Some Good Things Happen without Trying

Unexpected

The growth of the Dallas Safari Club has been meteoric since I lived in Dallas in the early 1980s. The membership and spirit of the organization was always strong But back then, it was still fledgling with big plans for the future, which to their credit continue to be realized.

The so-called "convention" was held at a DFW Airport hotel straddled between the two in-out roads. Today there are close to 3500 booths. Back then, there were 35 booth and the event was held in a small section in the lower level of the hotel.

I was a member of the Trophy Committee and our responsibilities were to recognize major tophies taken during the past season. We were also recruited to contact members and see if we could borrow some of their taxidermy for the show to give it some ambiance and add to the wow factor. This part was a challenge understandably. Anyone who had moved taxidermy into and out of any location risks damage in their handling and transport.

So, I was having little luck getting any taxidemy to pick up and display with my call list. Coincidentally, I had just taken delivery of some trophies from a hunt in Northwest Territories. One of the was an Alaska-Yukon Moose. Well, hell I thought. Better get it and anything else into the show so we had some fodder to display.

So, I get the mount to the hotel and fellow members helped get it into position. I was enaged with some other duties and was unaware of the meeting that had taken place to judge the trophy entries. Fast forward to the evening banquet and they called my name as winner of the Best of North America Award. Total surprise.