There was a line delivered in the movie, Major League, where radio play by play character, Harry Doyle (portrayed brilliantly by the late real life legend of Baseball, Bob Eucker), while describing Triple Crown Winner, Clu Heywood (ironically played by real life MLB pitcher Pete Vuckovich), and his iconic mustache, with the quote, “When this guy sneezes, he looks like a party favor.”

Due to the VFTB having usually been ahead with articles, and with the amazing schedule of special dates and this year’s extra activities (retirement is a great thing), I had scheduled all my articles through the months of April, when I looked through some pictures and recalled from my childhood (I was seven), the Sesquicentennial Celebration held in the city of Jamestown in 1960, and the creation of what was called, “The Brothers of the Brush,” where membership could be gained by growing facial hair.

Many of the men of Jamestown took part, some growing beards, some beards and mustaches, and some just mustaches. My father grew an Abe Lincoln beard, and, one day, dressed in a black suit with white shirt, and a Lincoln-like tie, and stovepipe-like hat, and sat down, striking the pose of the Lincoln Memorial. I still have the picture on the wall of my cave at home.

It was great seeing all the different types, and styles, the “Brothers” chose to grow and sport during the festive celebration of the 150th anniversary of our city’s founding.

After looking through the memorabilia, and remembering that 1960 celebration, and recalling the 1970s Oakland A’s of Charley Finley, who paid his players to grow facial hair, I wondered if, with all the national celebrations of pickles, special drinks (I’m a huge celebrator of National Margarita Day each February 22), and all the other National This and/or That Day, there was a National Mustache Day.

I was pleased to find out that there was and is, not just a National Day, there is an annual National Mustache Month which occurs every March.

Because of all the early submissions and timing sensitive articles for the months of the last two weeks of February, all of March, and most of April, and wanting to bring National Mustache Month to the readers, the VFTB decided to pen the piece back in February, and share it as soon as it fit in his calendar. Today is the first day he could fit it in. It’s not really much other than a recollection of some of the most iconic mustaches ever grown or sported by some legends of numerous genres of people you/we can remember seeing from history books, art galleries, television, movies, concerts, or from their own personal lives having relatives, friends, colleagues, community members from all walks of life, who may be connoisseurs of facial hair.

Do you remember these, some animal-like, some debonair, some sculpted, some untamed lip filtering, mug straining, ice cream catching, lip hiders created by the self-groomers who grew them?

This list begins with: President William Howard Taft, Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr., President Theodore Roosevelt, President Grover Cleveland, President Chester A. Arthur, and Civil Rights Activist Jesse Jackson.

Also included are the iconic mustaches of Musicians David Crosby, Jimmy Buffett, Frank Zappa, John Oates, George Harrison, and Lionel Richie. From the World of Sports, these men did their jobs while adorned with unique facial hair: Abner Doubleday, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersly, Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky, Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, Goose Gossage, Wade Boogs, Rod Beck, Doug Jones, Todd Jones, and World Series hero, Kirk Gibson (all baseball), Hulk Hogan (wrestling), Ben Davidson, Fred Biletnikoff (football), Craig Stadler, aka “The Walrus” (golf.)

Also included from the entertainment world who were adorned with upper lip warmers are/were actors, Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, Burt Reynolds, Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx, Wilfred Brimley, Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves), Oliver Hardy, Cheech Marin, Geraldo Rivera (reporter and actor), singer, actor, variety show host and politician, Sonny Bono, television host, Steve Harvey, and heralded newsman, Walter Cronkite.

Other individuals with notable status sporting “staches” were Social Reformer and Orator, Frederick Douglass, Albert Einstein (theoretical physicist), artist Salvadore Dali, pilot Chesley Sullenburger, General George Armstrong Custer, General Ambrose Burnside [who was also credited with the facial hair known as sideburns (If you find his picture you’ll know why.)]

The VFTB has also been a big fan of facial hair, and have sported a variety of styles of facial adornment, including a full beard and mustache (both a bushy and unruly one, and at times a trim, sculpted one), mutton chops (not a great look, but something different), just a mustache, a thick bushy Fu Manchu (ala Cheech Marin, which was my favorite, and resembled a party favor at times, after a sneeze), and since 1999, my present-day goatee. I have not seen my upper lip since 1970 (my junior year of high school), so the topic today was really of special interest to me.

Sorry for not having this narrative able to be used during this year’s National Mustache Month. I discovered what I did about “Stache Month” after other articles, which were time/date sensitive, were submitted early due to travel plans and activities this Spring. I’ll be marking my calendar, though, for next year, to at least not shave on the first of March, in celebration of my facial hair. Meanwhile, this year, on the date of publication of this piece, meaning today, I’ll be raising a glass of my favorite libation to all of my friends who are now, or ever have been, unofficial members of the Brothers of the Brush. I’ll celebrate that group which was organized in Jamestown, sixty-six years ago, and which I have been an unofficial member of for the last fifty-seven of those years. Here’s to you, my fellow scratchers! I salute you and your stache!!