Elite Series angler Timmy Horton has issued a challenge to his fellow competitors: he wants each of them to wear a green and white jersey on the first day of this year’s first regular season tournament.
Green and white are the colors of Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut, site of a horrific tragedy last Friday.
I’m sure there will be some complications associated with Horton’s idea: Some pros can’t afford another jersey; for others, it will create conflicts with the colors required by their sponsor contracts; and perhaps worst of all, by the time the Sabine River tournament rolls around, the Newtown massacre may have been overshadowed by some other more recent event. Still, there must be a way to implement Horton’s idea and find a way to show that bass anglers want to help. Maybe the jersey idea will fly, or perhaps a windshield decal might be better. That’s for the anglers themselves to work out, and they should try to do it collectively, taking into account all of the moving parts that go into implementing what is otherwise a kind and charitable recommendation.
Assuming they do go ahead with some sort of tribute, it seems only fitting that they somehow tie it together with the name of Bryan Kerchal, the 1994 Bassmaster Classic champion who was from Newtown. Kerchal died in a plane crash on December 14, 1994. In an eerie coincidence, the horrific events at Sandy Hook took place almost exactly 18 years later, on December 13, 2012.
Maybe any donations resulting from the anglers’ actions could be made in Kerchal’s name.
If they decide to go with jerseys, I hope that each of them has a small Kerchal emblem.
At the very least, I hope the winner gets on stage and blows one of Kerchal’s trademark fish whistles, to honor those recently deceased as well as another lost son of Newtown.