Well, I didn’t know of Howard Hill nor Robin Hood until my mid twenties. Rather was introduced to bowhunting by my Dads best friend, Jim Kiepke and from reading H R Dutch Wambold article in either Field and Stream or Sports Afield in 1961. Bought my first bow at the local hardware store with my paper route earnings. First bow hunts took place a year or so later. First deer kill came in 1965, first bear and mule deer kill in 1969, first elk and antelope before 1975.

All that said, my best friend and mentor was Roger Rothhaar, whom I met on that 1969 mule deer hunt. In fact, we both shot mule deer bucks on the same evening in Colorado and I rode off the mountain with Roger and Jane the following day. We were best friends thereafter and went on numerous hunting and archery trips five decades.

I was influenced by the Robin Hood stories Like just about all boys when I was a kid. The real person who actually got me started in archery was Air Force Sergeant Mel Morrow at Columbus, Mississippi, who ran the base archery club. His son and my sister were friends, and Mike invited her to give archery a try. When they extended the invitation to me, I jumped on it. That was 1959. I was in and out of archery for a long time due to on/off opportunity as we moved around. As an adult, I was influenced by Dan Quillian, who got me interested in shooting heavier hunting bows. I have owned 4 of his Bamboo Longhunters. In 2003 I got my first Howard Hill bow and have been shooting that style ever since. I guess Hill was also an influence, because I saw a lot of his short films growing up. That led me to become interested in his style of bows. That has been my choice ever since.

Like above...no mentor, just opportunity.

No one.

Like most boys I was naturally fascinated and drawn to guns, bows, swords-n-knives, cattys, cars, planes, etc.

We didn't have a television set until I was about nine years old (1974) and by sheer coincidence that's when they started showing the Robin Hood series.

Tom, I can relate to Outdoors with Jim Thomas. Remember it well. What made me start bowhunting was the advertisement about becoming a 2 season hunter. So, me and my buddy that gun hunted with me for deer in the late 60’s said if we bought a bow then we could gun hunt and bow hunt for deer to increase our odds to be able to kill two deer a year. So in 1970 I go into Westforth Sporting goods that was a Browning dealer and had bows in stock and walked out with a Browning Explorer II, a dozen cedar arrow, arm guard and glove and the the rest was history!

Robin Hood by way of the TV series but it was really when I read “Hunting the Hard Way” . I already was shooting a bow but in my freshman year of HS I found the book in our school library. After reading the book and watching Fred Bear and Ben Pearson shorts on “ Jim Thomas Outdoors” on WGN TV I was hooked. Not like I am now, I used to shoot firearms as well.