Celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, the nation’s oldest active color guard is an internationally recognized team with roots dating back to 1936, when it began as an all-female drill team out of Central Square.
The Blessed Sacrament Colorguard, more colloquially called “Sac,” began as a neighborhood youth program for girls in Cambridgeport, named after the Blessed Sacrament Parish with which it was affiliated.
Color guards perform complex choreography while manipulating mock rifles, flags and sabres – an homage to the uniformity and precision of military drills.
The color guard became financially independent from the parish in the 1980s, but its history dates back to Post-World War II traditions, when Catholic parishes funded drill teams and color guards around the Greater Boston area.
John Shallow, who sits on the board of directors for Inspire Arts & Music, a non-profit based in Boston that partners with the color guard, said the activity is both “athletic and artistic.” Shallow was a teacher with the Blessed Sacrament team for over forty years, and as a kid performed in the drum corps himself.
“We jokingly call it like a cult,” Shallow said. “We’re just so obsessed with i...