I was sent these pictures of the first Bassmaster Classic and thought you all would like to see them.

 

Check out the boats.

 

http://www.bassmaster.com/slideshow/flashback-1971-bassmaster-classic?j=20721676&e=sam@samric.com&l=4028438_HTML&u=420063378&mid=10688361&jb=0

 

 

I was sent these pictures of the first Bassmaster Classic and thought you all would like to see them.

 

Check out the boats.

 

http://www.bassmaster.com/slideshow/flashback-1971-bassmaster-classic?j=20721676&e=sam@samric.com&l=4028438_HTML&u=420063378&mid=10688361&jb=0

That is one of the coolest things I've seen.  It shows it doesn't take fancy equipment to be awesome.  I never knew the boats started out as inboard motors.  Thanks for that Great post!!

Thanks for sharing! Neat little piece of history.

fishing groupies!!!! 

10 fish limit per day, no live release. My how times have changed.

Thanks. Very interesting to see how it got started.

One of the Men that participated in this event is from a small suburb of Wichita.  Dennis Pope was from Haysville KS.  Dennis Pope years later drowned in Cheney Lake for those of you that are familiar with this area.    The boat Dennis used at the 1st Classic was  recently found in North Carolina, and has been completely restored to like new condition.   

Tom Mann , Bobby Murray , Roland Martin.... They may as well been named Mickey Mantel to me. I met Tom Mann once. He handed me a six thousand dollar first place check .

Wow unbelievable! Back then, those pros thought those boats were fancy! A lot of things changed. Pretty crazy.

cool

Pretty cool!  Amazing to see how far both the format has come and the technology changes since then.