Gary Engberg Outdoors

gengberg August 29th, 2011

Reflections From A Buckmaster
Editor’s Note: Today, two guys I consider friends, Jackie Bushman and David Rainer, have a conversation about the twenty-five years that have passed since Bushman brought the idea for Buckmasters to life -and hunting to television. I think you’ll enjoy their conversation.

By DAVID RAINER
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

Sitting in the Montgomery Civic Center minutes before doors opened for the second day of this year’s Buckmasters Expo, Jackie Bushman found it amazing that 25 years had zipped by so quickly since the idea of the world’s premier deer-hunting fraternity was cultivated in Lowndes County.

Back in the early 1980s, Bushman was a member of the hunting club with Ray Scott, who took weekend bass fishing and turned it into the Bass Anglers Sportsman’s Society and all that it entails.

“Ray and I were sitting in a soybean field waiting for some folks to start a deer drive,” Bushman said. “He was telling me how he started Bassmaster and how everybody thought he was crazy. Every day after that I had the vision to do something similar to what he did for bass fishermen but for deer hunters.”

After an All-SEC tennis career at Auburn, Bushman played on the tennis circuit for several years and then became tennis director at Lagoon Park in Montgomery. He and his father put on the Blue-Gray tennis tournament each year with the help of the late Perry Mendel of Kindercare fame, who posed a question to the younger Bushman one day after the tennis event was over.

“Mr. Mendel asked me what I would like to do other than hit tennis balls to kids and little old ladies the rest of my life,” Bushman said. “I told him, ‘You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I’ve always dreamed of taking what Ray Scott did for bass fishing and doing it for deer hunting.’ ”

Mendel put up the seed money, and Bushman produced a “how-to” tape on deer hunting. He went to deer shows in Birmingham and other cities and sold enough tapes to have money left over after expenses.

“Mr. Mendel said I could take that money and start flying around to sell the Buckmasters idea, or I could take the money and go back to hitting tennis balls,” Bushman said.

With the help of Rob Hartley, Kindercare marketing director at the time, Bushman brushed up his marketing skills and put together a mock-up of a Buckmasters magazine. Off he went to sell the idea to companies that produce outdoors equipment and products.

The other concept Bushman pushed was the Buckmasters Classic, an idea to bring celebrities in from sports and entertainment and have them vie in a variety of outdoors-related competitions. For example, the tomahawk-throwing contest was one of the most popular. Archery, pistol and rifle shooting, as well as an ATV obstacle course, were also part of the competition made for TV. Of course, the participants also hunted deer during the event.

“That first Classic we had Bo Jackson, Johnny Lee (country music star), Lynn Dickey of the Green Bay Packers and Jody Davis of the Chicago Cubs,” Bushman said. “It was like a Superstars event. It was such a big hit.”

After two successful Classics, Bushman pitched the idea to TNN (The Nashville Network, which eventually became the Spike channel). But TNN was opposed to airing hunting on TV. Continue Reading »