By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CEDAR BLUFF – In the town of Cedar Bluff, the last name Bruce is legendary when it comes to football.
L.D. Bruce had a hall of fame coaching career from 1946-65. He posted a 155-47-5 record, including a string of 41 games without a loss and two state championships (1959 and 1962).
His son, Michael Lynn Bruce, also notched quite a championship career of his own – in archery.
Lynn played fullback and halfback for his father in the early 1960s. He said he dreamed of playing college ball after graduation, but it just wasn’t in the cards for him.
“I had everything going for me except for one thing. I didn’t have speed,” Lynn said. “You can’t play any level of college football without speed.”
Lynn may have lacked speed on the football field, but years later, he discovered he had a keen eye when it came to shooting with a bow.
Lynn was working on a two-year training program while at General Electric in Rome, Ga. He said one of the guys on the training program was involved with archery, so Lynn decided to give it a try himself.
And the rest was history.
“I bought a bow, some wooden arrows, and a target and started practicing,” Lynn said. “I was also reading these articles by this guy who had an archery college in Georgia, Colonel (Milan E.) Elott.”
The more he read, practiced and competed the more Lynn honed his skills.
“It turned out I was a good B-class shooter, but I couldn’t get through that glass ceiling in the A-class,” Lynn said. “I wanted to be a top shooter. I didn’t care about winning anything. I just wanted to be shooting with the top class. I was winning trophies and ribbons, but I was a B-class shooter.”
Lynn began breaking though that glass ceiling, ironically, thanks to a chance encounter with Elott.
“I was reading these articles by Colonel Elott in Bow and Arrow Magazine, and he kept producing these state champions. He had this place called the Archery College in Atlanta.
“They were having the Georgia State Target Championship in Cedartown (that year), and I said I’m going. They said if you present any NFA (National Field Archery) card you could shoot as a guest. They put me in a group. It was 60, 50 and 40 yards. We shot two practice ends, five arrows. We went down and scored our arrows. The girl put them in order. She called out the first girl’s name, second girl’s name, then my name, then Colonel Elott. I was shooting with Colonel Elott. That was just luck.”
Lynn’s luck continued at the tournament when he noticed Elott was eating lunch at a table by himself. He decided to approach him and ask if he could give him any tips on shooting.
“He was getting ready to leave and I said ‘Colonel I’d like to see about getting a lesson at the archery college.’”
Lynn said Elott brushed him aside, but that wouldn’t be the last Lynn would see of Colonel Elott.
“We went on and shot the evening round. I was putting my stuff up getting ready to leave. I was the only out-of-state guest they had and they gave me a trophy. Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned around and it was the Colonel,” Lynn said. “He said ‘I observed your shooting. Some people can shoot pretty good with that style of shooting, that type of release. Be at the house Tuesday morning at 8 o’clock.’”
Elott’s directions helped Lynn become a professional archer. He turned pro in 1987 and competed on the professional archery tour through the beginning of 1993.
In February of 1991, at the age of 44, Lynn earned the Professional Archers Association Indoor National Championship in Las Vegas.
As documented by The US Archer publication (March-April 1991 issue), the event had approximately 1,500 competitors and archery industry manufacturers from around the world.
Following the first day of competition, two archers (Danny Cobb of McMinnville, Tenn., and Harold Lesser Jr., of Denver, Co.) were tied with a perfect score of 450. Nine archers, including Lynn, were tied for second place just a point behind.
The stage was set for a dramatic finish for the title on the second and final day of competition, with just three arrows remaining.
Lynn told The US Archer “my only thought was to make sure my last three shots were as good as I could make them, and I could do no worse than the 1988 PAA Indoor Championship in which I finished one point away from a national title.”
Lynn continued, “After the completion of the final shot, a feeling of relief and sense of accomplishment had just begun to set in when I felt a sharp pain in the middle of my back.”
The pain Lynn felt was from Lynn’s close friend, Rogersville, Tenn., native Kirk Ethridge.
Ethridge had told Lynn that Lesser had missed the mark on his last arrow. Four other shooters that Lynn was also tied with also missed on their last arrows, leaving Lynn, Lesser and Harold Mobley of Belfountain, Ohio tied for first at 899.
The three-way tie forced a sudden death shoot-off.
Lesser and Mobley fired their shots before Lynn loaded his arrow. Lynn calmly loaded and fired his arrow into the 10-ring to win the title.
“It didn’t register with me I had won,” Lynn recalled. “I reckon I just shot so much I was in such a zone.”
In addition to his national championship, Lynn has won numerous other archery titles across the state and the country – some of them multiple times.
He said he borrowed a bit from his father’s football playbook to help him become a successful archer.
“I prepared (in archery) like dad taught us to prepare for football,” Lynn said. “These other guys were shooting their brains out on Friday and come in tired on Saturday. I’d shoot cold and score every arrow. You need to learn to shoot cold and shoot in practice.
“In football, we’d go in pads on Monday and run 10 wind sprints after practice. Tuesday we’d go in pads, have contact and run eight wind sprints. Wednesday we’d go in pads and have no contact and run six wind sprints. Thursday we would go in shells and run four wind sprints. I would get busy and be ready. If I had a new bow, I’d get it set up, then the week of the tournament I’d shoot hard on Monday. I’d walk out and shoot the first target for score. I didn’t warm up. Then I would shoot one or two rounds. On Monday and Tuesday I’d shoot hard. On Wednesday I would shoot half a round. Friday I would shoot half a round and be fresh on Saturday.”
Lynn, now retired, just celebrated his 78th birthday on July 4.
