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In 1981, the route extended from the River Market area (River Quay as it was known then) over 16 blocks to end at 11th and Baltimore. The Parade Committee had now grown larger than the 1974 Parade. The Parade organizers boasted a Grand Prize of two round trip tickets to Ireland for the "best entrant". Over 3000 participated in the Parade itself and the onlookers number over 110,000. For the first time in 1981 the Kansas City St. Patrick's Day Parade was reported to be the third largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the Nation.
The 1982 revelers went back to basics, emulating their 19 th Century counterparts, by beginning the day with a Mass said by Bishop Sullivan (head of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph). Bishop Sullivan reminded the worshipers of Irish decent that "the Irish are non-conformists and a non-conformist is a non-apathetic person, a responsive person".
The route in 1983 moved to where it remains (with the exception of 1995 when it moved a few blocks West when participants marched North along Broadway) to this day. Stepping off at the corner of Pershing and Grand Boulevard, the Parade headed due North along Grand Avenue, a boulevard created for Parades. The two mile Parade (almost 30 blocks) and was viewed by 300,000 onlookers. Monsignor Arthur M. Tighe, Pastor of Visitation Parish, described the Parade as "Kansas City's Mardi Gras". The blossoming of the Parade brought with it "rules" to curb rowdiness and insure the safety of onlookers and participants. The "last entry" in the Parade is now traditionally the street sweepers.
In 1999 the Parade crowd was one of the largest ever; reportedly up to 400,000 onlookers lined the Boulevard. Irish Tri-color banners adorned the Boulevard in early March in anticipation of the event. The Parade lasted from 11:30 'til nearly 2:00 p.m. and the clean up continued until dusk.
Pat O'Neill describes this "Awakening of a sleeping giant" and the intent of the awakeners in his description of the rebirth and development of the "modern" Kansas City St. Patrick's Day Parade.
Radio personality Mike Murphy and public relations guy Pat O'Neill, Sr., must have been tapped on the shoulders of their leisure suits by the Ghost of Irish Past that day, March 17, 1973, in Dan Hogerty's Baltimore Street saloon.
Surely they were inspired by spirits of some sort when they decided to wake up an increasingly lifeless downtown Kansas City with an impromptu St. Patrick's Day parade. For it was exactly 100 years before--on March 17, 1873--that local Irish immigrants had staged the first Irish parade in Kansas City's history.
"We, of course, knew that," said Pat O'Neill, with a wink. "Actually, we just wanted to bring a little attention to Dan Hogerty's place at 12 th and Baltimore. We hung a sort of makeshift sandwich board over Danny. On his stomach it said 'PARADE' and on his backside it said 'END OF PARADE.'"
CONTINUED
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