Harold Sharp, B.A.S.S.' first tournament director and a 2004 inductee into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame, died at his home in Hixson, Tenn. Thursday morning. He was 88.
Sharp left a secure job as a crew dispatcher for Southern Railroad in 1968 to join Ray Scott's fledgling organization dedicated to uniting the nation's bass anglers under a single umbrella and taking the competitive aspect of the sport to heights it had never seen before. His initial role was heading up the Bassmaster Seminar Tour, which took several top pro anglers across the country and back in a quest to educate recreational anglers in the nuances of the sport, and he became tournament director 2 years later. He held the latter position until 1987, when he retired to his native Tennessee.
Scott, who was adamant from the beginning of B.A.S.S. that tournaments must operate under a strict set of rules that were mercilessly enforced, found the firm hand he needed in Sharp.
"Harold proved to be the perfect choice," Scott once wrote. "He understood the rules and enforced them to the letter. If you didn't go along with Harold's decision or his way, it was the highway.
"Everyone had the rules in black and white and respected Harold's job as the tournament's top cop."
Sharp, who founded the first B.A.S.S.-affiliated club in Chattanooga in 1968, retained his passion for the sport throughout his life. He penned several BassFan Opinion pieces during his latter years and his Feedback submissions since this site's launch in 2001 numbered nearly 500.
He was greatly perturbed by the expanded role that television production plays in modern tour-level events and was not a fan of either co-anglers or marshals sharing boats with the pros – he preferred the original system of putting two pros together in a single boat for a day on the water. He maintained until the end that the only fair way of determining an Angler of the Year was via total pounds and ounces weighed in during the season.
"Some would call him pig-headed," Robert H. Boyle wrote of Sharp in Bass Boss, his 1999 biography of Scott. "But the tournaments ran smoothly, honestly and safely. He shared Ray's abhorrence of cheating – those unfortunate souls who tried to bend the rules, even slightly, found Harold didn't give even a millimeter. He was Ray's kind of man."
Before going to work for B.A.S.S., Sharp competed in the organization's second tournament at Smith Lake in Alabama in 1968, taking big-bass honors with a 6-01 brute.
"The thing I'll remember most about him was he was very fair," said 1983 Bassmaster Classic winner and two-time B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year Larry Nixon. "There was a firm set of rules and there were no loopholes.
"He was probably the most meticulous tournament director I've ever seen. Things were done one way, and it was the right way."
B.A.S.S. reported that services will take place at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Chattanooga Funeral Home (5401 Highway 153, Hixson, Tenn.).
