The Ocean City Beach Patrol celebrated 100 years of city-paid lifeguards in 1998. The OCBP, which started with just three men, had by its centennial year grown to 150 men and women.
Posing for the annual group picture is as much a tradition as the swimming and rowing races. The first one was taken in 1902 and most are on display in the Lifeguard Museum and at Bob’s Restaurant at 14
th Street and the Boardwalk.
— By Fred Miller, historian and former OCBP lieutenant