The sport is considered an excellent way to develop hand-eye coordination, rhythm, timing, poise, gracefulness, endurance, self-discipline, and body coordination.

Recognized as Minnesota’s first and undefeated two-baton twirling state champion, Patricia Glasmann Rockvam of New Ulm took the sport to high levels in a number of venues.

“It was something for a girl to do when I was nine years old in the late 1940s. I took baton lessons by Harry Kraskin at Johnson Park. After a while, he decided that I should take lessons from another teacher in the Twin Cities because I learned everything he knew about it,” Rockvam said. “Harry said I should study gymnastics. I took Turner Hall gym classes with the boys.”

She later took lessons from baton twirling teachers at what is now the McPhail Center For Music, Minneapolis.

Minnesota Juvenile Class Baton Twirling State Champion Pat Glasmann Rockvam appears on a show poster for a dance to benefit the St. Peter American Legion Drum Corps at Hardegger’s Ballroom on Lake Jefferson. At right,Rockvam appears in a number of Who’s Who in Baton Twirling books in the 1950s.

“Gymnastics was a lot of hard work, but it was fun. I took ballet too. Everything works together when you’re twirling. It was good exercise. I got to meet lots of people. We went to all the contests back then. There weren’t as many contests back then. Now they are every weekend,” she said.

Rockvam said she performed in big parades many weekends with the St. Peter Drug & Bugle Corps. Practices were held on weeknights.

“The Minnesota State American Legion Convention parade may have been the biggest parade we were in,” she said. “It was really fun representing New Ulm in parades for nearly 15 years. People would call me by name. Most parades had at least 10 drum corps. Some were five miles long. The St. Paul Winter Carnival Parade was even held in snow storms.”

Rockvam won state and national contests. She won 50 medals, 20 trophies and was listed for several years in the “Who’s Who in American Baton Twirling” book.

She has a decades old show poster for Hardegger’s Ballroom on Lake Jefferson, Le Sueur County that read “Big Price Balloon Dance! Saturday, Dec. 1 to benefit the St. Peter American Legion Drum Cops. Over $200 worth of prizes. Baton twirling and acrobatic performance by Patsy Glassman, juvenile class state champion. Don’t miss this feature attraction. Worth the ($1) price of admission alone. Music by Maurie Rheaume’s 7-piece band playing the very best in old and new time music. Come old and young — a bit time for all.”

Submitted photo Minnesota Juvenile Class Baton Twirling State Champion Pat Glasmann Rockvam poses for a photo. In the photo at right, Rockvam stands in front of a photo taken of her as a baton-twirling youth.

Several years ago, Rockvam was named one of the top 10 Brown

Now the sport can be seen in national and international competition including the USA Junior Olympics.

In addition to twirling batons, twirlers are known for manipulating multiple pieces of equipment including fire batons, machetes, fire machetes, hoop batons, streamers, blag batons, meat sticks, swing batons, lighted batons, double flag batons, glow batons and sabers.

The ESPN Wide World of Sports hosts Twirlmania international championship competition at Walt Disney World in Orlando. Competition is available for soloists, teams, high schools, colleges and recreational groups of any age or gender.

France, Italy, Japan and the United States have dominated the world championships. The International Cup categorizes athletes into B-level, A-level and elites. New events include freestyle and pairs with different age levels and divisions.

Some of the baton twirling medals Pat Rockvam received while winning many contests.