Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/742011
90 • S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S the literate outdoorspeople reading this, shot at the Grand National. So did astronauts Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, and Pete Conrad. Actor Dub Taylor, who memorably ratted out the title characters in Bonnie And Clyde, is a Hall-of-Famer; he was inducted in the Hall's first class (1984) along with another actor who knew his way around a scattergun, Dale Robertson. Of course, no actor swung a smoothbore better than Robert Stack did, so it's no surprise that he shot at Enid, too. Equally unsurprising is the presence of Oscar winner Ben Johnson on the list of past shooters; born and raised on the Oklahoma prairies, he was an honest-to-leather cowboy who delivered a load of horses to Hollywood (for Howard Hughes' The Outlaw, the notorious Western that starred Jane Russell's cantilevered bosom), liked what he found there, and stayed. I could go on (and on, and on), but you ought to have the picture by now. As celebrity hunts go, the Grand National Quail Hunt has always attracted the best, the biggest, and the brightest. And the 50th hunt was no different. I mprobably, the seed that grew to become the Grand National Quail Hunt was planted 1,000 miles from Enid, around a campfire in Wyoming's Wind River Range. It was early autumn in 1966, and three prominent Oklahomans— Governor Henry Bellmon, his personal physician, Dr. E. Evans Chambers, and Wendell Bever, head of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation— had just represented the Sooner State at the One-Shot Antelope Hunt. Held in Lander, Wyoming, the One-Shot is the granddaddy of them all—the oldest celebrity hunt in the United States. The Oklahoma contingent had been thoroughly impressed by their experience in Lander, in particular by how positively it reflected on the ranchers, businesspeople, civic leaders, and everyone else who contributed their time, talent, and energy to make the event as enjoyable as possible for the participants. Dr. Chambers had arranged for the three friends to do a little trout fishing in the Winds after the One- Shot wrapped up, and as they stared into the flames of their campfire one night, he posed the semi-rhetorical question: From top: Cowboy legend Roy Rogers was inducted into the Grand National Quail Hunt in 1982. Other inductees that year included NBA all-star Bob Pettit, Doc Severinsen of Johnny Carson fame, and Wal Mart chairman Sam Walton. • Yankee great Mickey Mantle was inducted in 1972 along with astronaut Capt. Walter Schirra and Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stans. • L-r: Acclaimed Western Americanna artist Gordon Snidow and General Norman Schwarzkopf at the 1991 Grand National Quail Hunt.