25 years ago last week, the Cutchogue Fire Department celebrated as the Panthers Drill Team was crowned the 1993 Suffolk County Old Fashioned Champions.

The drill took place on Saturday July 10th 1993 at the Town of Babylon's Tanner Park as part of the annual Suffolk County Parade and Drill that was hosted by the Copiague Fire Department.

At the end of Eight events, the Panthers had accumulated 39 points out of a possible 40 points, taking first place in 7 of the eight contests to become the Suffolk County Old-Fashioned Champions for the second year in a row.

This win marked the fourth of five County titles in CFD History.

Previous wins included 1985, 1989 and 1992. The Panthers would go on to win an additional title in 1994.

The 1993 team had a successful year and would remain among the most competitive teams in the state for the next several years.

Their accomplishments included:

1st Place in the Suffolk County Drill
2nd place Overall in Mastic Drill
3rd Place overall in the New York State Old Fashioned Drill in Rockville Centre
5th in the Freeport Drill

Several Team Records were broken, and the team set the current Track Record at Rockville Centre in the Efficiency Contest 9.08 seconds.

The team was crowned the Suffolk County Old fashioned Total Point Champions for the year.

The team is pictured celebrating their victory on the track after the drill.

Team members pictured: L to R: Front row kneeling- Val Kauniste, William Brewer, Darryl Ketrick, Ricky Horton, Brian Cybulski Second Row- John Zurawski, Doug McGann, Larry Behr,John Fogarty, Erik Klos, Hank Rienecker,Jim Fogarty Jr., Doug Wieczoreck, Charlie Witczak, Michael Boken.

To this Day, the Panther Drill Team still continues a tradition of competing in firematic competitions throughout long Island and New York State.

The Cutchogue Fire Department is proud of our 90 years of dedicated service to the community. We are always looking for any old & historical articles representing our past for display on our website and in our firehouse.

If any member of the community has any photographs, newspaper clippings or historical artifacts pertaining to the Cutchogue Fire Department, please contact the website team at cutfd@optonline.net or contact the firehouse at 734-6907.

Photos and clippings are able to be scanned and returned to the owners.

Thank you to everyone who has already contributed to this ongoing project.

Please visit our historical photo galleries for a look back into our proud history