I'm sure Jimmy wont mind the title of this....
There is a LOT of archery history in Gordon County GA. Will and Maurice Thompson ran the river bottoms of Gordon County.....
As a matter of fact Cliff Huntington tried to get a statue erected here....Cliff, if you are still interested let me know....I might be able to talk to some folks and help get that done.
Deacon Balliew was from Gordon County....and he was ranked 3rd in the nation at one time...he worked at the local bowling ally and practiced behind the lanes while working, and stopped shooting when there was a pin jam or ball jumped the track. He was knocked out of the Olympics cause he hit a nock and deflected out of the targets bull.....this was the start of chat for a 5 spot target. He also hunted with Howard Hill, Ben Pearson and Fred Bear. He taught me to shoot a longbow at age 8 at Cub Scout Camp where I won the tourney out of 400 Scouts at the end of the week. Lots of other stories about Deacon, but I gotta move on. Oh, he was also big buds with Dan Quillian. AND, was one of only 3 that won the 'Master Hunter' award east of the Mississippi before that award was no more. Deacon passed away last month.
There was a guy here by the last name of Brown, cant for the life of me remember his first name that did a lot of innovative things for bows back in the 70s and 80s.
Jule Medders was a trad bowhunter that went on to write a lot of songs for country and folk type ballads.
Then there was a gang of us when I grew up that were deer killing machines, ....that Brown guy, Mike Tinch, Robert Richardson, Trevor McIntyre, D.A. Richardson, Lex Richardson, Terry Childers, Jesse Morehead, Jule Medders, Ron Reno, Greg Wilbanks, Tommy Hefner to name just a few...
Jesse went on to invent the famous Eliminator Pendulum Sight, and won a many national titles on the tourney circuit.
Trad Gang came out of Gordon County....
And now Gordon County has an IBO World Champ with a recurve.....a Mr. Jimmy Blackmon.
Congrats Jimmy.....and thanks for adding to the long history of this little County in North Georgia. You done us proud!!!
Congratulations sir! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Must be in the water! Congrats
Hear another shout out for a Jimmy (RangerB)! Woo! Who!
Congrats
That's fantastic. Congratulations. :notworthy:
Sounds like a great place to visit. I think its vacation time, get that statue erected Terry so there will be landmarks to see. :) I like to hear archery history stories like this. Thanks for sharing Terry and congrats to all. :clapper:
Cool. That's a lot of archery history for one county. Thanks for sharing the story.
:thumbsup: :campfire:
Great info Terry, An lot of history from one county. Very special Congrats to Jimmy.
Congrats, Jimmy!!!
Terry, Thanks for the history! As a kid the first sight I had was an Eliminator.
Thanks guys. It was a pretty special week for me.
Terry didn't mention Jeff Sandford above so I want to include Jeff. He is one of, if not the best, hunters I've ever known. Jeff is a quiet guy that just simply gets it done. I think Jeff has 3 of the top 5 black bears taken in Georgia. I know there was an article in GON a few years back on his bears. Jeff also has 2 Wild Turkey Grand Slams.
When Jesse developed that eliminator sight I was shooting. I was just a kid and I remember being at a shoot which Jesse won and after the shoot him calling everyone over. He took a guys bow from the crowd and put the sight on it. He shot it a few times, made some adjustments then climbed up on a platform and threw dixie cups all over the ground. He then proceeded to pin every dixie cup to the ground with an arrow. They lined up and he sold every sight he had. Jesse is a hoot if you've ever been around him you can attest to it. Jesse was, at one time, the best compound shooter around for 3D archery. He a hunting machine, as Terry put it, now.
Thanks again guys and I hope to see you at some shoots next year. Happy hunting.
Congratulations!!
:archer:
:clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
Congratulations Jim.
:clapper:
Congrats!
A big congrats Jimmy. Well done. Hope to shoot and share camps again soon. Jeff
Thanks for sharing Terry and congrats to Jimmy.
Amazing run of top flight archery enthusiasts!
Congratulations!!!
:thumbsup: :clapper: :clapper:
Very Nice! Shawn
Jimmy....funny thing...I've never met Jeff Sanford...maybe that's why I left him out. I would not know him if he was sitting in my living room. Some how, not sure how, we never crossed paths.
However,.....I have heard about him many times, and what I have heard mostly is he is very serious about hunting black bears....very serious. I hear he stays in the woods scouting pretty heavily a month before the season...and is on top of them when the season opens.
Thanks for adding him to the Gordon County mix.
Excellent stuff right there!
We read of the big names, but the guys like you shared Terry, and of Jim in our times, kinda seem to just ease on by.
Congrats to Jim and thanks to Tarz for highlighting such illustrious achievements and contributions to what we love!
Neat stuff! Congats Jimmy.