Archery Legend Tom Jennings (right) with editor Jay Strangis in January, 2005.

We see a lot of faces these days on television, in print ads, at consumer shows and elsewhere, mugs that somehow have reached a level of notoriety in the archery industry through promotion and constant exposure. I'm not exactly sure who some of these guys are, or how they got to be pseudo-famous, because in reality, they've done little except ape for the camera.

My career in archery hunting isn't that long when compared to the archery giants, though I started bowhunting an embarrassing 35 years ago and my first full time position in publishing, writing about bowhunting and other outdoor topics, came 23 years ago.

I started bowhunting with a recurve bow, a Ben Pearson recurve to be precise. I shot my first deer with that bow, and quite a few to follow. None of those deer were shot from tree stands, because we didn't have them, at least not until the Baker stand came out.

I tip my hat to the real heroes, the few that are still with us. Tom Jennings is one of these.

Jennings applied the concept of an improved bow, a "compound" bow, an invention that revolutionized archery. Anyone switching from recurve to compound back in the 1970s, when I did, knew the Jennings name and probably shot one. Tom's talents brought archery to the wider community of hunters by creating a bow design that would shoot faster and with more ease, than any previously devised. His genius encouraged countless hunters to take up bowhunting, and still does today. When Tom, through legal tussles, lost the patent for the compound bow, he didn't quit, but continued to apply himself to the betterment of the industry he loved.

When I hear all the applause at trade shows for the wanna-be, fly-by-night bowhunting personalities of today, it makes me want to wander over to the Bear/Jennings booth and talk to a real, living hero of archery and pay my respects, and thank him for his commitment across so many years. Real heroes deserve hero treatment.