The History of Trapshooting - Thank you to the Trapshooting
Hall of Fame and Museum for allowing me publish this Trapshooting
Data. Please visit their link.
Knowing the history of a sport you enjoy lets a person get a better
over all understanding of it. Trapshooting as a official sport has
been around for about 175 years. The sport of Trapshooting needs
dedicated adults to introduce youth and teens to the sport, to keep
it alive for another 175 years and longer. Read the history of trapshooting,
our youth of today will have to keep out sport alive.
Organized trapshooting dates back to England in the late 1700s.
The first targets were live pigeons, shot when released from cages,
called traps. This form of trapshooting came to America in the 1800s
and live pigeon shoots were held across the country by spirited
men, including some of the nation's top marksmen.
1831: Evidence shows that trapshooting was first contested in this
county at the Sportsmen's Club of Cincinnati, OH. They probably
used Passenger Pigeons or Sparrows for targets.
1840: New York Sportsman's Club held its first trapshooting competition.
1866: Charles Portlock of Boston, MA introduced the glass target
ball from England. Glass ball matches were held during the remainder
of the 19th century. Great glass ball shooters such as Capt. Bogardus,
Doc Carver, Ira Paine, and Annie Oakley continued to set glass ball
records in exhibitions and matches.
1868 Fred Kimble of Knoxville, IL invented the choke bore shotgun.
Perhaps the most important shotgun invention of all time.
1880 Invention of the clay target by George Ligowsky of Cincinnati,
Ohio. He would introduce the target at the conclusion of the New
York State Shoot at Coney Island to a group of shooters. It became
an instant success. He contracted Capt. Adam Bogardus and Doc Carver
to tour the country in a series of matches using Ligowsky targets.
Carver had made a name for himself as a rifle shooter but remarkably,
Carver won 22 of the 25 matches over the great Bogardus. This had
to humiliate Bogardus. Ligowsky was also instrumental in the staging
of the first national trapshoot in New Orleans in 1885. All the
great shots attended including Rolla Heikes, Bogardus, Carver and
J. A. R. Elliott. Doc Carver won the event.
1884: About 1884, Fred Kimble invented the composition clay target.
He was very unhappy with the hardness of the Ligowsky target made
from baked clay. Kimble and a partner, Charlie Stock developed the
first composition type target which was not all clay. Unlike the
Ligowsky target, It broke when hit. It was called the Peoria Black
Bird. It was made of coal-tar, pitch and other ingredients and was
shiny black in color. They also made a trap to throw this target.
1890 The first trapshooting association, organized in 1890, was
the American Shooting Association. They produced the first rule
book. The first governing body was composed of those employed by
companies who produced trapshooting-related products. Among them
was L. C. Smith, founder of the famous gun company; Charles Tatham,
owner of the largest lead shot processing plant in the country;
and Capt. A. W. DuBray of the Parker Gun Co. In 1892 with more gun
and powder related companies joining the fold, the association produced
a name change to the Interstate Manufacturer's and Dealers’
Association.
1892: The Interstate Manufacturer's and Dealers’ Association
was organized from the American Shooting Association. In 1895, the
name was shortened to The Interstate Association. This organization
was made up of the gun and powder company manufacturers (professionals)
for the "encouragement of trapshooting". Their headquarters
was Pittsburgh, PA. Elmer Shaner was the manager of this association
every year until they became the American Trapshooting Association
in 1919. The new headquarters was moved from Pittsburgh to New York.
Shaner did not want to relocate so he retired. However, he did become
president of the new association in 1921. He gave the opening address
for the new ATA at the Grand American from 1923 to 1937. He missed
his first Grand in 1938 and died the following year.
1893: First Grand American at live birds (lasted 10 years to 1902).
It was held in Dexter Park in Long Island, NY on April 5, 1893.
The shoot attracted 24 shooters with R. A. Welch winning with a
23x25.. All ten of these tournaments were managed by Elmer Shaner
of Pennsylvania.
1900: First Grand American at clay targets held at Interstate Park
in New York City from June 12-15. Again, managed by Elmer Shaner
of Pennsylvania. Shaner would manage the first 19 Grand American
tournaments until the formation of the American Trapshooting Association
in 1919. The first GAH was won by Rolla "Pop" Heikes of
Dayton, Ohio. There were 74 entries.
1901: Second Grand American held at Interstate Park, NY.
1902 Third Grand American held at Interstate Park, NY.
1903: Fourth Grand American held at Elliott's Blue River Shooting
Park in Kansas City, MO
1904: Fifth Grand American held in Indianapolis, IN.
1905 First New York Athletic Club (NYAC) tournament.
1905: Sixth Grand American held in Indianapolis, IN.
1906: Seventh Grand American held in Indianapolis, IN.
1907: First Westy Hogans Tournament held at Young's Pier in Atlantic
City, NJ
1907: Eighth Grand American held at the Chicago Gun Club in Chicago,
IL.
1908: Ninth Grand American held at Columbus, Ohio.
1909: Tenth Grand American held at the Chicago Gun Club in Chicago,
IL.
1910: Eleventh Grand American again held at the Chicago Gun Club
in Chicago, IL.
1911: Doubles targets were introduced for the first time. Allen
Heil of Allentown, PA led the nation in doubles averages in 1911
& 1912. Mark Arie won the first Doubles Championship at the
Grand American in 1912, breaking 89x100.
1911: Twelfth Grand American held at Columbus, OH.
1912: Thirteenth Grand American held at Springfield, IL.
1913 The first official average book published.
1914: Fifteenth Grand American held at Dayton, OH held at the National
Cash Register Club.
1915: Sixteenth Grand American held at the downtown Grand Park,
in Chicago, IL.
1916: Seventeenth Grand American held at St. Louis, MO.
1915: The American Amateur Trapshooting Association (AATA, 1916-1919)
formed on December 23, 1915 with John Philip Sousa as president.
This was the first attempt to have a national organization organized
and run by amateurs. Sousa would serve as president again in 1918.
This new association was the first attempt at amateur control and
did not replace any other organization. It co-existed at the time
with the Interstate Trapshooting Association.
1917: Eighteenth Grand American held at the South Shore Country
Club in Chicago, IL.
1918: Nineteenth Grand American held at the South Shore Country
Club in Chicago, IL.
1919: The American Trapshooting Association (ATA, 1919-1923) was
formed and replaced the Interstate Trapshooting Association. The
offices were moved to New York from Pittsburgh. It was this association
that designed the ATA logo much as it appears today.
1919: The AATA was disbanded and absorbed by the newly formed American
Trapshooting Association.
1919: Twentieth Grand American held at the South Shore Country Club
in Chicago, IL.
1920: Twenty-first Grand American held at the Edgewater Park in
Cleveland, OH.
1921: Twenty-second Grand American held at the South Shore Country
Club in Chicago, IL.
1922: Twenty-third Grand American held at Atlantic City, NJ
1923: The Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA, 1919-present) was
organized to replace the American Trapshooting Association. For
the first time, trapshooting was run and organized by amateurs.
The first Grand American under this new association was in Chicago,
the final year it would moved yearly.
1923: Twenty-fourth Grand American held at the South Shore Country
Club in Chicago, IL.
1924: The new home grounds of the ATA was established at Vandalia,
Ohio. The twenty-fifth Grand American was held at the new home grounds.
There were 16 trapfields. They continue there to this day. George
McCarty, living in New Jersey at the time, was the driving force
for the development of the new home grounds. He became the second
president of the new ATA.
1924: First T. C. Marshall Marathon at Yorklyn, DE. Eventually replaced
the ATA Eastern Zone shoots until 1948.
1925: Steve Crothers breaks the first 200 straight in singles at
any Grand American. Annie Oakley pays a visit to the Grand American
and, according to Jimmy Robinson, breaks a 97. However, the ATA
has no record that she ever shot at the Grand that year. She would
die the following year. It was this year that the ATA had the option
to purchase the old Annie Oakley homestead and move it to the ATA
home grounds for an Annie Oakley museum. Somehow, shrouded by time,
they never acted. The home was razed years later, never to be seen
again.
1932: John Philip Sousa dies at age 77, after conducting a rehearsal
of the famous Ringgold Band in Reading, Pennsylvania. As fate would
have it, the last piece he conducted was "The Stars and Stripes
Forever".
1968 ATA Hall of Fame established.
1969 Fifteen inducted in the Hall of Fame on August 19, 1969
2004 The passing of Bob Allen
Information that you will find on the internet about the history
of trapshooting may be different depending on the source. I dont
know why this is.
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