CFDA FOUNDER'S CLUB
CFDA FOUNDER'S CLUB
Cowboy Fast Draw Association
Founder's Club
The Founder’s Club is a special recognition of those who have dedicated their time, talent and resources to building the foundation of the Cowboy Fast Draw Association. This small group of dedicated individuals has at one time or another spent long periods of almost daily effort providing for the future of CFDA, so that generations that follow can enjoy the sport of Cowboy Fast Draw. The history of CFDA should be retained so that these efforts are acknowledged and recognized by all who have and will benefit by their contributions.
Brad Hemmah a.k.a. Kemosabi , CFDA Life Members #1
Brad Hemmah is the founder of Cowboy Fast Draw Association, LLC. They filed the document in the State of South Dakota in 2002 and created the organization originally based in Deadwood, SD. He was instrumental in writing the original rules after many hours and years of experience and research; as well as some basic founding principles.
These basic rules and guiding principles are still followed a decade later, although they have been added to refined and defined as needed. He hosted the first of the major championships in Deadwood and set forth the policies of forming clubs across the USA. Brad is a top competitor in his own right and has contributed many years of service to the general sport of Fast Draw. First, by organizing local clubs during the 1980’s and then while serving as manager of the First Gold Hotel & Casino in Deadwood taking on hosting a number of world class championships starting in 1992.
Thank
You Brad for having the vision and perseverance to establish the sport of Cowboy Fast Draw!
Cal Eilrich a.k.a. Quick Cal, CFDA Life Member #9
Quick Cal has been a competitive shooter since joining the Chicago Colts FDC in 1968, at age 15. He won his first World Championship in 1972 and in 1973 hosted his first contest. He went on to be the Match Director of two National Championships and three World Championships during the 1970s at the Hacienda Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas along with several state and regional tournaments.
He served as an officer in the Mid-Western Fast Draw Association, Western Fast Draw Association and served as Chairman of the World Fast Draw Association.
In the 1980s he became very active in Practical Pistol Shooting. While competing at the top level of the sport he built the largest IPSC club in the country and founded and served 9 years as Match Director of the Western States IPSC Championship in Reno. He was an original Range Master and Instructor for USPSA, while also being a top competitor and earning a spot on the National Team in 1990. He has been a firearms instructor for law enforcement and security companies and still teaches defensive shooting and is a NRA Instructor.
In the late 90s he started getting very involved in SASS and won a national championship as a top shooter. In 1999, he created the original SASS RO Program and served as Chairman of the RO Committee for 9 years, he was inducted into the SASS Hall of Fame in 2011. He also founded a SASS club, The High Plains Drifters, and built a shooting range that is still in use and created and served as Match Director of the Western States CAS Championship for 10 years.
In 2002, Brad Hemmah called Quick Cal for advice on guns and holsters in setting up what was to become CFDA. In 2004, Quick Cal attended the National Championship in Meridian, ID and won the event, and recognized the potential that Cowboy Fast Draw had. Fast Draw had been Quick Cal’s first love in shooting sports, he dreamed as a young man that the sport could somehow become much bigger than it was if only given the chance.
Quick Cal has always believed in giving back to the shooting sports because they have added so much to his life. He now serves as the Director of CFDA and is determined to give the Sport of Cowboy Fast Draw a chance to build itself into an organization that can last for future generations to enjoy.
Andy Fink a.k.a. Chucky, CFDA Life Member #3
Chucky has always loved guns and anything to do with the Old West. He enjoyed shooting sports his entire life. He was employed by the U.S. Government and spent his career in Information Technology and has extensive experience in computers and publishing. During the 1990s he founded Shoot Magazine which was a very popular high quality magazine that specialized in covering western-themed shooting sports.
Shoot Magazine mainly covered Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) events. They sent teams across the country to SASS matches to photograph and interview shooters and report innovations in the sport. They wrote excellent articles on the historical significance of various firearms and profiled shooters whether they were top guns or not. Chucky guided Shoot Magazine’s circulation to almost 40,000.
One of Chucky’s main interests has always been getting young people interested in firearms and teaching them gun safety; he often featured youth shooters in Shoot Magazine.
In 2003, Chucky went to the Black Hills to cover a SASS event, but he also heard about the Cowboy Fast Draw Championship that Brad Hemmah was hosting in Deadwood. Chucky always believed in participating in shooting and not just writing about it, so he strapped in his six-gun and shot in his first championship and placed in the Top 15! He fell in love with the sport on the spot and started covering CFDA in Shoot Magazine, which drew a lot of attention to the sport.
In 2004, he formed the first club outside of South Dakota and Shoot Magazine founded and hosted the CFDA National Championship in the parking lot of a Sportsman’s Warehouse in Meridian, ID. Chucky was able to attract a lot of media attention for this and subsequent events and had such celebrities as the actor Buck Taylor, the comedian Gallagher and the Governor stop by and try it. The event also raised thousands of dollars for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
As Chucky continued to tour the country to attend SASS events he started setting up what he called Town Folk Alley, which he conducted in vendor tent areas. He found them to be very popular as crowds would form around his tent. He especially loved having kids fire the first shots of their lives at these events. Town Folk Alleys are still an important function of almost all CFDA Clubs today.
Chucky still is very involved in shooting sports especially as it relates to youth shooters. He is currently the publisher of Junior Shooters Magazine.
Marshall Hopper a.k.a. Mississippi Marshal, CFDA Life Member #26
Mississippi Marshal has played a major role in CFDA. He was a member of the Legendary Idaho Shootists in Idaho City, ID. He is an accomplished writer and worked for Shoot Magazine while they were covering the CFDA in 2004 and fell in love with the sport. He has had a life long interest in western shooting sports and is an expert on various types of firearms. He is an accomplished SASS Shooter and has won several championships shooting in “Gunfighter Category”, that’s where they shoot with a gun in each hand and really make them sing.
While most of his career was spent working for the Department of Corrections, he was also a professional musician and is accomplished at several instruments and is really talented with a guitar and singing. His talent as an entertainer makes him one of the top Announcers in CFDA. He called the final in the O.K. Corral in Tombstone and the 2011 World Championship.
In 2006, when CFDA changed management, Mississippi Marshal became the first ever paid employee in the history of the sport of Fast Draw. He served as Membership Director and ran the CFDA Mercantile from his office in Idaho City. He played a major role in writing the CFDA Range Officer Program and the Youth Safety Training Program; and also worked closely with CD Tom and Quick Cal in the beginning creation of the CFDA Scoring Program. While with the Idaho Shootists he played a key part in producing seven State Championships, four National Championships while helping to build the largest club in CFDA with over 130 members.
Mississippi Marshal has been a recipient of the Spirit of the Game in a numerous of contests. He is also an accomplished Shootist Category champion, winning the World Shootist Championship at the Fastest Gun Alive in both 2009 and 2010. Mississippi Marshal is admired and serves as an Ambassador of The Spirit of Cowboy Fast Draw wherever he goes.
In 2012, Mississippi Marshal was awarded the coveted Sundowner “CFDA All the Way Award which is presented annually at the Fastest Gun Alive Tournament. He has revived his career as a musician and is currently producing an album with his band the Juke Daddys.
Dave Miller a.k.a. Mongo, CFDA Life Member #57
Mongo has become an icon in the sport of Cowboy Fast Draw. His smiling face and fun loving attitude are always a welcome addition at any CFDA event; and his humorous articles are always a hit in the Gunslinger’s Gazette. He and his lovely wife Wench, CFDA Life Member #58, have logged more highway miles traveling to events than anyone in the history of CFDA.
They literally travel coast to coast to help clubs get established and instruct the CFDA Range Officer Course. In 2007, they traveled to Mule Camp, the largest SASS match east of the Mississippi River at the time, to conduct a Town Folk Alley. They were welcomed with open arms and made a lot of friends, as they usually do. It was also the first trip with the now infamous “Clown Car” which recently quit just short of 200,000 miles, don’t worry they bought a replacement the very next day. The two trips that they took to Mule Camp in Georgia spawned the emerging CFDA activity in the Southeast area of the U.S.
In 2008, the Regulator Posse was formed at the Fastest Gun Alive. Mongo was elected the Sheriff of the Regulator Posse and has kept the group organized, issues Range Officer pins and cards, plus issues Youth Shooter Cards as well.
In 2010, Mongo and Wench founded the San Juan Shootists in Pagosa Springs, CO. They have become a very active club holding a lot of Town Folk Alleys and club shoots in their area. Many of their members travel to other states to compete in Titled Championships. In 2012, the San Juan Shootists are preparing to hold their first CFDA Titled Championship, The Colorado State Championship.
Mongo has also been very involved in the CFDA Scoring Program and has been working very closely with CD Tom to work out the details as they arise. It turns out that a computerized scoring system for Cowboy Fast Draw is very complicated because of the elimination factors, multiple ranges, and with varying numbers of targets. The program is now performing almost flawlessly thanks to Mongo.
Mongo is also an accomplished Cowboy Fast Draw competitor, although not one of the fastest shooters, he has a reputation for deadly accuracy. He placed 2nd in the 2008 National Fast Draw Championship and has been very close to winning other CFDA Titled Championships.
Troy Bollock a.k.a. Boulder Vaquero, CFDA Life Member #6
Boulder Vaquero and his wonderful wife Bonnie a.k.a. Boulder’s Babe, CFDA Life Member #7 were visiting Deadwood in 2003 and were spectators at one of the first CFDA championships. They immediately got very interested and inquired about setting up a Cowboy Fast Draw club in Mitchell, SD. Brad Hemmah made a trip to Mitchell to demonstrate the sport and it gave birth to the first CFDA Affiliated Club outside of Deadwood.
They, with some friends of theirs, formed the Powder Horn Ranch Regulators and began to build and acquire the needed equipment. The very next year in 2004, they held the first CFDA South Dakota Championship, which was the first state championship in the sport. It is still being held and is the oldest CFDA event held at the same location, Cabelas in Mitchell, SD.
The following year they learned about conducting Town Folk Alleys, so they built the famous “War Wagon”, which is a 6 lane portable range built onto a horse trailer. They have held Town Folk Alleys in a number of venues and have recruited many CFDA members.
Boulder Vaquero and Boulder’s Babe, as a team love to travel to various clubs in their roles as CFDA Regulators. They instruct the CFDA RO Course and are invaluable advisors to help new clubs that are forming. They also believe in traveling across the country in full costume, they strike numerous conversations and always have brochures or Gazettes to hand out.
Boulder Vaquero in the past few years has risen as a top competitor and won the Jesse James Territorial in 2010, shooting nothing but 3’s in the finals. He also makes beautiful holsters and often donates many handmade items to the CFDA Shoot for the Stars Scholarship Fund.
Dinah Eilrich a.k.a. Alotta Lead, CFDA Life Member #37
Alotta Lead has been involved with the shooting sports since the 1980s and has worked with her husband Quick Cal for decades in managing clubs, associations and major shooting tournaments. She is a noted artist who has been commissioned to do hundreds of portraits and has donated many of pieces of artwork to various charities.
An accomplished shooter, Alotta Lead loves Cowboy Action Shooting, Bowling Pin Shooting, and has won numerous Fast Draw titles; including 11 Women’s World Championship Titles. In Cowboy Fast Draw she has won 3 National Championship and the last 3 out of 4 Fastest Gun Alive – World Championships.
In January of 2011, Alotta Lead became the Membership Director of CFDA and runs the office in Fernley, NV.
She manages the CFDA Mercantile and processes the orders on a daily basis and answers to phone to answer questions from members and those joining CFDA. She created a very through “Club in the Works” package which has been instrumental in the recent activity of newly formed affiliated clubs. She has also overseen updating and refining the CFDA data base and redesigning the membership card and life member program.
She and Quick Cal love to travel and visit CFDA Clubs across the country.
Sundowner a.k.a. George Narasaki, CFDA Life Member #94
Sundowner was one of the Top Guns of Fast Draw back in the 1950’s era. He is still very active and very competitive in Cowboy Fast Draw today. He travels the CFDA Top Gun Tour and has attended every major match West of the Mississippi at one time or another. The “CFDA All the Way” Sundowner Award was named after him.
He is our Golden Gun Ambassador and provides a guiding light for Cowboy Fast Draw and coaches his competitive knowledge to anyone who wants to learn.
He leads his club “The Sundowners”, his club that existed in the 1950’s into the winner’s circle at many CFDA Titled Championships. The Sundowners are one of the most traveled clubs in the sport and there are usually a number of them representing their club in Magnificent 7 Championship Shoot-offs at most major matches.
Ringo a.k.a. Jeff Duncan, CFDA Life Member #156
Ringo has established himself as CFDA’s Eastern Territorial Ambassador. He is a CFDA Regulator and provides a guiding light for the Sport of Cowboy Fast Draw on the Eastern Seaboard. As a confirmed “Southern Gentleman”, he has led the dedicated membership of the Old Dominion Fast Draw Club to becoming CFDA’s Club of the Year in 2010.
Through his leadership and guidance he has traveled to many locations in the South & East just for the asking, to help spread Cowboy Fast Draw. His positive examples have spun off more Affiliated CFDA Clubs and Club in the Works than any other person. In 2014, he is leading the efforts of several clubs in Virginia to host the first Eastern Territorial Championship. It will surely be the largest CFDA event East of the Mississippi, and we feel it will grow for years to come.
