Ray Scott, an exuberant promoter who turned bass fishing into knowledgeable sport by organizing a sequence of tournaments that discovered tv houses on TNN and ESPN, died on Could 8 in Hayneville, Ala. He was 88.
His demise, at a rehabilitation facility, was confirmed by Jim Kientz, govt director of Ray Scott Outside, a consulting enterprise.
The concept for a bass fishing tour got here to Mr. Scott, then an insurance coverage salesman, when rain reduce quick a fishing outing with a buddy in Jackson, Miss., in 1967. Caught in his lodge room watching sports activities on tv, he had an epiphany: Why not begin the equal of the PGA Tour for bass fishing?
He held his first match at Beaver Lake, in Arkansas, the place 106 anglers paid $100 every to compete over three days for $5,000 in prizes. A second match adopted that 12 months; in 1968 he fashioned a membership group, the Bass Angler Sportsman Society, or BASS.
In 1971, Mr. Scott began what has turn into often called the Tremendous Bowl of bass fishing: the Bassmaster Classic, his group’s annual championship match, which he paired with a merchandising expo for producers of bass fishing boats and equipment.
Roland Martin, who hosts a fishing present on the Sportsman Channel, started competing on the BASS circuit in 1970. He mentioned in a telephone interview that Mr. Scott had a imaginative and prescient for bass fishing that nobody else had, one which he expressed to his skeptical dad and mom on the time.
“I mentioned, ‘I met this man Ray Scott and he’s speaking about all the nice issues which can be going to occur in bass fishing,’” Mr. Martin mentioned. “He made me assume there was knowledgeable occupation available in fishing.”
Mr. Scott was the showman of BASS, the umbrella firm for tournaments, magazines and tv reveals. Simply acknowledged in his cowboy hat and fringed jackets, Mr. Scott memorably served because the M.C. for match weigh-ins, entertaining 1000’s of followers along with his exuberant patter as anglers pulled flopping fish out of holding tanks.
“Now, ain’t {that a} actually fantastic fish?” he requested one match crowd. “What number of of you wish to see extra fish like that? C’mon, let’s hear it for that fish!”
He entered the arenas that had been the exposition websites of the Bassmaster Basic in eye-catching methods: on an elephant, flying on a wire, bursting out of an enormous egg, in a ship as pyrotechnics made him seem like floating on a fiery lake.
Mr. Martin, a champion fisherman, mentioned that Mr. Scott may very well be devious in pursuing match cheaters.
“He’d take a useless fish and mark them then throw them within the lake within the hope that somebody would discover that fish and attempt to weigh them in,” he mentioned. “And he would catch guys doing that.”
Considered one of Mr. Scott’s important initiatives was a 1972 marketing campaign known as “Don’t Kill Your Catch,” aimed toward newbie anglers and people competing within the tournaments, at which entrants had to make use of aerated livewells on their boats so they might launch the bass they caught after the weigh-ins. He had seen fly fishermen launch their catch at an occasion in Aspen, Colo., and thought that he may convey that conservation ethic to bass fishing.
“I noticed the joy these males had releasing that puny little trout,” Mr. Scott said in a 2008 episode of “The Bassmasters,” a TV series, he created. “I questioned what they’d do if we had males releasing five- or six-pound bass — large guys.”
Raymond Wilson Scott Jr. was born on Aug. 24, 1933, in Montgomery, Ala. His father operated a gaggle of ice cream pushcarts. His mom, Mattie Scott, was a hairdresser.
Ray had an early entrepreneurial streak: In third grade, when his mom gave him further sandwiches so as to add weight to his body, he offered them to his classmates. He later collected payments for an area dairy firm.
Fishing grew to become an early obsession. He caught his first fish at age 6; when he was 16, he began a fishing membership, charging a 25 cent membership price.
After finding out at Howard School (now Samford College) in Birmingham, Mr. Scott served within the U.S. Military in West Germany for 2 years. He then resumed his schooling at Auburn College, the place he obtained a bachelor’s diploma in enterprise administration in 1959.
He offered insurance coverage for Mutual of New York till 1964 after which grew to become a supervisor for Underwriters Nationwide earlier than turning full time to bass fishing.
He additionally grew to become identified for his conservation efforts, which included submitting about 200 state and federal lawsuits in 1970 and 1971 towards firms for air pollution that had fouled fishing waters, upfront of the passage of the federal Clear Water Act in 1972.
Mr. Scott lobbied for the passage in 1984 of an modification to the Sports activities Fish Restoration Act that created an excise tax program that financially advantages state fisheries companies.
He offered BASS in 1986 to a gaggle that included Helen Sevier, the president and chief govt, who had been a behind-the-scenes energy since becoming a member of the corporate in 1970. ESPN, which had televised tournaments because the Nineties (it was seen on TNN earlier than then), acquired the corporate in 2001. It offered the corporate 9 years later however continued to hold its occasions till 2020, when Fox took over.
Mr. Scott, who remained the general public face of BASS for a dozen extra years, additionally grew to become pleasant with President George H.W. Bush. He served as Mr. Bush’s marketing campaign chairman in Alabama throughout his unsuccessful presidential marketing campaign in 1980 and usually hosted Mr. Bush at his non-public lake in Pintlala, south of Montgomery, the place he indulged his love of fishing.
Mr. Bush’s favourite journal was mentioned to be Bassmaster, which BASS publishes.
In 2008, Mr. Scott endorsed the previous Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee for president.
After promoting BASS, Mr. Scott began two new companies; one develops seed merchandise utilized by hunters to develop forage for deer diet, and the opposite, now not in operation, designed fishing lakes and ponds.
In 1995, Area & Stream named Mr. Scott one of many 20 individuals who most affected outside sports activities within the twentieth century. In 2001, he was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.
He’s survived by his spouse, Susan (Chalfant) Scott; his daughter, Jennifer Epperson; his sons, Ray III, Steven and Wilson; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His marriage to Eunice (Hiott) Scott ended together with her demise.
Mr. Scott sensed even within the early days of his bass fishing tour that he had tapped a market with nice potential. However James Corridor, editor in chief of Bassmaster, mentioned that Mr. Scott achieved greater than he may have anticipated, and that his affect was not simply in making an organized sport out of bass fishing but additionally in accelerating the expansion of an business that serves anglers.
If not for Mr. Scott, he mentioned, the Bass Professional Retailers chain and lots of boat builders won’t exist.
“They had been based,” Mr. Corridor mentioned in a telephone interview, “due to what Ray did.”
