By Matt Jachman, Michigan.com

Thanksgiving Day will mark the beginning of the end of an era for the Fred Hill Briefcase Drill Team.

Founder and drillmaster Fred Hill said Monday his team's appearance Thursday will be its last in the America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit.

The team will shelve its briefcases for good next summer after appearing in Plymouth's Good Morning USA Parade on July 4, 30 years after its debut there.

"Kind of poetic, isn't it?" Hill said Monday.

The drill team — 16 men in business suits, carrying briefcases, stepping and shouting in unison and directed by Hill — is a crowd favorite in metro Detroit and has made appearances around the country, including at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, at the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., at Navy Pier in Chicago, at the Indianapolis 500 and at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

"If you look back over, I don't know, maybe 150 appearances, we've done some pretty unique things," Hill said.

Unique indeed. According to a Free Press story written in 1999, the group, which first appeared in 1985, had an unusual start.

Hill ran Fred Hill Haberdashers in downtown Plymouth and was known for his "outlandish promotions," according to then-Free Press writer David Lyman. Lyman wrote:

"In a particularly memorable" promotion, Hill "rented two elephants for Plymouth's Fourth of July parade and decked them out with signs for his store. But in 1985, the elephants were unavailable. Hill was on his own. ... Inspired by the memory of a bunch of guys he'd seen pushing lawn mowers in a Memorial Day parade in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, he posted a sign in his store window: 'General Hill is looking for a few good men to march in the Fourth of July Parade.' Sixteen guys signed up."

Hill tried umbrellas first, Lyman reported, but, Hill said at the time: "Military maneuvers with umbrellas didn't look funny enough."

So in came the briefcases.

Hill's first attempt to enter Detroit's Thanksgiving parade was a no-go. Organizers thought his proposal was "too oddball for such a thoroughly mainstream event," Lyman wrote.

But after a "change in management" at the parade company, the group was invited to participate, and the briefcase team began its relationship with Detroit.

Hill said Monday the decision to retire is in step with the times.

"If you look around, people don't carry briefcases any more," he said.

In addition, Hill said age has crept up on the team since he founded it almost 30 years ago.

"None of us were really kids when we started," he said. "Too many guys on injured reserve."

Hill added that he has marchers on standby and has never had to run the team short of its full complement. "It seems like every time we have to appear, there's someone I have to replace," he said.

Thursday's performance in America's Thanksgiving Parade will be its 25th at that event; the team has only missed the Detroit parade in 2009 and 2012, years when it opted for the New York parade.

Hill promises Thursday's show will include favorites like the Businessman's Shuffle and Boom-Chucka-Lucka, plus a surprise move the public hasn't seen before.

"It's kind of a last good-bye move, I'll call it," Hill said.

For those who aren't going, the parade, which starts at 9 a.m. will be broadcast on WDIV-TV Channel 4. Hill said he learned his team will be on the air at about 10:50 a.m., although that isn't a certainty.

Hill also hasn't ruled out bringing the team to events held between Thanksgiving and July 4.

The Detroit Free Press contributed to this report.

Matt Jackman is a reporter for Hometownlife. He can be reached at mjachman@hometownlife.com.