Remembering the Greats: Profiles of Turkey Hunting's Old Masters

In Remembering the Greats, a 317-page hardbound book, Jim Casada brings his training as an historian, his decades of studying the grand masters of the sport, his avid collecting of the literature, and his personal hunting experiences to bear in a detailed examination of the careers of 27 icons from turkey hunting's past. Collectively they epitomize the essence of what old timers sometimes refer to as true "turkey men."

Each vignette focuses on the person's contributions to the world of turkey hunting in capacities such as callmaking, authors of articles and books, avid hunters, seminar speakers, television personalities, biologists, conservationists, and more. Two common threads typify every man profiled: their consuming love of the wild turkey and the fact that they were fascinating characters.

Coverage includes well-known individuals—Tom Turpin, Henry Edwards Davis, Neil Cost, Dave Harbour, Earl Mickel, M. L. Lynch, Ben Rodgers Lee, and Dick Kirby—along with names which might not be quite as familiar to today's hunters such as Parker Whedon, Doug Camp, Larry Hearn, Leon Johenning, C. L. Jordan, and Simon Everitt. Others profiled include E. A. McIlhenny, Frank Hanenkrat, Henry Bridges, Roger Latham, Gene Nunnery, Tom Gaskins, Charlie Elliott, Dwain Bland, Wayne Bailey, Jack Dudley, Frank Piper, and Kenny Morgan.

Through these richly detailed and lovingly crafted profiles, accompanied by ample photographic support and extensive source notes, the reader can take a delightful trip down darkening avenues into a past which is at once fascinating and enlightening.

Firmly committed to the idea that turkey hunting’s past serves as a looking glass into the sport’s future, Jim Casada has been an avid student of its lure and lore since that magic morning, decades ago, when he stood mesmerized in a moment of bittersweetness while admiring his first gobbler. America's greatest game bird immediately laid a firm hold on a corner of his sporting soul. Since that glad occasion, he has been on an unending quest for information pertaining to turkey hunting's rich and varied past.