Before I can tell you when I first met Bird, some of my personal history needs to be explained. I started hanging around a Drop Zone in Michigan at Austin lake in 72. My dad moved us there when I was 15, and the very first day we arrived, I was hanging out there. I started packing student rigs as soon as I could get them to let me. I got to know all the regulars, and pretty soon, they “let me” pack their rigs as well.
This was the home of the Rainbow flyers, who became multi-year national champions in 4-man and the Beechnut 10-man team.
I was a sophomore at a country high school in Vicksburg. My English teacher’s name was Suzi Coleman. During study period, I used to go to her class to help out with stuff she needed done. One day she asked me why I was always looking out the window daydreaming during class, and I said something about hanging out at the DZ. She said, “Oh, so you’re the one.” It turned out that she was the wife of Ken Coleman, who you might know as the guy who created the modern-day version of AFF. Ken took me under his wing and taught me how to sew and modify military round parachutes into student canopies. When I was over at their apartment, I’d go thru all his Parachutists and Skydiver magazines. At that time, Bird was the man in the middle of all the big changes in the sport. Plus, back then, there were very few cameramen, and the ones around were taking pictures of what Bird was involved in at the time. I read everything about him and actually wrote a report for my English class about him. I couldn’t have written about him if Suzi wasn’t my English teacher, and in the end, I think I got a C.
When Ken opened a new dropzone in Athens, Michigan, I went along as his packer. When I turned 16, I made my first jump. Because I worked there as long as I was the 4th person on the load in the 182, I got my jumps for free. With just under 100 jumps, I became the alternate for the Beechnut 10-man team. It was perfect for me because someone wouldn’t be available for practice for one of the days every weekend, so I got to fill in on every position but the base. At that time, I was 5′ 2” and weighed in at 110lbs. The four-man base weighed in at 1000lbs dripping wet, so I learned how to fall real fast for my size. So that’s who I was about to meet Bird for the first time.
We went to Tahlequah, OK, for the nationals in 73. It was a huge experience for me. I got to watch all the big guns in person. I think we came in 5th or so.
I never was needed as an alternate but was standing by. All the teams stayed in the local college dorms. Each floor housed two teams. Our floor was with Captain Hook and the Sky Pirates. At the end of the day, from the room at the end of the hall, the music “Smoke on the water” would blast thru the open door. It was the party signal, and everybody would fall out into the hall and make their way along with whoever else heard the calling. We would end up sitting on the beds across from each other to smoke pot out of a long plastic pipe that they had taken from a porta-potty. They had rigged a fish pump so the smoke from a big bowl would fill the middle of this 10ft long pipe. Then one guy would get on one end and another on the other. One guy would blow into it, and the other would suck. I never partook of the ritual, but it was fun to watch, and we had many big names end up there at one time or another.
So the very last day, we were getting ready to leave. Ken and I were passing the cafeteria on our way out. There were only two people there. Sitting at the end of one of the long tables was a very pretty girl, and across from her was Bird. He was hitting on her pretty seriously. Ken noticed me looking at them and said, “Hey boy, you want to meet him” I stammered something like, “No, that’s alright,” or something like that, not wanting to interrupt his moves. Actually, I was too nervous. Ken drug me over there anyway,
Bird, who never forgets anybody, looked up and said, “Hey Ken, how you doing?”. Ken said, “Hey, Jerry doing good I just wanted to introduce our alternate, Mike .”
Im sure I was beet red and said hi. After that, I have not a clue what was said. I pretty much floated out of the cafeteria, having met the biggest name in skydiving at that time.
A year later, we were back to Talaquah as the Beechnuts. This time we were color-coordinated in Red and White everything. Jumpsuits, introducing the SST piggyback rigs and 5cell strato-star ram-air parachutes. At this time in the sport, having ten people at the same time jumping squares was unheard of.
74 was the gear war year.
Capt Hook came with Paradactyls in small piggybacks, and Bird came with a complete new system with front-mounted rip off-reserve and Tri-conical mains.
That year the Oklahoma winds were fierce, and for the week before the meet, we were the only team that could practice. We were at a grass strip down the road in Wagner, OK with another team called the God Frogs. One evening when the winds had died down, out of nowhere, this white Twin Beech came flying over at about three grand, threw out some wind drift indicators, and proceeded to climb up. We had been practicing from 10500 ft. these guys only went to 7500ft. It was a no-show exit, but because of the low altitude, you didn’t need any binoculars to see these 10 white suits pile out the door and throw together a blazing fast star. As if that wasn’t cool enough, when they broke off, they didn’t all turn 180 to track. The five on the DZ side of the star turned 180 and fanned out as they tracked, but the other five tracked straight forward and filled in between the gaps of the other five. It was spectacular. Then they all pulled, and these little round canopies opened, landing right there in front of us. Wings of Orange had arrived. They hung out with us that night, and we got to party together. The next day after a practice jump in which I was filling in for someone, I was over by a trailer trying to figure out how to pack one of these new square things; I always needed help. When I stood up and looked around, I didn’t see anybody anywhere. I went to look around and saw a big circle of people. There were all the guys from the God Frogs, my team, Birds team in a circle. I couldn’t see in the middle, but I could hear Bird and John Sherman arguing the benefits of front-mounted reserve rigs versus piggyback rigs in the lineup in a small door twin beech. Because I was only 5’2″, I couldn’t see over everybody, so I pushed between folks to get a better look. Well, I pushed a little too far and stumbled into the center with the two of them. Bird noticed me trying to back out and pointed right at me and said, in front of everybody, “Hey, are you still alternate, or did you kick Shermans ass and get a slot?”
HE REMEMBERED ME!!!.
Everybody was looking at me, and I mumbled something as I shook my head, backing away, trying to disappear into the crowd. My team gave me so much shit for being so star-struck. They would say crap like: He puts his pants on one leg at a time just like you and stuff like that.
And I would think to myself: Yeah, but he’s standing on the podium, and we aren’t.
So that’s just the first two times I met him, but we have a lot more history. Like the time we almost came to blows at the World Meet in 81, he and I.
But that’s another story.