The Hall of Fame

“Standing in the hall of fame…”

Dateline: The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame

“No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”
Calvin Coolidge

We are the accumulation of all that came before us.

We are as much of the past as we are of the today.

In fact all we really have is what came before, and what happened today.

We are yesterday in flesh, and blood.

“You gotta look backwards to go forwards.”
Fennel Hudson

I may be pillared for this but it was last Thursday as I stood in the Bass Fishing Hall Of Fame, stood looking around at the history of the sport, touching the history of the sport, smelling the history of the sport, being within the walls of its history, may in fact be the first time that I was convinced that bass fishing, that tournament bass fishing deserved to be called a big time sport.

I wasn’t totally convinced in the the decade I’ve covered it.

I wasn’t totally convinced looking long range at it.

All that changed though for me when I saw its history unfold around me. As a history buff, seeing its past legitimized it for me, seeing its past gave me a better understanding of it, seeing its past gave me more respect for those whose lives have revolved around it.

Here’s the bottom line, here’s the thought that went through my mind and ended up bringing a smile to my lips: Big Time.

Don’t care who you are, business or sports.

Don’t care about your money or your glitz.

In my book you want to reach the bigs…honor your past.

Build a Hall for it, honor those who got you to today, in my book, welcome to the bigs.

Hey bass fishing, welcome to the big leagues.

And from what I saw, you deserve to be there.

“…and the world’s gonna know your name…”

“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ”
Michael Crichton

I’ve always thought that any rookie orientation in any sport should include a few days of internship in the Hall Of Fame of that sport.

Learn the history of your game, hold the history of your game before you hold the playbook. Trust me on this, you ain’t the one who built the field you’re about to take to…meet those who paved your way.

I don’t write stories about rookies, it’s no big deal you got here, it is a big deal if you manage to stay, but I will do this for all the new folks coming in if you get in your truck and drive to Johnny Morris’ Bass Pro World of Wonders joint, wind your way into the Bass Fishing Hall Of Fame, look around, soak it all in, study the relics, the history, the people who made this sport for you, prove to me you’ve done that…I’ll break tradition and write a story about a rookie who values history.

Don’t do that, I’ll catch you in 2019…if you are still here.

“…cause you burn with the brightest flame…”

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
Vince Lombardi

Down deep in the bowels of the Smithsonian Institute there are locked rooms, shelves behind heavy gates that contain immortal pieces of sports history.

I know, ESPN sent me there to look one time, a special guided tour.

Ali’s boxing gloves that he fought Forman with in Zaire. I held, with gloves, a Miracle on Ice pair of skates from that game, Pele’s soccer shorts, Wilma Rudolph’s bronzed track shoe…and one of the first professional football jerseys.

You can see all of that here.  

And that was pretty cool. I also spent some time in the backroom storage of the Pro Football Hall Of Fame, held the desk phone of Pete Rozelle, the flat front kicking shoe of Tom Dempsey, cool stuff, but, none of it hit me as the stuff I was standing in front of now.

Now I was standing in front of stuff from a close friend of mine, a close friend who passed away…Ken Cook.

I’ve never seen the stuff of a person I knew and loved mounted and treasured behind glass before. I saw stuff of Ken’s I never knew about, never saw before, and to be honest it brought me closer to him.

And that’s exactly what these Hall Of Fame things are for, what they are supposed to do, bring you closer to the sport, give you a feeling for the sport, show you from whence it all came.

To those who put all this together, simply, thank you.

To those who have stuff from the past, get in touch with the people who run this historical collection of the game, tell them what you’ve got, donate what you’ve got if they would like it, but above all come see this, come see that this bass fishing gig is more than just fast boats and holding up fish on stage.

Come, see the bigs, of the sport you love.

But now, I couldn’t split without saying why I also came to this Hall of Fame gig…two friends of mine were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Check this out.

“…and the world’s gonna know your name…”

“I’ve got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.”
Larry Bird

In my personal cool things from sports case I have exactly two signed baseball cards.

One by Reggie Jackson, Mr. October.

And one by…Louie Stout…Mr. Every Month.

Both now in their respective Halls.

Louie writes about fishing stuff and how to catch fish, technical stuff, how tos, none of which I understand. He also writes about his longtime buddy, Kevin VanDam, who in fact I do understand.

But it’s this baseball card, it’s his love of the Cubs which told me that he is a Hall of Fame sports writer as well…no need for the bass stuff up front.

When you read Louie, know this, he loves, loves what he does, and he does it honorably. He does it knowing and believing in the foundations of journalism, does it with honesty and conviction.

He is a family guy as well, gave a shout out to both his wife and son.

Know that too, this guy is like you, works hard, honors the game and its past, and I’ll tell you this, I belong to the Bass Fishing Hall Of fame, I get to vote on the ballot of who gets in and who doesn’t…

…and I voted for Louie…a sports writer who writes about fishing but who would also hit a home run writing about the Cubbies as well.

Congrats my friend, well deserved.

And then came just one, my on the road roomie…

…Elite angler, Shaw Grigsby Jr.

“…and you’ll be on the…”

“I’ve got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.”
Larry Bird

Yep, I voted for Shaw as well, and he didn’t even make me do it, nor for the record did his mother, Sigrid, bake me some of her outstanding cookies to make me do so either. (It’s okay to send them now Sigrid.)

For the past five years at most Elite events I have roomed with Shaw and our other roomie, and Hall of Fame dude as well, Paul Elias.

Five years times 10 weeks equals almost a full year of roomin’ together.

We know each other, way too much sometimes of each other, but I know this about Shaw, some facts they don’t keep track of:

I’ve seen him dozens of times leave at dawn to practice and come back to the house at dusk.

I’ve seen him break out in a sweat in pain, seen him climb into a boat and launch when I know he almost had to have help to get up out of a chair.

I’ve heard hours and hours and hours of fishing talk and tips. I’ve heard him tell me how a fish he caught was caught and how much it weighed when he did it in 1980-something.

I’ve watched him see things under water that for most were invisible.

Oh, and I’ve also seen him bring olives to the Olive Garden, “because they don’t put enough in the salad.”

Oh, oh and in all that time I’ve never seen him lose his temper, never heard him disrespect the sport, never even think of breaking a rule.

I have though seen him take food off my plate and eat it.

I have though seen him come out of his bedroom at 4 a.m. in the morning wearing pressed fishing pants and fishing shirt with no iron in sight.

And I have sat through more Florida Gator games than what I believe humanly possible except for Gator fans.

I know his family, get hugs and calls from his wife Polly, know his daughter and son, and yes, even Brice knows my name, but I also know this the wall of fame in the Hall would be a fraud without his name on it.

I’m not sure anyone on this planet gives more to the sport of bass fishing than Shaw Grigsby Jr.

Hey roomie, so proud of you, thank you for inviting me into your life, thank you for all the explanations of fishing stuff you patiently teach me about, thanks for all the offseason calls, and thanks for your mom’s baked cookies.

Yep, I’ve always kind of thought we, this bass fishing thing, had arrived, now though I’m convinced of it.

To honor your past is to ensure your future.

It is upon the backs of those in the Hall that we all owe a high five and thanks for their gift to us of this game.

And it is this Hall that is the gift we give back to them.

To all those who came before it is my gratitude I give to you for this game you have handed us. It is my desire in my time to honor it as you did in your time.

And my hope to hand it off with pride and honor to those who come next to this sport of bass fishing, so they may remember us as well.

“…walls of the hall of fame.”
Hall Of Fame
The Script

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“But the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget.”
Tim O’Brien
The Things They Carried