About Dick Tone
Coached multiple U.S. National Champions in Senior, Junior and Intermediate divisions.
Coached several World and Olympic Team members including Jay Barrs, 1988 Olympic individual Gold and team Silver Medalist
Several U.S. patents for archery products.
Senior member of Pope & Young Club.
Pope & Young and Boone and Crockett measurer.
Arizona Bowhunters Hall of Fame inductee.
Published in many U.S. and International publications.
My journey in archery began at age 5 with a toy bow and arrow, while visiting one of my cousins in Minnesota. Not long after, our family moved to Arizona and I was introduced to real archery by an older gentleman that lived a few doors away in Sunnyslope. He fashioned a bow from an Oleander bush, and made arrows from the slats found in wooden orange crates. The fletchings were leaves. The year was 1950 and little did I know that I would spend the rest of my life involved in the sport of archery.
My first real bow was a 20-pound Ben Pearson Lemonwood that came in a set with a few arrows, an armguard and a tab. This Christmas present touched off a passion that had been growing through all sorts of homemade bows and arrows. Next came a 35-pound Ben Pearson Hickory static recurve bow and a membership to my first club - the Sun Valley Bowhunters. I was the ripe old age of 9.
When I was 13, my family moved to Toronto, Canada, where I was introduced to target archery. Up until that time, I had only shot field archery and hunted small game.
Shortly after taking up target archery, I entered the Ontario Provincial Championship in the Junior Division. I won by over 100 points, and my love of competition had begun in earnest. Over the next six years, I shot every Canadian tournament I could find, moving from the Junior Division to the Intermediate Division and finally to the Adult Division. My last tournament in Canada was the Canadian National combined target and field event in Joliet, Quebec, in 1964. At 18, I won both the target and field portions of the tournament, finishing just under 400 points ahead of the second-place finisher. During the six years I spent in Canada, I took second place only once, winning every other tournament I entered.
I returned to the United States in Fall 1964, and began training for the U.S. World Target Archery team. The trials were held in Chicago, and I managed to make the four-man roster to compete at the World Championship in Vestros, Sweden. I placed fifth individually in Sweden, and was a member of the winning World Target Championship Team.
During the 1960s and 1970s, I won many regional and state titles, and launched an interest in being part of the archery industry. I also spent a year in Vietnam in the Army, where I continued to shoot and was invited to do several USO Shows, opening for a number of celebrities.
After returning home, I competed in tournaments run by the Professional Archers Association, and was elected to that group’s board of directors in 1971.
Archery Industry
I worked in retail during the summers in Canada, and in the U.S., I managed Hugh Rich Archery in California. That was a large distributor and retailer. I spent time working for Easton Aluminum in Van Nuys, Calif., and learned the aluminum arrow manufacturing process from the ground up. Doug Easton, the founder of Easton Aluminum, was a personal friend, and I spent many hours listening to his stories about archery. During my time at Easton I was instrumental in developing the first tubular aluminum stabilizer and the first heavy points to add FOC to the current arrow line. I was also tasked with leading the effort to build the Insulation Shrouds for the seismometers for the Apollo Space project. There are four of them currently on the moon.
I went on to manage Henderson Archery in Phoenix, and met my wife, Diane, at that time. Diane was shooting for Arizona State University, and we have been together ever since. We were married in 1973.
I worked for Wing Archery and Ben Pearson Archery before starting my own sporting goods representative group, which dealt heavily in archery products. During the 10 years I led the group, we represented Ben Pearson, Himalayan Industries, Rocky Mountain Razor Broadheads, Cobra Sights, Hoyt Archery, and about a dozen other companies.
I also started my own company with the help of machinist Jim Haines. Haines was a shooter I had met during my time in California, who was making products for Wing Archery. I had designed an arrow rest, and I needed a manufacturer. Haines and I launched a partnership that lasted until his death in 2005. The company was named after his high school basketball team in La Salle, Ill. - the Cavaliers. I came up with the ideas for products, and then Haines and I would get together and design them. He then figured out how to get them made. It was a perfect partnership.
Cavalier products for target archery and bowhunting were sold worldwide. At one time, archers using Cavalier products held every world and Olympic record. Some records that were shot using Cavalier products still stand today. We sold Cavalier to AAE in Prescott, Ariz., in 2005. AAE still manufactures many of the products originated by Haines and me. My original arrow rest, the T-300, is still in production. It was patented in 1976.
Besides serving on the board of directors for the PAA, I also served on the board for the Archery Manufacturers Organization.
I have written many articles on shooting and tuning techniques for magazines in the United States and in Europe. I still write articles for Bow & Arrow Hunting and Bow International.
Trick Shooting
Besides target archery and bowhunting, I also became passionate about trick shooting with the bow and arrow. Putting on a good show and promoting the sport of archery came natural to me. After returning from Vietnam, I was hired to do a show for the Calgary Stampede in the early 1970’s - two shows a day for 10 days, for crowds of 500 to 1,000 people at a time. The show included precision shooting – I shot an aspirin off a golf tee – in addition to other trick shots and shots at aerial targets. The show was voted the most professional performance at the stampede.
I’ve done several movies for the Arizona Game and Fish Department to promote archery. Those videos show me shooting trap with a bow and shooting pheasants out of the air. This was all done with a recurve hunting bow and broadhead-tipped arrows. I have performed for numerous TV shows and at countless archery and bowhunting banquets and gatherings.
Hunting
Through all these years, I always found time for bowhunting. I have never considered myself a great hunter, but I have always had the ability to hit what I was aiming at, and therefore I was successful in spite of myself. I have been fortunate enough to hunt in many states and foreign countries. I have harvested with a bow and arrow large and small game animals including 12 elk, over 40 deer, over 45 javelina, a bison, two caribou, two black bears, two antelope, several foxes, coyotes, pheasants on the wing, numerous Catalina goats and pigs, Merino sheep, feral hogs, Angora goats, Corsican sheep, numerous small game and fish, three species of grouse and several varieties of Aspen trees! Most recently, a red oak sapling was added to my collection.
I am a senior member of the Pope & Young Club, and I have been an official measurer for over 38 years. I am a life member of the Arizona Bowhunters Association, and I served as the emcee for their annual banquet for 25 years. I was recently inducted into the Arizona Bowhunting Hall of Fame. My good friend Randy Ulmer was also inducted the same evening, which made it even more special.
Coaching
I began coaching in 1964. At Canadian Nationals that year, Joan Gallie won in the Women’s Division, and Brian Leonard won in the Intermediate Division. These were my first serious students.
Since that time, I have coached many state, regional, national, intercollegiate, world and Olympic champions. I have coached both the men’s and women’s national champions multiple times, and in almost every division available. In 1993 I was awarded the Level 5 Master Coach status from the U.S. National Archery Association.
I was involved with the U.S. Archery Team Training Camps from 1981-1992, attending up to two camps per year. I have coached several U.S. Teams, including 1986 Championship of the Americas Team, 1988 World Field Team, 1989 World Target Team, 1990 Spring Arrow (Russia), and the 1992 Olympic Team in Barcelona. I still coach on a private basis, and I have several talented archers for students. I teach two advanced classes at Archery Headquarters in Chandler, Ariz. At the 2016 Las Vegas Shoot, two of my students won their divisions against some very tough competition. One young lady that I have worked with is now the top-ranked woman in the United States. I have attended the 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics in an official capacity. I worked with the Canadian National Teams for a couple of years in an effort to help them improve as archers and coaches. There was considerable improvement in their program during the time I worked with them.
My journey in archery has taken me all over the world and has allowed me to meet and be friends with many top athletes that share my love of shooting a bow and arrow. I have been around the sport long enough to have met and become friends with many archery legends including, Ben Pearson, Fred Bear, Jim Dougherty, Doug Easton, The Wilson Brothers (Black Widow Bows), Earl and Ann Hoyt, Dale Marcy, Chuck Saunders, Harry Drake, Gail Martin and other pioneers. I have been able to share in the victories of my shooters, and console them when they were not so successful. I have been able to help bowhunters harvest game, and shared stories of unsuccessful hunts around a campfire. I have enjoyed being able to come up with unique products to advance target archery and bowhunting. It has been a good ride.