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y Paul Davison
NFAA Historian
Way Back When
R e m e m b e r i n g t h e F a c t o r y P r o
Te a m S h o o t
The Allen Compound
Bow was introduced in
the 1960’s primarily as
a hunting weapon. With its
superior arrow speed and easeof-shooting,
it was only natural
that it would be adapted to
the recreational archery market.
After all, there was nothing in
the NFAA rules that prohibited
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the compound bow. By the early
1970’s, Allen agreed to let other
bow manufacturers produce
their own compound bows
under the Allen license. Upstarts
Jennings and PSE were the first
to jump on the bandwagon.
The traditional recurve bow
manufacturers soon followed.
By the mid-1970’s, there
were about a dozen different
compound bow brands on the
market, and the competition was
quite fierce. There was no better
way to convince the public that
you had the best bow than to
have the top professional archers
shoot and win with it.
Primarily because the
Professional Archers Association
prohibited compound bows,
the NFAA Professional Division
was born in 1973 for those
top archers who wanted to
compete for cash awards using
“unlimited” equipment. At
that time, there were virtually
no big money tournaments
that allowed anything but FITA
equipment. The recurve-only
PAA continued to have their
standalone tournaments, while
the NFAA Pros experimented
with a few “anything goes”
tournaments, most notably
the “Lake of the Woods” shoot
held near PSE’s headquarters
outside Mahomet, IL. Almost
all top competitors at these early
NFAA Pro tournaments were
sponsored by one of compound
bow manufacturer, principally
Jennings, PSE and Astro. By
1974, Carroll, Bear and a
few others began to sponsor
factory teams. Still, unless the
recreational archer watched
one of these tournaments, or
read a magazine advertisement
expounding the staff shooter’s
winning ways, he probably end
up buying whatever bow his
local proshop was pushing.
Then at the 1976 NFAA
National Outdoor tournament
at Aurora, IL, the NFAA Pros and
their sponsors finally got the
exposure they needed. They
came up with a winner-takeall,
“World Professional Team
Championship.” It was held
in the late afternoon after each
day’s field competition on the
practice field behind the Holiday
Inn. The format was quite simple.
Contributing sponsors put up
$500 per two-archer team. Each
day’s round consisted of six, fivearrow,
ends at 50 yards. In 1976,
the target was the experimental
NFAA Expert face. Later, it
was the 50 cm Hunter face we
use today. After Monday and
Tuesday, the bottom half of the
teams were eliminated. Then
after Wednesday and Thursday,
only the top two men’s and
women’s teams made the cut for
Friday finals.
This was my first experience
in watching “stadium archery.”
The practice field was laid out
south-to-north on the east
side of the three-story Holiday
Inn. There was a grassy bank
between the motel and the
practice field which provided an
ideal spot to watch the action.
Then, with favorite beverage in
hand, a few hundred spectators
cheered their favorite team on to
victory. I had no favorite. I was
still shooting a recurve in 1976,
but was certainly in the market
for a new compound bow. The
target butts, the spectators, and
most of the range were in the
shade. Only the shooting line
was in the sun. Since most of
the Pros shot right-handed with
their backs to the sun, the late
afternoon glare was no problem
— except to left-handed Dean
Pridgen.
The final two women’s teams
were sponsored by PSE and
Carroll, while the men’s teams
were sponsored by Jennings and
Bear. The wasn’t much drama in
the women’s finals — PSE’s Eva
Troncoso and Nancy Pfeilmeier
won handily — but it was
another story in the men’s finals.
Jennings’ Gary Lyman and Dean
Pridgen enjoyed a comfortable
six-point margin over Team
Bear’s Dave Young and Joe Drury
with only two, five-arrow ends
to go. Then with one end left,
the lead was reduced to two
points. Finally, with just two
arrows remaining, Team Bear
grabbed the winner-take-all
$6000 purse by converting a
two-point deficit into a two-point
victory. Although Dean Pridgen
probably won’t admit it, Team
Jennings’ hopes went down with
Dean Pridgen fights the sun in 1976
the sun. As the accompanying
photo shows, teammate Gary
Lyman did his best to shade
Dean’s peep sight.
The World Professional Team
Championship continued using
the same format for several
years, always in conjunction
with the NFAA National Outdoor
tournament, but sometimes
starting on Sunday instead of
Monday. The sponsors changed,
too. More bow manufacturers
got into the act, and some other
companies, like Bowhunters
Warehouse and Toxonics,
sponsored or co-sponsored
teams. Even a few states, like
Michigan, joined in. Then in
1986, factory-sponsorship
disappeared, and the “teams”
competed as either Professional
or Adult, with all NFAA shooting
styles being recognized. The
“winner-take-all” prize money
disappeared, too. The Team Shoot
slowly became an entertaining,
self-supporting, time-filler at
both the Outdoor and Indoor
National Championships. It
went from being 100% pro, to
pro and amateur, to today’s pro
with amateur, or, as we know it,
the Pro-Am. The “amateur” is
really a misnomer. The Pro-Am
prize money is awarded without
prejudice.
Today, the contingency
money awarded to top factory
shooters more than makes up
for losing the old factory team
shoot. There’s more “bang-forthe-buck.”
If you’ve attended
a national tournament, or even
looked through this magazine,
you’re bound to notice the
super-sized contingency checks
the factory-sponsored winners
are holding. You’ll certainly
notice what brand of bow the
winner is shooting.
I still miss the old Team Shoot,
though.
28 Archery Magazine April / May 2008 Archery Magazine April / May 2008 29