It’s the only St. Patrick’s parade in the country to cover two states.

Last year, America Online’s news service listed it as No. 13 in the world, out of an estimated 300 St. Pat’s parades.

And this year it celebrates its 25th anniversary.

The Grand Parade XXV, which wends its way from Rock Island to Davenport via the Centennial Bridge on Saturday, will continue a tradition that began with one person saying, “Why don’t we have a parade?”

Some of the parade’s stalwarts gathered recently in the Quad-City Times newsroom to talk about its history as well as its future.

The idea

Frank Coyle, a Rock Island attorney and member of original board of directors: The true inspirational founder was Jeff Collins. It was Jeff’s idea to have a parade, and he called me and said, “How about a St. Patrick’s parade?” I said, “Jeff, you don’t just walk out on the street.” So, of course, we meet at Mac’s (Tavern, Davenport). He was a client, so I made out the contracts. There was a luncheon, and, much to John Scally’s chagrin, he was our first new member and permanent parade chairman.

The first parade

Coyle: John Scally and the late Dan Reardon, who was our president, were standing with Jeff Collins. And I tell you, when we came over the Centennial Bridge and looked down the avenue and it was packed with people, you couldn’t believe how happy we were. ... If I were sentimental, I would have had a moment.

John Scally, Rock Island, the parade chairman since the event’s second year: And that was on a Monday, on March 17.

Coyle: For those of us who wanted to do it year after year, the parade has to be on a Saturday to get the assistance from groups for the parade. This isn’t New York. To get a lot of the people we need, we can’t do it the day of (the official St. Patrick’s Day observance on March 17).

Scally: Putting that together was kind of crazy. The way Reardon came on to me, I thought he had done 10, 12, 14 parades. Turned out he hadn’t done one. He had no idea what he was doing and I didn’t either. ...

Scally: After the first of the year in ’86, we were going through the Yellow Pages, calling everybody, particularly unions. We thought they’d jump all over this. I never realized there were that many people from Missouri because they were like, “Show me.” They ran from us. However, we ended up with 250 units and we’ve pared that back dramatically.

This year

Coyle: This year, Rock Island’s finally taking some notice of us besides having the police car in front of us and the snowplow behind us. They’re blocking off 17th Street for us and having a festival on 17th as soon as we’re through. ... We’ve been asking Rock Island to do something. Take a look at Mac’s. They couldn’t sell more. Finally, they woke up. This year, for the 25th, Rock Island is helping kick it off.

Scally: Speaking of Mac’s, if you talk to every saloonkeeper on the parade route, and there have to be six or seven, it’s the biggest single day they have.

Tom Otting, Davenport, a longtime parade judge: Incidentally, the parade starts in front of the Polish Pub. They get a lot of traffic in there. ... They rename it that day. They have a big banner that says, “Irish Pub.” And the priest who says our Mass ... is a Polish priest from Chicago.

Scally: He’s a pistol, and his favorite day is St. Patrick’s Day.

The purpose

Scally: The underlying reason for the parade is to honor the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick. And it’s to honor those who came over here decades ago, settled here. And it reminds people about the contributions the Irish have made to this country and this community. ... It’s important particularly for the young kids to know what we’re about. It’s more than a bunch of silly people getting together, parading down the street.

The future

Scally: We have to find someone to do it. I’m going to do one more to take it into the next quarter-century, but it needs new blood. Someone with better ideas perhaps. ... But one of the issues I face is that people think the parade is about them. ... We’re at a limit in cars and trucks and buses and vans. While we were begging the first year, now we have to turn down 30 people, maybe more. People have to learn it’s not about them, it’s about the Irish and St. Patrick.

Otting: We’d like to see people have really good floats. We’re not the Rose Parade, but we want to see people making something.

Scally: We’re getting to see a lot of families wanting to walk as a group, and that’s what I think is neat about a St. Patrick’s parade.

Erin Feis

Scally: The Erin Feis (the September fundraiser for each upcoming parade) has been changed. It will become the Quad-Cities Irish Festival. In looking at many, many Web sites around the country, there are very few Erin Feis. Most of them are Irish festivals. Most people can’t pronounce Erin Feis.

Coyle: It means dance contest.

Scally: And we don’t have a dance contest.