Archery Hall of Fame and Museum News

Past News Headlines

May 18, 1999

Taken from Bowhunter Magazine - October/November 1999

Bowhunting Loses Pioneer

     On Sunday, May 18, Floyd Eccleston, the “father of broadhead collecting,” passed away at his home in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.  Many of you will remember that this humble ambassador of the bow and arrow was inducted into the Archery Hall of Fame in January.  Floyd began his involvement in archery in 1939, as both a field archer and bowhunter.  But his greatest achievement in archery is probably his outstanding collection of archery artifacts.  Inspired by Roy Case in 1948, and aided by many of the archery industry’s early movers and shakers, whom he knew personally, Floyd’s collecting ran the gamut from bows and bow tools to arrows and various archery accessories, as well as bowhunting periodicals.  But his prize is undoubtedly his one-of-a-kind broadhead collection, considered to be the most prestigious in the United States.  Bowhunters who were lucky enough to see Floyd lovingly set up his traveling broadhead display at a bow show or convention can easily testify to this man’s devotion to archery.

Floyd was a veritable encyclopedia of the bow and arrow, and he will be missed by the

entire archery community.  Family and friends paid their respects during a memorial service at the Michigan Bowhunters Rendezvous this August.  The Bowhunter staff would also like to offer condolences to the Eccleston family and a heartfelt salute to one of bowhunting’s finest.