“A TRUE ORIGINAL”

Every sport has its originals.

Hockey still acknowledges its NHL Original Six for which my Detroit Red Wings are members in good standing, holding 11 Stanley Cups. The NFL has its Original Five. MLB Baseball has its original Eight. Does sporting clays have its version of the Originals? Is it possible the 2022 Northeast Regional and FITASC Grand Slam Championship is hosted by one of sporting clay’s Originals?

Our Sport’s Originals

It is largely acknowledged the first sporting clay event was hosted at Remington’s Lordship Gun Club in Connecticut in the fall of 1980. Orvis sponsored the first sporting clay championship in Houston in 1985, and in 1989 the National Sporting Clays Association was founded in San Antonio, Texas.

Now, let’s take a look at Hopkins Game Farm which started as an upland wingshooting preserve in 1983. Four years later in 1987, Hopkins purchased Lincoln hand traps and threw their first sporting clay event. Shortly after joining the USSCA, they began throwing sporting clay tournaments.

Hopkins was an early adopter of the newly founded NSCA and the first on the east coast to engage membership. Hopkins quickly blossomed as a beacon for sporting clay events, and hosted NSCA’s first Big Blast titled the “Big Pig Blast” from 1990-1994.

As the years progressed Hopkins hosted three U.S. Open championships (1994, 2003, 2007), and numerous Regional Championships, State Championships and Zone events. On two occasions Hopkins hosted the FITASC Nationals. This early involvement, leadership and commitment to sporting clays earned Hopkins Game Farm the title of “NSCA Club of the Decade” for the period 1990 -2000.

So, it appears sporting clays can acknowledge itself, as many other sports have previously acknowledged themselves, as having an Original Five. Mark, you mentioned Three Originals. Who are the other two?

I believe Hopkins Game Farm’s east coast neighbors, one to the north (M&M in Pennsville, NJ), and one to the south, (Forest City Gun Club in Savannah, GA.) must be considered as our sport’s Original Five sporting clay venues.

A Majestic Venue

Let’s take a closer look at this iconic original known as Hopkins

Game Farm.

Hopkins Game Farm is pleasantly sited on 350-acres in the rural splendor of Kennedyville, Maryland. The property is comprised of deep old-growthtimber, offering steep changes in elevation presenting variable sight pictures and wide-open rolling agricultural fields and meadows including two water features. The landscape presents a nice collage of sight pictures for tournament shooters.

Despite being 2022, Kennedyville and its surrounding eastern shore neighbors live a rural lifestyle akin to the times of Lord Baltimore; Maryland’s namesake, Henrietta Maria of France, wife of Charles I of England (Mary-Land); and Johns Hopkins, the 69th Richest Man in History according to the “The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates - A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present.”

Entering Maryland’s eastern shore through the Pennsylvania border, I encountered the bucolic simplicity of miles and miles of perfectly graced and infinitely tidy large Mennonite and Amish Farms situated on rolling meadows. Traffic was light as my Chevy rolled up and down the narrow roads of this melodic landscape. Passing an occasional horse and carriage rig filled with large Amish families dressed in traditional Amish attire or a smaller carriage carrying a single man or husband and wife…I seldom saw another vehicle. I was definitely transported in time to a simpler world of necessity, not excess.

The Hopkins Impact

This is the simple rural life of Johns Hopkins back in the day when he was growing the family’s grocery and wares business. Of course, this simplicity is before his judicious investments in myriad ventures, most notably the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), of which he became a director in 1847 and chairman of the Finance Committee in 1855. He was also President of Merchants’ Bank as well as director of a number of other organizations.

Retired at age 52, Johns Hopkins is a name synonymous with philanthropy and goodwill in the Baltimore area. One could argue, Johns Hopkins put Baltimore and Maryland on the world map forever with his founding of Johns Hopkins Colored Children Orphan Asylum, Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins Press, the longest continuously operating academic press in America, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Anyone who survived the COVID world pandemic, knows well the tireless work performed by and through Johns Hopkins daily COVID analysis and reporting.

Johns Hopkins University is a private research university, the oldest research university in the western hemisphere and prestigious without compare on the world stage. Baltimore and the State of Maryland remain thankful to Johns Hopkins University as they perennially hold the position as Baltimore’s largest employer, in

Maryland’s largest city.

Baltimore-home to Johns Hopkins University; Annapolishome to the United States Naval Academy; and the eastern shorehome to Ocean City are wonderful nearby stops during your sporting clay experience at Hopkins Game Farm.

America in Miniature

If you didn’t attend this year’s Regional at Hopkins, you should give Maryland a try the next time round because it has a lot to offer. Maryland’s geography, culture, and history combine elements of the mid-Atlantic, northeastern, and southern regions of the country into one singularly wonderful experience.

Maryland possesses a variety of topography within its borders, contributing to its nickname America in Miniature. It ranges from sandy dunes dotted with seagrass in the east, to low marshlands teeming with wildlife and large bald cypress near the Chesapeake Bay, to gently rolling