Early Meets

[lufkincy 0]

Does anyone remember the Miss Skydiver beauty pageant and meet in Houston. The general manager of the Sheraton Lincoln hotel was named Don Cork. I'm not sure how Don got interested in skydiving, but he did and he entertained jumpers royally. Don asked that I put together a meet and a Miss Skydiver beauty pageant. We had an amazing number of Houston beauties enter the beauty contest, but not a one was a jumper. The gal who won was the previous year's Miss Houston. Don't recall her name. Don provided the trophies for both the beauty contest and the meet, and were they ever trophies. They were huge in size and in number. Don preferred men to women and his live-in at that time was Bill Nicholson, a jumper who a short time later creamed in after a cutaway and failure to deploy reserve. Bill gave Don ideas for every type of trophy imaginable - even things like best rigger, longest distance to target, and one for me that was engraved "World's best meet director." I've still got that one in the attic with a few others that other jumpers lost. I didn't do anything but put the meet together and then jump. I may have picked the judges but don't remember that. The meet was well attended with participants from many other clubs. After the meet all were invited back to the Sheraton Lincoln for a gourmet dinner and free drinks for the evening. A lot of folks showed up for that event. I don't recall anything special about the event other than it was fun - not much different from a normal weekend at Waller, Midway, or where ever it was held. One good thing to come out of it was that the beauty pageant winner got a free trip to Neuva Laredo on one of my singles party bus trips and she asked if I would be her date.
Nicholson, by the way, was not gay. He told us the reason he took Don up on his offer was because of free room and board, all the drinks he could handle, more cash than he made an installer at Chuck Warwick's (another jumper) Houston Auto Glass, and the opportunity to meet and socialize with all of the entertainers and other dignitaries who came to Houston. I think Don replaced Bill before Bill creamed in. Don was killed a year or so later in a motel room somewhere outside of Houston. As far as I know that murder was never solved. Those of you who knew Don know that if he considered you a friend, you were treated like a king, whether you were one of his concubines or not. He was on the corporate board of directors and had an ownership in the company. He had bottomless pockets and loved to spend it on friends.

There were many other meets back then but this is the only one which I can recall most of the details

Cy Stapleton
[email protected]
www.hotlinecy.com