history Archives - San Diego Archers

A Visitors Story – Gordon Vail, an Honorary Lifetime Member of the San Diego Archers

Step into the lush forest, where your senses are awakened by the myriad of sights, sounds, and smells. You tread softly, careful not to betray your presence. Suddenly, a twig snaps in the distance. Your eyes dart to the source of the sound, and there it is – a deer. Your heart pounds in your chest as you reach for an arrow. This is the moment you’ve been preparing for. With a deep breath, you let the arrow fly.

While the Rube Powell Archery Range in Balboa Park may not be as intense, it’s a splendid spot to spend a sunny day in San Diego. Nestled just off the Alcazar Garden parking lot, accessible via Highway 163 and the Cabrillo Bridge, this 28-acre archery paradise, along with its sister range, Morley Field, are managed by the San Diego Archers Club in San Diego, California.

Before my first visit to Balboa, I had never held a bow, let alone seen someone shoot one. I was a novice, so I brought along a couple of friends who were familiar with the range.

As soon as you step into the range, you understand why it’s a favorite among archery enthusiasts. The first target shooting area offers a panoramic view of the range, enveloped in a forest of palms and eucalyptus trees. We dropped our $2 fee into a little red box and settled down to watch other archers perfect their form.

Then, a figure entered the range, capturing our attention instantly. He seemed to have stepped out of a different time, a character straight out of “Van Helsing.” This tall, slender man, clad in black leather boots, jeans, and a jacket, sported a long handlebar mustache that faded from brown to gray. Hidden behind gold-rimmed John Lennon sunglasses and a brown fedora adorned with a feather, he was a sight to behold. A black leather quiver hung over his shoulder, housing his homemade aluminum arrows and an old combat knife. In his right hand, a cigarette smoldered. This was Sir Gordon.

Gordon has been a fixture at the Rube Powell range for over half a century, with archery being a lifelong passion.

“I’ve got hillbilly beginnings,” Gordon shared. “I used to make broadheads from tin can lids and attach them to pieces of wood to make arrows.”

But Gordon’s humble beginnings have blossomed into something much grander. He’s a man who proudly places “Sir” before his name, a title earned by winning the annual King Arthur Tournament held at the Rube Powell range. He even hosts the Sir Gordon’s Traditional Shoot, where only traditional-style bows like longbows are permitted. Years of practice have honed his skills to the point where he can tell a good shot just by the feel of his release and the sound of the string on his bow. He likens this to typing without looking at the keys.

“It’s like when you’re typing without looking at the keys,” Gordon explained, “and you hit a wrong one, and you just know it by the feel.”

Gordon demonstrated his skill shortly after. He picked up his bow—a stunning, laminated blend of ebony, Indian rose, and ash woods crafted in 1964—and notched one of his silver arrows in the string. The sequence from pulling the arrow from the quiver to releasing the shot was a dance of rhythm and grace. His first two shots veered slightly to the left, but his third hit the target’s bulls-eye with a satisfying thud.

“There it is,” he declared confidently.

Gordon is a traditionalist in the world of archery. He favors recurve and longbows, the kind of equipment that evokes the image of a classic archer. He has given up using high-tech compound bows, even gifting his collection to his son.

“He brought up the will one day over the phone and I knew he was hinting at something,” Gordon recalled. “So, he says that he’s had his eye on one of my compound bows and I told him if he came and visited me, he could have them all.”

Gordon lives by two acronyms. The first is K.I.S.S.: “Keep it simple, stupid.” This explains his equipment choice. His overall style? He calls it the S.W.A.G. style. But don’t mistake it for the term you hear on campus.

“It stands for ‘scientific wild-ass guess’,” Gordon explained. “You have to know your equipment and what it can do, but the rest is getting your body to accommodate.”

Gordon has shot competitively and even hunted. But what keeps him hooked to archery is the mental challenge it presents.

“It’s a mental game with yourself,” Gordon said. “You’re the only one you’re trying to beat. Even when you’re shooting competitively—sure there’s another guy Read more...

Posted on July 4, 2023 by SDA.

About the Jessop Weapons Collection in the basement of the Museum of Man

The Jessop Weapons Collection at the Museum of Man

For many years, San Diego Archers have heard about a mysterious, incredible archery collection hidden away in the basement of the Museum of Man. We walk within a few feet of this collection as we wander through the Balboa Park Rube Powell Archery Range, especially during tournaments when pulling arrows from Targets 1 & 4, right next to the basement of the Museum (or in my case, when I am looking for my arrows BEHIND Targets 1 & 4….)

For decades, the Collection has been tucked away on dark shelves with little attention paid to the condition of each item. Two years ago, the Museum of Man initiated preservation work on the Collection. This involves inspecting each item in the collection, taking digital photos and notes, then storing each in a secure, clean environment.

The San Diego Archers would like to contribute to this important preservation effort with a financial contribution and with volunteers from the San Diego Archers.

In recent months, SDA Member Jim Baker has been researching the history of the San Diego Archers and archery in Balboa Park, in an effort to confirm whether the San Diego Archers is the longest, continuously active archery club in North America. During his extensive research, he has found important information about the Jessop Collection, its connection to archery in Balboa Park, and the evolution of the San Diego Archers. Below is a compilation of information from Jim Baker, Kelly Hyberger (Director of Collections, SD Museum of Man) and from the Museum of Man’s website regarding the Jessop Collection.

The entire collection has nearly 6,000 weapons, many related to archery from worldwide cultures. The collection ranges from stone arrow points to elaborate crossbows. It includes objects from six continents and numerous islands, and it covers 235 cultures from 60 countries.

The arrow portion of the collection was previously stored in cardboard tubes. Nearly 3,000 arrows have now been rehoused in custom storage trays to protect the fragile fletching and prevent abrasion. Once all the arrows have been rehoused, the staff will start on the assortment of shields in the collection, then the bows. They expect to begin work on the bow portion of the collection in approximately six months.

The weapons were collected between 1881 and 1911 by San Diego Jeweler and archery enthusiast, Joseph Jessop, Sr., who engaged ship captains, sailors, shipping companies, travelers, and expeditions to bring back examples of weapons from remote islands and the far reaches of the globe to his home in Coronado. Jessop loaned his collection to the Park and the new Museum at various times, starting in 1917. In mid-February 1917, the Park Board accepted Jessop’s proposal to locate an archery range south of the Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park. Following this agreement, Jessop moved his archery collection into the U.S. Government Building (current location of the SD Museum of Art). Portions of the collection have been displayed in the 1920’s, 40’s and 1978-92. The entire Jessop Collection was formally donated to the Museum of Man in 1974.

Our Annual Flying Pig 3D Tournament fundraiser supports the Jessop Weapons Collection

Posted on February 3, 2017 by archer2.

San Diego Archers History

San Diego Archers

Established 1938 to expand and perpetuate the practice of archery and the spirit of good fellowship among archers in San Diego.

The San Diego Archers archery club has been an active organization since 1938.

Prior to 1938, archery had been a popular sport in San Diego, mentioned in local San Diego newspapers as far back as 1924. It was during that time that a small group of target archers formed San Diego’s first archery club, the “San Diego Archery Club.”

The San Diego Archery Club was prominent in Balboa Park into the 1940s, with an archery range located at Sixth Avenue and Laurel Street. See this excerpt from the “A Guide to Balboa Park, San Diego, California, American Guide Series, 1941” below:¹

“The San Diego Archery Club, affiliated with the National and the Western Associations, was organized on February 11, 1924, with six members. The late Joseph Jessop, donor of the famed archery exhibit in the San Diego Museum, was its first president. In September 1924, the club was granted permission to use the present Park range.”

In 1938, a group of field archers asked for their own range and were given an area formerly used as a reproduction old West town called Gold Gulch. Known as the “San Diego Field Archers,” they operated in Gold Gulch for roughly twenty years.²

In the late 1950s, the field archer club moved to its current location in Balboa Park. It was around this time as well that park officials determined that target archery had become too hazardous to remain on the lawn at Sixth Avenue and Laurel Street, and the field archers were relocated to the Morley Field Target Range, near the eastern boundary of Balboa Park.²

Even though both archery clubs, San Diego Archery Club and San Diego Field Archers, operated separately, many local archers were members of both clubs into the 1960s.

It was in the 1960s that both clubs merged as one club, calling themselves the “San Diego Archers” archery club.

Later, in 1992, the National City Turtle Archers merged with the San Diego Archers club. The two clubs had been sharing both the Rube Powell Balboa Park Archery Range and the Morley Field Archery Range for a number of years.

The Balboa Park and Morley Field Archery ranges are the last remaining public field archery ranges in Southern California. These ranges are maintained for public use to the entire archery community and are solely supported by the members of the San Diego Archers.

Rube Powell Archery Range

In 1994, the name of the Balboa Park Archery Range, located off of the Alcazar Parking lot, was changed to Rube Powell Archery Range to honor one of San Diego’s great athletes.

Rube Powell, a member of the San Diego Archers since the 1950s, passed away some time ago. Rube Powell was truly a gifted archer whose accomplishments in Tournament Archery competition remain unequalled. He was a winner of the prestigious National Field Archery Championship a record five times. In addition, he won too many regional, state, and local tournaments to list here. Rube was inducted into the San Diego Hall of Champions in 1994, elected to the National Archery Hall of Fame in 1976 and to the California State Hall of Fame in 1977.

But for all of Rube Powell’s accomplishments, those who had the privilege of knowing him remember him best for what he gave back to the community—his love and support of archery.

Because this man gave the archery community so much, the members of San Diego Archers decided to honor his memory by renaming the archery range after him.

Archery Tournaments

The Balboa Park Archery Range has been the site of numerous national archery tournaments.

In 1962, San Diego Archers held the first King Arthur’s Day Tournament, an archery event that has become an annual gathering of young and old, attracting over 200 archers from California, Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico.

In 1967, the range and San Diego Archers hosted the Police Olympics Archery Competition, a competition that has been held on the range a total of seven times, the last one in 2006. In 1987, the range was the site of the World Police and Fire Games Archery Competition, and in 1993, it was the host of the Senior Olympics Archery Competition.

In 2006, San Diego Archers hosted the first Border Shoot, a competition between California, Arizona, Baja California, and Sonora states archers. It is an annual event that rotates each year to the winning state and involves four classifications of archery styles.

Over the years, Balboa Park Archery Range has supported other local clubs when their ranges were not available. For example, in 1993, the San Diego County Bow Hunters utilized the range for several months when their Read more...

Posted on December 21, 2011 by SDA.