
This article was originally published in the March 2022 issue of 225 magazine.