Last September at the Fall Classic event held at Mid-Valley Clays, an appreciative crowd of shooters and family members celebrated the inaugural Oregon NSCA Hall of Fame (HOF) induction of three icons of the sport. It was exactly two months to the day since the topic of creating a potential HOF was discussed at the State Championships awards dinner. Although Oregon doesn’t have an official NSCA Association, the question was asked, “Why can’t we create a Hall of Fame program?” Well, we did just that, and a program was crafted, vetted by HOF Committee members, and nominations were received and voted upon.

 

The votes were unanimous, and there are now three inductees initiated into the newly created Oregon NSCA Hall of Fame. The 2019 inductees are Carl “Skip” Zapffe, Achievement Award; Walt Badorek (posthumously), Service Award; and Beverly Zapffe, Service/Achievement Award. Congratulations to our inaugural inductees.

 

Skip’s achievements are well documented: 23 continuous years as an All-American Team member, captain in five of those years, plus 50+ various other trophies within the Western U.S., usually earning three or more per event.

 

Beverly, too, has amassed many national, regional and state awards, however, many of today’s shooters aren’t aware that she was Oregon’s first National Delegate during NSCA’s initial 10 years of development. She emphasized communication and participation by all members and clubs joining the NSCA movement in the early years. Skip and Beverly were among the initial shooters to start sporting clays in their home state of Oregon. They have become beloved fixtures at all our sporting events locally, regionally and nationally.

 

On a national level, soon after sporting clays became a division of NSSA, Walt Badorek from Klamath Falls served as NSSA President (1990-1992) and helped create a solid foundation of the sport we love today. His induction into Oregon’s HOF completes the recognition of Walt’s previous NSSA and NSCA Hall of Fame honors.

 

All three have unofficially served as Oregon’s ambassadors of the sport and have represented the state well on the local and national stage. Visit the Oregon Sporting Clays website, www.ornsca.org, and the tab “Oregon Hall of Fame” to learn more of these folks’ accomplishments.

 

– Contributed by Tom Jones