THE PATH TO
By Rich Tauber
U.S. OPEN GLORY
IN THE SUMMER OF 1981 EVERYTHING CHANGED
Above, Rich Tauber used his topwater skills to capture the second U.S. Open. Below, Greg Hines won the first U.S. Open. Left, Rich Schultz’ tourney drew big numbers from the start.
T
hat’s when a man walked into my office and told me, “I’m going to have a bass tournament with a $1000 entry fee, I’m going to pay the winner $50,000 in cash, I’m going to call it the the U.S. Open” That’s how it started. It started with one simple comment. The office I speak of was my small cubicle in Santa Ana, California. The company was still Western Bass, but would soon be called U.S. Bass thanks to the man that made the comment, Rich Schultz, the president of the bass circuit with big dreams that forever changed the direction of professional bass angling.
The next day when I went to work, a couple of anglers who heard about the idea show up in our office. They have money in hand and are there to enter the bass tournament. They got the same treat- ment subsequent hopefuls
You have to understand, it’s 1981 and Ray Scott and the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society are the greatest show on earth. But even B.A.S.S. is conducting tournaments with $300 entry fees. No one, I mean no one, would have ever dreamt of having a bass tournament where the entry fee was $1000. It was absolutely out of the question.
52 SILVER EAGLES _ July 2011
would receive: Rich Schultz would greet the anglers, say thank you so much for your in- terest in the U.S. Open, let me think about it and I will get back to you. He would tell them, “after all this is a very exclusive bass tournament and I’m just not sure who I’m going to allow in the event”. He would send guys home with a thou- sand dollars in cash burning a hole in their pocket. The thing just took off like wildfire. Now we started getting tons of phone calls, and everyone’s begging to give us money. When all was said and done 161 different guys walked into that office and handed Rich Schultz their $1000 entry fee to fish the 1981 U.S. Open. The entire tournament was based on what would be the most difficult and demanding set of circumstances they could possibly put the anglers through. No one had ever fished a four-day bass tournament, so there- fore it’s a four-day bass tourna- ment. Where’s the hottest place in the United States of America in August — Las Vegas. Therefore let’s have the bass tourna- ment in Las Vegas at Lake Mead. There had