Happy 60th Anniversary Floyd Eccleston & the Bear Grizzly

[Wade Phillips]

With all the talk about the 50th Birthday of the 1959 Kodiak, we don't want to miss some other important milestones for this year.

2009 is also the 60th anniversary of the Bear Grizzly, and Floyd Eccleston's 1949 Michigan Buck that was featured on the cover of "Archery" magazine, but not until December 1952, complete with his article about the hunt on page 4, "From One to Six, Its Fun"...

This is my personal favorite hunting photograph of a 1949 Grizzly, taken in 1949 and features our beloved Floyd Eccleston and his 1949 Michigan buck...

Also shown in the photograph are Floyd's personal "Fred Bear" coveralls (still have Floyd's cleaning tag safety pinned inside the collar) and Floyd's shirt he always wore to shoots, complete with his name badge he signed for the last ABCC meeting he attended, Grayling, Michigan, 1997.

Sadly, 2009 is also the 10th anniversary of Floyd's death.

Floyd's endless list of accolades are well deserved... Archery Hall of Fame, ABCC Honorary Member, Charter Member Michigan Bow Hunters, MBH Bow Hunter of the Year, and many, many others...

Thanks for everything Floyd... and Happy 60th Anniversary...

 

[bowhunterfrompast]

Wade..great tribute to Floyd and the Bear Grizzly.

I should get a 1949 Grizzly..to celebrate the year I was born.

[johnnyrazorhead]

Nice stuff Wade.Floyd was a great guy.

[jcar315]

Wade, Thank you for sharing!!

Happy anniversary to both!!!!

[d. ward]

Nice Wade I love that pic time fly's like an arrow.bd

[Wade Phillips]

Rick - Yes, a 49 Grizzly would be a great gift for yourself for your 60th birthday.

John - Yes, Floyd was truly a great guy. Doesn't seem possible that he has been gone for 10 years already.

Doc - Boy time does fly like an arrow. Life itself is much like the flight of an arrow.

[CrookedStick]

More great stuff Wade, thanks for sharing it with us. And yet again I wish I would have spent more time with Floyd.

Boy, if I knew then what you know now...

Great anniversary tribute, Wade!

Bernie

[Bel007]

I bought my first bow from Floyd's shop, Chippewa Archery in Mt. Pleasant MI back in '79 or '80.  His wife,I think her name was "Joan" or "Joannie" was there that day.  

She was amazing!  Got me set up in a heartbeat, bow, arrows, glove, guard, quiver, broadheads (Bears), showed me around the shop and told me stories about Floyd and Fred and many others I'd never heard of (until getting back into the sport many years later).

I met Floyd a time or two but Joannie was there on most of my visits.

He always had his huge broadhead display out as well as tons of other stuff to look over.  The shop was as much a museum as a retail shop.  Even as a teenager, I could spend an hour or more on each visit just looking around.

I made a number of return visits over the years to "resupply" each season although I never really appreciated just what a treasure that shop was or how special were the two amazing curators.

I would love to be able to revisit that shop as an adult and just surround myself with all the history that was hanging from every wall and propped up in ever corner.