CELEBRATION, Fla. — At the final weigh-in of the inaugural CITGO Bassmaster Classic in Las Vegas in 1971, the total number of spectators watching atop the roof of a marina on the shores of Lake Mead could have fit into a school bus. And that included the contenders and their families.
For those who attended that first Classic, today’s version of the world championship must seem like a Technicolor, mind-blowing fantasy. The Classic has evolved into a big-league sporting event that has visited such venues as Louisiana’s Superdome and Pittsburgh’s Mellon Arena. As many as 20,000 fans have attended some final weigh-ins in the past; as many as 52,000 have toured the Classic Outdoor Show (now called the Classic ESPN Outdoors Expo presented by Under Amour).
The attention given to the Classic has exploded. Today, nearly 300 media representatives cover the Bassmaster Classic in person. Anyone with Internet access can follow the daily weigh-ins. And the efforts of ESPN personnel now provide an incredible fix to BASS junkies on Classic weekend, with the networks airing 12 hours of television coverage.
Families from across America annually travel to the event that has now become the bass fisherman’s Mecca. Thousands of spectators have attended the early-morning launch of the Classic competitors.
As a result of all of those factors and more, the Bassmaster Classic is considered far and wide the sport’s only true world-championship event.
“I get the question almost every day about whether I ever in my wildest dreams thought the Classic would get this big,” said BASS founder Ray Scott. “I never dreamt it. I would love to say this was my master plan. But the truth is, I was so busy living the moment and trying to get to Monday without going broke that I couldn’t have dreamed that big.
“Of course I’m proud of how the Classic has grown and what it’s become. From its humble beginnings, the Classic has grown into something that none of us old-timers could have ever dreamed about.”
The Classic lore takes a new turn with Classic XXXVI in Kissimmee, Fla., Feb. 24-26. It will be the first Classic ever held in the early spring. In addition, it kicks off the exciting new CITGO Bassmaster Elite Series season.
The Classic is now an integral property of sports giant ESPN, which gives it the kind of major-league treatment that Scott and the sport’s pioneers could never have envisioned: extensive live and same-day coverage on ESPN and ESPN2; mentions on SportsCenter; and plugs on the BASS Saturday block on ESPN2.
While 1971 Classic winner Bobby Murray persevered in near anonymity, today’s Classic champion gets beseeched for autographs in airports, invited to serve as grand marshal at NASCAR events and parades at Walt Disney World and even make appearances on talk shows including Late Night with David Letterman and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. And that is after taking home the $500,000 winner’s pot of gold and heading down a promotional path to as much as $1 million in endorsements and other residual income.
One pro who has witnessed the evolution of the Classic is Gary Klein. The 48-year-old Texas angler finished fourth in the first of his 23 Classic appearances, in the 1979 Bassmaster Classic on Oklahoma’s Lake Texoma.
“The only people there were the contestants and their immediate families,” Klein said. “We had no public. In fact, the rest of the world didn’t know the Classic was taking place.
“Back then, there’s no way that I could have envisioned the Classic would turn out to be the event that it is today. To the magnitude that we have today with the live coverage, the Internet and TV and all of the hard work the press does to cover the Classic. It’s so much more of a sporting event than it’s ever been. It’s phenomenal now.”
The upcoming Classic will serve as a week-long celebration of the sport of bass fishing with a variety of activities, beginning with the annual Bassmaster Family Fest and Bassmaster Junior World Championship on Feb. 19 and end with the final weigh-in on Sunday, Feb. 26, at the Orange County Convention Center.
The 2006 CITGO Bassmaster Classic will be hosted by the Kissimmee Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Central Florida Sports Commission.
BASS is the worldwide authority on bass fishing, sanctioning more than 20,000 events through the BASS Federation annually. Guided by its mission to serve all fishing fans, BASS sets the standard for credibility, professionalism, sportsmanship and conservation, as it has for nearly 40 years.
BASS stages bass fishing tournaments for every skill level and culminates with the CITGO Bassmaster Classic. Through its clubs, youth programs, aquatic resource advocacy, magazine publishing and multimedia platforms, BASS offers the industry’s widest array of services and support to its nearly 550,000 members. The organization is headquartered in Celebration, Fla.
For more information, contact BASS Communications at (407) 566-2208 or visit www.bassmaster.com.
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