TOURNAMENT CHANGES Over the years, the annual competition has changed its name, altered its format, adjusted its sponsorship, and modified its rules. That first prize, whether $250 or $500, pales in comparison to the millions of dollars that have been pocketed by competitors the past several years. Still, these quaint beginnings gave birth to the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament as it is known today - a nationally-sponsored competition that’s famous throughout the world for huge cash prizes. Confusion as to the amount of that first prize exists to this day. Dick Parker, a charter member of the Fabulous Fishermen Club, insisted that the first prize was $250 and grew to $325 in subsequent years. Campbell reported that the prize was only $325 and later revised that amount to $300. told Big Rock officials that he remembered counting out 500 silver dollars into that little red wagon. Reports on the amount of the first cash prize vary from $250 to $500. Since nobody knew what the Big Rock would become, nobody kept accurate records in those early years. No other pictures of the fish are known to exist. ![]() Ironically, the event merited just three paragraphs on an inside page. HUMBLE BEGINNINGS A picture of that famous first marlin appeared in the September 17, 1957, edition of the Carteret County News-Times. It was the first celebration of an event that would soon become the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament, an event that brings thousands to the waterfront each June. Then, amid police sirens, car horns, and as much vocal ruckus as could be mustered, the red wagon was pulled through the streets of Morehead City to the place where the fish would arrive. He poured the coins into a little red wagon, a child’s toy donated just moments before by the manager at Rose’s department store. Tony Seamon Jr., was given the task of counting out the prize money. In the meantime, Tony Seamon and his son, Tony Jr., went to First Citizens Bank where bank president Jim Bob Sanders kept a sealed sack of silver dollars. Soon after that, a crowd of about a hundred gathered at Styron’s yacht basin to await the arrival of the “big’’ fish. Styron, in turn, notified Bob Campbell - WMBLAM Radio’s “Voice of Fishing’’ for 37 years - and he got the word out to the public. SOUND THE SIRENS Before Croy’s marlin ever reached shore, Olsen radioed Bump Styron, who owned the Morehead City Yacht Basin, to report the historic catch. This special catch forever changed the face of Crystal Coast fishing. “Bill’’ Olsen, landed a 143-pound blue marlin. On September 14, 1957, Raleigh angler Jimmy Croy, fishing aboard the Mary Z with Capt. Those summer failures gave way to an autumn success. Fishermen sighted blue marlin throughout that summer.ĭespite the sightings, no one was able to land the beautiful, elusive fish. Intended to promote deep-sea fishing and to help support the area’s infant charter boat industry, it encouraged anglers and captains to head further offshore. The Club partnered with several local merchants to announce they would pay a cash prize to the first person who could catch a blue marlin in the waters just off the Crystal Coast. Together they created the Fabulous Fishermen Club - a loose-knit organization of Morehead City fishing enthusiasts. ![]() ![]() Bob and Mary Simpson, Bill Strickland, Tom Potter, and Dick Parker decided to settle the issue once and for all. But a few wishful thinkers hoped the stories were true. ![]() Since blue-marlin skeletons never washed up on the beach, these reports were believed to be idle chatter. Most locals dismissed this as “bar talk’’ since the deck hands didn’t know where they were at the time of the sightings.
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