“Our national defense effort receives a real contribution from the Camp Perry Marksmanship Schools.”
—The American Rifleman, October 1963
Logistically, things were falling into place at the National Matches—the National Board’s $500,000-plus appropriation request was approved with continued funding for civilian team travel, Camp Perry range and facility improvements were ongoing and competitor attendance neared the record level set the year prior. The stage was set for something big to happen and with Col. Sidney Carpenter in command as Match Director, a legendary shooting triumvirate—Bill Blankenship, Jr., in bullseye pistol, Lones Wigger, Jr., in smallbore rifle and Middleton Tompkins in high power rifle—stepped up to make indelible marks in the National Match record books.
Blankenship’s came in the form of a fourth straight national title, a feat that remained unmatched for more than four decades. And the way in which he upped the record score to 2654-151X was classic as he swept all three sub-aggregate championships to win the Harrison Trophy, an engraved .45 Colt Gold Cup pistol and the national championship brassard.
Air Force Lt. Gail Liberty defended her title as women’s champion, and her service teammates broke the grip held by the Army by winning both the .22- and .45-caliber team championships on its way to victory in the Pistol Team Aggregate. The Army did claim the center fire championship and proceeded to defend its National Trophy title, while the Marine Corps was represented by National Trophy individual champion Capt. William McMillan, Jr., who also won the event in 1956.
This was the breakthrough year for Wigger as he won not one, but two national championships. Winning both the smallbore prone and position titles in the same year was a National Match first (Wigger would do it once again in 1973). Over the course of four decades after he first became a national champion, Wigger tallied an astounding 29 open titles (eight prone, 21 position) at Camp Perry.
“I suppose the big deal of it all is to be recognized as one of Camp Perry’s smallbore shooting’s best,” Wigger recounted. “I don’t know if I’m the best but I’ve certainly worked at it.”
On his way to this year’s prone title, Wigger was challenged by the likes of Art Cook, Tommy Pool and Rans Triggs, as Cook and Triggs won the metallic- and any-sight aggregates, respectively. But Wigger claimed the final 1600 aggregate to lock up the win and receive the Critchfield Trophy, a Winchester 52D rifle, a Lyman Super Target Spot telescope and the national championship brassard. And in a finish reminiscent of 1960, Marianne Driver again won the women’s any-sight title and saw her two daughters win titles, as well as Lenore Lemanski of Cass City, Michigan, wore the women’s laurels, while Marianne Jensen was crowned junior champion.
The position championship appeared to be a toss-up, as four shooters (Don Adams, David I. Boyd III, Lones Wigger and Verle Wright) each won a match in weather that wreaked havoc on the scores. But Wigger’s perseverance and hard holding netted him the national title and with it, the Frank Parsons Trophy, a Remington 40X free rifle and a second Lyman telescope and championship brassard. Jilann Brunett, who had bagged four women’s titles, stood aside for Elizabeth Espointour of St. Paul, Minnesota, but took home the collegiate title while the Cobb Trophy for junior honors went to John Writer of Grange, Illinois, who would later join up with Wigger to anchor the U.S. international shooting powerhouse of the 1970s. Wigger didn’t go home or become a spectator after his historic wins. Instead, he swapped out his Walther .22 for a Remington 700 to win high Reservist honors in the President’s Match and placed second overall in the bolt aggregate. (Wigger’s prone gun was not his own. Instead, he made history with Henry Benson’s backup rifle topped with sights from Herb Hollister.)
The final performer among the history-making trio in 1963 was the Air Force’s Middleton Tompkins, who finished atop the big bore field with a 793-89V and became the second competitor in National Match history (Loyd Crow was first) to win more than one high power championship since the separate service rifle and match rifle award system was established in 1951.
Tompkins entered the NRA National Match scene in 1956 when he won the junior championship. Just two years later he claimed his first overall title and his 1963 win was still four removed from the total number he would eventually tally during a career that came full circle when he netted the senior championship in 2003.
Tompkins fired a Winchester 70 in .308 caliber for this year’s one-point margin of victory over service champion Sgt. Franklin Kruk of the Marine Corps, as both scores set new marks in just the second year of firing the 800-point championship aggregate. In addition, Laurence Moore of Aberdeen, Maryland, won two fired matches (Air Force Cup and Crowell Trophy), as well as the historic Wimbledon, while Army Staff Sgt. Raymond E. Campbell won the Leech.
In a repeat of recent years, Army shooters garnered most of the awards as Sgt. Charles Grover won the President’s Match, which in 1963 featured a Winchester Model 70 as one of the prizes. Spc. Barbara Hile won her third straight women’s service title and Master Sgt. Maxie Fields won National Trophy individual honors with a record score of 250-30V. The trend carried into team competition as Army squads won the NRA Herrick and Rumbold Matches prior to Board wins in the National Team and Infantry Matches.
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