DECEMBER, 2003 - Charles Newcomb of Philadelphia (left) won the Clay Target title in Chicago in 1915 and is a 1999 HOF inductee. On the right is Ora Atherton of Bondurant, Iowa. He pulled at the Grand American from 1924 to the early 1950's. He always wore white gloves and pulled for all the major shoot-offs. If there was a HOF for pullers, he would have been the first one inducted.
JANUARY, 2004 - 1914 Grand American at the National Cash Register Club near Dayton, Ohio. Woolfolk Henderson made a clean sweep of the major titles when he won the GAH with a 98x100 from 22 yards, the Clay Target title with a 99x100 and the doubles championship with a 90. He was a 1970 Hall of Fame inductee.
FEBRUARY, 2004 - 1933 Grand American at Vandalia, Ohio. This was the 10th shoot held at the new homegrounds. Winning the handicap title that year was Walter Beaver, defeating Ned Lilly in a shootoff. Lilly had won the Clay Target title a few days earlier. He also won the HAA and HOA crowns. It was the breakout year for the young Ned Lilly.
MARCH, 2004 - This rare photograph show how the entrance to the ATA homegrounds looked in 1932. Note the unpaved road and the historic water tower to the right of the club house.
APRIL, 2004 - This 1972 black and white photograph shows vendors row on a rainy day at the Grand American.
JULY, 2004 - "Johnnie", the Philip Morris Cigarette Boy visits the Grand American in the late 1940's. Note the beautiful Model 31 Remington in his hands and the wooden shell crate his foot is on.
AUGUST, 2004 - Color picture (postcard) of 1905 Missouri State Championship at the old Elliott's Shooting Park near Kansas City, MO. The four Elliott brothers, including JAR Elliott founded Elliott's Shooting Park near Kansas City in 1887.
The card shows the facilities of Elliott's shooting park, founded in 1887 by Robert S. Elliott, who also was the founder of the Elliott Arms Company, 1416 Grand avenue. (Elliott's brother, J. A. R. Elliott earlier had operated a shooting park on the site of the present Northeast junior high school).
Robert Elliott's home was located at the old shooting grounds at Washington park and here his son (later his partner), Russ Elliott, was born. Russ Elliott was national trapshooting champion in 1941.
SEPTEMBER, 2004 - The photograph shows an early Grand American Handicap shoot-off at Vandalia. Notice the two 16 yard shooters (common in early handicap events) along with a shooter who appears to be shooting from about 18-19 yards. The intensity of the event can be seen in the crowd, all glued to the unfolding event before them. After all, this event was for the most coveted title in all of trapshooting, at the greatest trapshooting venue in the world.
OCTOBER, 2004 - Annie Oakley used her dog Dave in her shooting acts for years. Here she is at Pinehurst, NC shooting an apple of his head. No problem. Dave (1913-1923) did not die from a bullet wound but died when hit by an automobile several years before Annie died in 1926. The Butlers were devastated.
NOVEMBER, 2004 - Hello, I coach the Delaware SCTP team and my senior experienced squad competed on Sautrday, 8/14, in the Hall of Fame Youth Shoot at The Grand (The Delaware Ducks).
The attached photo from the firing line shows Jack Aldridge shooting while Gary Hall (foreground) awaits his turn. If you look at the photo you'll see two feet of lead shotstring leaving Aldridge's K0 unsingle barrel. Since it's kind of rare to catch shotstring in a photo...and it was shot during the HOF event...I thought perhaps you might consider this pic for your monthly online featured photo.
The digital image was made with a Nikon D100 camera and a Nikkor-80-400 VR Zoom Lens.
I've spent 15 yrs. shooting for Time, People and other NY based news publications and freely grant the HOF rights to display the photo on your web site.
Best, Dan
Copyright 2004 Dan Miller
DECEMBER, 2004 - Another photograph from the 2004 Grand American. An unidentified shooter breaks a target on bank 15 during the 2004 Clay Target Championship. This could be best described as "turning the target into dust." The untouched photograph was taken at the exact time of impact. A remarkable color photograph. Taken by the web site editor using a Canon "Rebel" digital camera. Looks so easy. But we know better.
APRIL, 2005 - Don't let the background fool you. Kay is shooting this target on bank one or two at the 2004 Pennsylvania State Singles Championship at the PSSA homegrounds in Elysburg, PA. The woods and trees in the background are several hundred yards away and all the targets on these banks are full "sky" targets. Another remarkable photograph of a target at the split second of destruction.
Photo was taken by 14 year old Lauren Cullis, a member of the Delaware Scholastic Clay Target Program...who borrowed her coach's camera to photograph Kay...her "trapshooting hero". She won Class D Singles at the 2004 NJ State Shoot and The Pamela Koske Ohye Trophy. The photographs were submitted by Dan Miller, Senior Team Coach, Delaware Scholastic Clay Target Program.
Photograph courtesy of Lauren Cullis.
Permission to copy must be obtained.
MAY, 2005 - This 1924 photograph shows the new ATA club house under construction at Vandalia. The first Grand American was still several months away.
JULY, 2005 - In 1938 Bernice Billett, 23, a college student from Wisconsin became the first women to compete wearing shorts at the Grand American. Attracted a lot of attention as you can see.
AUGUST, 2005 - This picture shows a number of women shooters participating in the first Grand American in Vandalia in 1924.
OCTOBER, 2005 - This 1924 photograph shows the new ATA club house under construction at Vandalia. The first Grand American was still several months away.
NOVEMBER, 2005 - The final shot at old Vandalia. Shot taken by Ed Yanchok of New Jersey. Photograph by Richard Hamilton. After 81 years at Vandalia, the GAH will move to Sparta, Illinois for the 2006 Grand American, never to return to Vandalia. The clay target can be seen broken by Mr. Yanchok as well as the wad from the fired shell, a Winchester Super Handicap, 7 1/2 shot.
DECEMBER, 2005 - Although he was never known to have ever pointed a gun at a target, Elmer F. Shaner still was recognized as the "Dean of Organized Trapshooting," the man who put the sport on the athletic map. Shaner spent nearly 50 years in the sport and didn’t miss a single Grand American until failing health stopped his streak in the last two years of his life.
FEBRUARY, 2006 - On August 10, 1992 the squad of Steve Carmichael, Dan Bonillas, Neal Crausbay, Gary Sherrod and Earl Scripture broke 998x100, the highest 5 man squad score in the history of the Grand American. The record has remained untied nor beaten when the grounds closed this past August. Missing one target each were Steve Carmichael and Gary Sherrod. Dan Bonillas, Neal Crausbay and Earl Scripture were straight. Keep in mind that the only other 5 man scores that equaled or exceeded this were by shooters on a team but NOT on the same shooting squad. One such example would be the Kansas State Team that won the State Team race in 1995 with 1000x1000. They did not shoot on the same squad.
APRIL, 2006 - Rare photograph of two Hall of Famers, Steve Crothers (left) and Guy Dering (right). Mr. Dering’s reign as president of the ATA is the longest in the history of the association (1926 to 1932), and he is known as one of four men who took a leading part in assuring that shooters, themselves, controlled the sport. Back in the 1920s and 30s, Pennsylvanian Steve Crothers was the top 16-yard trapshooter in America and the first shooter to break 200x200 at the Grand American. He holds 44 major state titles in Pennsylvania.
MAY, 2006 - An old cabinet card photograph of Hall of Famer Captain Adam Bogardus and his three sons. Actual date is unknown but most likely 1890 era. All of his sons were expert marksmen and hunters. Captain Bogardus is legendary. A market hunter, pigeon shooter, clay target shooter, author and inventor, Bogardus was the first of the great exhibition shooters. Not happy with the target balls and traps of the day, he developed a new target ball along with his trap which he sold to the public.
SEPTEMBER, 2006 - This photograph shows the ATA clubhouse as it appeared during the 1959 Grand American in Vandalia, Ohio. 1959. Clyde Bailey of Oquawka, IL won the Grand American Handicap that year with 99 from 21 yards. Kevin Onka from Sugar Creek MO won the Clay Target title with 200 straight. Vic Reinders broke a 99 to win his second Double title. He also won his record 5 (currently tied with Leo Harrison III) and final HAA.
OCTOBER, 2006 - This color photograph show one of the last trips by an ATA people carrier at the 2005 Grand American in Vandalia, Ohio. These carriers, used for decades, hauled shooters and visitors up and down the long line of traps. This one, a newer model, was probably put into service around circa 2000. The older ones had no canvas roof and held probably twice the number of people. Most were moved to the new World Shooting Complex grounds in Sparta, Illinois, the new home of the Grand American.
FEBRUARY, 2007 - A young puller, all dressed in white, at the 1913 Grand American (14th) at the National Cash Register Club near Dayton, Ohio. The shoot would be held on the same grounds in 1914. Inserted in the black and white photo is a colorized photo. M.S. Hootman of Ohio, shooting from 17 yards, won the Grand American with a score of 97 with 501 shooters, a record at the time, shooting the main Handicap.
Bart Lewis of Auburn, Illinois broke 195 to win the Clay Target Championship while George Lyon of North Carolina won the Doubles with 94. Mark Arie won the doubles the previous year, the first year it was held. Lyon is a HOF enshrinee, entering in 1976.
MARCH, 2007 - The year was 1907. A photograph of the world's record squad.
496 x 500
Left to Right: Fred Gilbert (98), William Crosby (100), J. Monwell Hawkins (99),
John Taylor (100) and Lee Barkley (99).
980 x 1000
Left to Right: Fred Gilbert (196), William Crosby (198), J. Monwell Hawkins (195),
John Taylor (198) and Lee Barkley (193).
MAY, 2007 - A 1914 photograph of the Grand American held at the National Cash Register Club near Dayton, Ohio. Notice the steam locomotive behind the shoot delivering shooters to and from the shooting grounds. This was the shoot that Hall of Famer Woolfolk Henderson made a clean sweep of the major titles when he won the GAH with a 98x100 from 22 yards, the Clay Target title with a 99x100 and the doubles championship with a 90. He was a 1970 Hall of Fame inductee. In the circle is Elmer Shaner and Henderson.
