How Did the Derby get Its Name

[cow tamer]

Derby definitions:
1) horse race
2) race

So how did the MV derby come to be called a derby?

[luds]

results 1 - 10 of about 581,000 for fishing derby. (0.11 seconds)

I'd say the use of derby with fishing is fairly common.

[Raven]

because it had the same number of letters as

b.i.n.g.o and bingo was his name-O

[Swimmer]

Ask the members of the MV Surfcasters. They started the tourney as an intra-club contest and it evolved from there. The derby itself was faltering the the early 80's. Many islanders, one such, Cooper Gilkes, participated in a resurection of sorts and it has grown exponentially from then to now. They were down about 600 entrants this year. Price of gas, lack of fish being caught, just a couple of reaosns probably. Anyway the MV Surfcasters will have all that info in thier archives.

[BigFish]

It takes place on Marthas Vineyard......so its called the Marthas Vineyard Derby!

[livinit]

Originally Posted by Swimmer

Ask the members of the MV Surfcasters. They started the tourney as an intra-club contest and it evolved from there. The derby itself was faltering the the early 80's. Many islanders, one such, Cooper Gilkes, participated in a resurection of sorts and it has grown exponentially from then to now. They were down about 600 entrants this year. Price of gas, lack of fish being caught, just a couple of reaosns probably. Anyway the MV Surfcasters will have all that info in thier archives.

It didn't start within the Surfcasters, rather from the MV Chamber of Commerce and then the MV Rod and Gun Club stepped up when the derby was starting to falter. Luds is right, derby was a common/popular term for fishing tournaments (both fresh and saltwater)

[Mike P]

Ben Morton was the Vineyarder who was the father of the Derby. It began as a way of attracting visitors after the summer season ended. It was originally sponsored by one of the ferry lines, and after that, the Chamber of Commerce took it over. A guy from NY named Gordon Pittman was the first winner, and started the tradition of having Islanders griping and making cheating accusations when an off-islander won . From the start until 1984, the winner of the bass division was the Grand Leader at the end. I think they added bluefish as an eligible species in the second year. They later added weakfish and bonito, and finally false albacore. The Derby was indeed on the ropes in the 80s, with the decline of the bass, but the current Derby Committee was incorporated and they've run it ever since. They started the random key drawing for the Grand Prize in 1985. Bass were removed that same year as a conservation measure. Weakfish were removed around 1986-87 after a couple of years went by without one being weighed in. They put bass back in for trophy awards only for a couple of years in the early 1990s, then back as a full award-eligible species around 1995-1996 or so. They removed albies from eligibility for daily awards about 10 years ago.

[Pete F.]

The Derby History

Story by Mark Alan Lovewell
World War II had been over for a year when a group of forward thinking fisher-men came together to form an annual autumn tradition to promote Vineyard camaraderie and sportsmanship. The fall fish migration was always an important time for native Islanders. It is a period of superb fishing and a time of relaxed recreation along the shore.

The creation of the derby came at an ideal time, a time of optimism and at a time when the Island community was looking at expanding its tourist industry. The idea according to the late Al Brickman, was formulated by a public relations man named Nat Sperber, working for the new ferry service owned by Russell Stearns and Ralph Hornblower. His mission was to come up with a fall promotion.

Nat came down here and met with the Martha's Vineyard Rod and Gun Club. At that time Antone K. deBettencourt was the president of the club. Tony called a meeting for about a half a dozen of us and we met and agreed that the Rod and Gun Club would sponsor the derby. Nat Sperber acted as our professional advisor," Mr. Brickman told this writer in 1983.

The general chair-man of the contest was M. Martin (Marty) Gouldey, an Edgartown lawyer. The contest drew 1,000 fishermen from 29 states and as far away as the territory of Ontario.

The top prize was $1,000 cash. The winner, Gordon Pittman of New York, won the purse and a one week stay at the Harborside Inn for a 47 pound striper. The second prize, a building lot in Gay Head, went to Daniel Huntley of Buzzards Bay.

In that first year. the largest striped bass was caught amid the surf by Thomas L. Flynn of Pohogonut Edgartown. Mr. Flynn's fish set the trend for many derbies to come because it over took what most thought was a leader. Mr. Flynn's 35 pound fish caught in the last two days of the contest was described by Vineyard Gazette writer Joseph Chase Allen as a most sensational development." The largest striped bass caught from a boat was 39 pounds and was landed by Mr. Huntley. Jules Ben David of Oak Bluffs landed a 12 pound fish, a leader for the fish caught at a bridge category. Flyrod fisherman: L.D. "Pop" Adam of Chicago landed a 14 pound 4 ounce fish he caught at Devil's Bridge.

The awards ceremony included a turkey and striped bass dinner and was held in the rod and gun club headquarters, on the second floor of the Reliable Market in Oak Bluffs.

In the years ahead, the derby was not just the event of the season but it spun other affairs. In 1949 there was a derby dance, a derby marshal, and a derby march. Jeanne Brown, 17 a senior from the Oak Bluffs School was chosen the derby queen. A dance was held at the Tisbury School auditorium. In that year there were two derby winners: George Marshall, of Vineyard Haven, caught a 46 pound 14 1/2 ounce bass and Stuart Fuller of Edgartown and North Dartmouth caught a 43 pound 2 ounce bass. Each earned a 20-foot Steelcraft utility fisherman boat. Mr. Marshall's big fish was caught on the first day of the contest off Squibnocket. This was tile second time in the derby's three-year history that Mr. Marshall walked away with the top prize.

In 1951 Mr. Allen wrote about the derby's growing success: Perhaps the reason why the Vineyard derby has endured and is still popular is that many of the prime movers behind it and supporters as it progressed, are fishermen." Already. prizes offered the fishermen were impressive: vicars, jeeps, power-boats and all manner of fishing tackle, rods and gear have figured in the lists of past years."

It was in that year and subsequent years that the Derby was run by the Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce.

For years the Vineyard's affection for its fishing attracted the interest of sports writers around the country. The nation's top sportswriter Red Smith wrote in 1954: A lot of these guys fish clear through the night from dusk until after sunrise and they will continue to do so until the derby closes this Friday.

The derby produced some special stars. In 1956, Richard D. Hathaway of Edgartown walked into the derby headquarters with a winner, a 52 pound 9 ounce fish. Mr. Hathaway returned to the headquarters with a leader in 1978 and another in 1979.

Other fishermen appeared over and over again at the top. Serge de Somov. of Hampton Say N.Y., won the derby for three consecutive years from 1963 to 1965 and he did it again in 1969. His big winning stripers ranged in weight from 49 up to 54 pounds.

The mid-1980s were marked by an increased sensitivity to rising concerns about fish stocks in Vineyard waters. The 1985 derby, its 40th year, was the beginning of a stretch of derbies without striped bass as a competitive fish. The emphasis shifted to other kinds of excellent fishing: bluefish, bonito, false albacore, and weakfish.

Today's derby attracts fishermen from all around the world and participation in recent years has approached or touched 2,000. A product of their own success and its original mission accomplished in 1986 the derby organization stepped out from under the umbrella of the Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce. In 1987, derby president Ed Jerome told this correspondent: From the informal committee-type approach, we've gone towards the formal non-profit structure. He said: This is a tournament run for and by fishermen. It now takes the derby a full year to organize. From the organizational standpoint the new derby begins just as the old one draws to a close.

There is a new mission. since l 987 the derby has given $64,000 in scholarships to Island high school graduates.

It's now time. Let the next 50 years of good fishing begin.

[PaulS]

I got a pin this year on my last day there. Are they just going to send it to me?

Thanks

[Mr. Sandman]

Originally Posted by PaulS

I got a pin this year on my last day there. Are they just going to send it to me?

Thanks

As I understand it, they generally don't send stuff. But if you PM me your details...full name and pin number, I will try and fetch it for you, and, being the good guy I am, I will see that it gets to you.

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by Mr. Sandman

As I understand it, they generally don't send stuff. But if you PM me your details...full name and pin number, I will try and fetch it for you, and, being the good guy I am, I will see that it gets to you.

You seem like a good guy to me, I'll have to go back and read the rest of your posts

Actually, I'm going to order a calender so this will get me motivated to do that.

Thanks

[The Dad Fisherman]

Columbia Encyclopedia: Derby

(där'bē) , English horse race, instituted (1780) by the 12th earl of Derby and held annually at Epsom Downs, near London. The race is open only to three-year-old colts and fillies that must be entered when yearlings. The original course is still used; it is one yard longer than one and one-half miles. Hundreds of thousands of spectators view the race each year. Other well-known races, notably the Kentucky Derby (dûr'bē), held each year since 1875 at Churchill Downs, Louisville, Ky., have been named for the English classic.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Derby

One of the classic English horse races (established 1780), run in June over a 1 1/2-mi (2,400 m) course at Epsom Downs, Surrey. Many other horse races have been named for the Derby (e.g., the Kentucky Derby), and the term itself has come to signify a race or contest of any type.