40 Year Anniversary of First

[upndownshop 0]

Sorry I missed the actual day on posting but......

The 1st 7 way Star, also the 1st Texas State Record was completed on Sept. 14-1968. Jerry Schrimsher was the camera man.
Attached is a shot of the Dallas Morning News coverage of it; "Aerial Square Dance"

A couple of interesting "stories, facts, or rumors" from the way I have come to understand it.

First: With only using 2 C 182's and little or no RW contact experience one can only imagine the difficulty of this (not to mention the gear they had to use). The story I have is that they had spent many weekends attempting this, one figure I heard was as much as 60 jumps (I dont quite believe that because that would take almost a year in many cases back then, making 3 in a day was great!) So after many attempts, they were ready to try again on the morning of the 14th, weather came so they sat down feeling they were done for the day. As to stick with a skydivers mentality the bottles of red wine were opened and they began to sacrifice themselves. From what I understand about an hour and a half later, guess what, the skies cleared! Well, they proceeded to do their own alcohol "self tests" and determined they were good to go! On their first attempt of the day they successfully made the first 7 way Star in Texas history! Ron Cox Sr. told me he believes that the wine helped them relax and that's why they completed the Star.

Second: That evening my father took his unprocessed role of 35mm film shot in his awfully heavy Nikon (which we still have and works) to the Dallas Morning News building. Oh also remember that I am to have my first birthday 2 weeks later on the 1st and my mother is 6 weeks from my brothers birth on the 31st. They get there about 11;00 pm (yes Jerry drug Sherry around everywhere including the DZ on her due dates) and he was able to discuss the events of the day with the proper individual. So with out knowing how or if the camera got the shots he went on his way and jumped all day Sunday and to his surprise woke up Monday with his photo being front news! This is where it takes a twist in what may be the start of the ole rivalry between Texas and California skydiving.
That photo was picked up on the "wire" and was published world wide! Stars and Stripes, and many other local and national publications from what I have gathered. Well, this created some issues for the Californians because they had already been doing 10 ways for about a year or so. They were upset that Texas got so much publicity on a smaller formation. Somehow thru all the huss and fuss the folks ignored the fact that it was never claimed as the 1st nationally, only in Texas (of course whats the difference?)
This upset them quite a bit, especially since they had tried to get publicity back when they were doing 6 and 8 ways a couple years prior, but never really got the attention. It has been said that that photo is what truly started the 30 year or so rivalry between the two states. Ed Duncan (holder of a very low D number) attended the JSM boogie (first SkyFest) which was Jerry's memorable boogie. We printed that photo on the back of the event shirt, well seeing it completely upset Ed, to the point he approaches my mother during the ash dive about it bitching just like before. Now think about it, my mother is looking up to see her husband of 35 years ashes being released, only to have this grumpy ole man bring up something from 32 years ago. Now Ed used to be our jump pilot back in the 70's and 80's at our club so she knew him quite well, so she quickly looks at him,and says "Ed what the hell are you still complaining about? For the last time, we never said it was the first EVER, we said it was the first in Texas, for crying out loud! Now can I continue to watch this skydive please?" Ed stands there for a moment, lowers his head and walks away. About an hour later he approaches Sherry and apologizes and she accepted. We gave Ed an extra shirt for his safe keeps. We do not know if Ed went back to California and put an end to this with the other history making jumpers of that time.

There are only 2 surviving members of this piece of history, Ron Cox out of Dallas and Tom Budd in (S Carolina I believe) I know Ron still makes a few jumps.
The man tagged as #1 (base) was John Burke, father to Jack Burke (Deguello, which by the way, maybe the longest running skydiving team in skydiving history, over 20 years)out of Houston.

Oddly enough, since that record, the Schrimsher's, or more important: SkyFest have been the organizers of 2 Womens, and 2 FreeFly Texas State Records, wasn't on purpose, it just happened.

Interesting that our history says that the first baton pass was made on Sept 16 1958, 10 years later Texas finally gets a 7 way, think it was mid 70's in Muskogee the World Record 34 way was done, then again at Muskogee a 100 way in the 80's. Now we are on our way to 500 way attempts.

There ya go, now ya know. Hope you enjoyed the story as I have over the years.
I thought i had the shot on this computer where the grips were complete, but the attached are the ones that were published.

Blue Skies to all

[BillyVance 34]

The funny this is this says completed at 3000 feet. That would have been high back then, but today, people would say holy shit that was low!

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[upndownshop 0]

Yeah no kidding, of course there wasnt really a need to track with all being rounds. LOL

I would assume the exited at 10,500: not bad with having to do a formation load, not everyone being "out" for exit and that gear!

[popsjumper 2]

So...the Cali guys got upset. You didn't mention how the FLA boys took it. Not well, I assume.


Damn, dude. You're a walking piece of history! Keep it coming!

It was a great honor meeting "Mom" at Skyfest. Had a really fun conversation with her. She's one helluva woman!

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239