Curt Gowdy Memorial Award
Celebrated sportscaster Curt Gowdy (1919-2006) was a founding member of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, where his commitment to fisheries conservation was exemplary.
He emceed the George Bush Cheeca Lodge Bonefish Tournament, the Ocean Reef Backbone Tournament, and the Redbone Celebrity Tournament banquets—roles that helped raised substantial funds for the conservation work of BTT.
The winner of 13 Emmys, Curt was the first sportscasters to win the prestigious Peabody Award for distinguished and meritorious public service for American radio and television stations. He especially loved fishing for bonefish, tarpon, and permit, and was instrumental in introducing countless anglers and a number of noted sports figures and celebrities to the joys of shallow saltwater fishing through the television series, American Sportsman.
Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s Curt Gowdy Memorial Award is awarded to anglers who, like Curt, are committed to conserving the great outdoors. Through their actions and passion, they have inspired others to join in BTT’s ongoing efforts protect and conserve bonefish, tarpon, permit and their habitats.
Michael Keaton
2020 Curt Gowdy
Memorial Media Award
Image Courtesy Dorsey Pictures
Michael Keaton
2020 Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award
An award-winning motion picture actor whose career has spanned more than 30 years, Michael Keaton was born in 1951 in Coraopolis, PA. Keaton has starred in a wide array of films, including the box office hits, Beetlejuice, Batman, and Robocop. In 2014, Keaton received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his starring role in Birdman. Keaton also starred in the 2015 hit Spotlight, which, like Birdman, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Keaton took up fly-fishing at 25, calling the sport "unconscious and hyperconscious at the same time." After his film career took off, he purchased a 1,000-acre ranch in Montana where he fly-fishes for trout, hunts birds and rides horses.
An original cast member of the acclaimed fly-fishing and flats conservation television series, Buccaneers & Bones, Keaton is an Honorary Trustee of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and an advocate of fisheries conservation.
Bill Klyn
2020 Curt Gowdy
Memorial Media Award
Image Courtesy Dorsey Pictures
Bill Klyn
2020 Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award
BTT board member Bill Klyn was born on the shores of Lake Erie near Cleveland, OH in 1950 where as a child he often encountered dead fish washed up from what was then a badly polluted waterway. These early memories of the damage caused from poor water quality served to inform his conservation ethic.
After college, Klyn took a job at the National Outdoor Leadership School, which allowed plenty of time to indulge his passions for fishing, hunting, rock climbing and skiing. He later worked for Simms Fishing Products, and then joined Patagonia outdoor apparel company in 1989, rising to head of international fishing business development.
Following an epic flats fishing trip guided by legendary Miami guide Captain Bill Curtis in 1986, Klyn became addicted to shallow-water sight fishing. He joined the BTT Board of Directors and soon teamed up with outdoors television producer Chris Dorsey to create Pirates of the Flats, which premiered on ESPN in 2008. The popular saltwater fishing show with a conservation theme moved over to the Outdoor Channel and was re-named Buccaneers & Bones. The series aired for eight seasons and helped to raise awareness of BTT’s science-based approaches to conserve the flats fishery.
In addition to his service on the BTT Board of Directors, Klyn is active in local, national and international conservation organizations, including the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and the Snake River Fund.
Huey Lewis
2020 Curt Gowdy
Memorial Media Award
Image Courtesy Dorsey Pictures
Huey Lewis
2020 Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award
Singer-songwriter-actor Huey Lewis was born in New York City in 1950. A math whiz as a teen, he attended Cornell University, but dropped out in his junior year to pursue his love of music. This path ultimately led to the formation of “Huey Lewis and the News,” which enjoyed a run of hit singles in the 1980s and early 90s. In 1985 Lewis won the Grammy for Best Music Video for his song, “The Heart of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Another Lewis song, "The Power of Love," was featured in the 1985 film Back to the Future and nominated for an Oscar.
Lewis, who lives in Missoula, Montana, has been fly-fishing for his entire life and once described himself in an interview as a "dry fly snob.” But as a cast member of the celebrated flats fishing and conservation television series, Buccaneers & Bones, he learned to love saltwater sight-fishing, noting that "you can really have a great day bonefishing and never catch a fish."
Lewis is active in many conservation organizations has been a vocal advocate for flats fishery conservation.
Yvon Chouinard
2020 Curt Gowdy
Memorial Media Award
Image Courtesy Marcos Furer
Yvon Chouinard
2020 Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award
Born in Maine in 1938, Yvon Chouinard relocated to Southern California with his family in the 1940s. He became a rock climbing pioneer as a member of the first party to ascend the southeast face of El Capitan, known as the North American Wall, in Yosemite National Park using no fixed ropes in 1964. He made his own climbing tools, began selling them, and also became an avid fly fisher, surfer, and kayaker.
A BTT Honorary Trustee, Chouinard founded the Patagonia outdoor apparel and gear company in 1973, became a billionaire, and launched "1% for the Planet" in 2002, donating millions in proceeds to conservation causes and encouraging other business owners to do the same.
One of BTT’s first corporate sponsors, Patagonia has supported BTT’s conservation mission for more than 15 years, including creating the design for the organization’s iconic logo. Patagonia has supported several research and conservation initiatives, including a juvenile tarpon habitat program and youth education.
A part-time resident of Moose, Montana, he enjoys tenkara fly-fishing (using a long rod with no reel) and tying his own flies. As a cast member of the fly-fishing and conservation television series, Buccaneers & Bones, Chouinard also relishes fishing the flats for bonefish, tarpon, and permit.
Joan Wulff
2017 The Curt Gowdy
Memorial Media Award
Image Courtesy Joan Wulff
Joan Wulff
2017 The Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award
One of the best fly-casters and instructors of all time, Joan Wulff was born in 1926 in New Jersey—the daughter of a sporting goods store owner/newspaper outdoors columnist. Wulff began fly-casting at age 10, winning her first statewide casting tournament in 1937. She went on to win 17 national casting titles and wrote an acclaimed 1987 book on fly-casting. A celebrated ambassador of the sport, she traveled the country representing fishing tackle companies and conducted casting demonstrations at many of the largest sportsmen’s shows in the United States.
In 1966, Wulff and her future husband Lee Wulff spent 10 days fishing for giant bluefin tuna in Newfoundland for an episode of the television show, The American Sportsman. The couple married in 1967, and together they had a profound influence on fly-fishing and conservation practices. They opened the now-famous Wulff School of Fishing in 1979 in New York's Catskill Mountains, which is still successful today. This “First Couple of Fly Fishing” lectured extensively and appeared in many ABC and CBS network television programs until Lee's death in 1991. Today, Joan Wulff remains an iconic ambassador for the sport, advocating for conservation causes and sharing her passion for fly-fishing with anglers around the world.
Chris & Amy Dorsey
2017 The Curt Gowdy
Memorial Media Award
Images Courtesy Chris Dorsey & Amy Dorsey
Chris & Amy Dorsey
2017 The Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award
Chris and Amy Dorsey established Dorsey Pictures, the world’s largest producer of outdoor adventure television shows. The Emmy-winning company has created more than 70 series for a variety of television networks, including The History Channel, CNN, Outdoor Channel, ESPN, National Geographic, and Discovery Channel. Counted among these is the celebrated flats fishing show, Buccaneers & Bones. With its influential cast of conservation-minded anglers, including Tom Brokaw, Michael Keaton, Huey Lewis and Yvon Chouinard, Buccaneers & Bones educated anglers about the flats fishery and inspired them to support BTT’s science-based approach to conserving the “flats grand slam” species—bonefish, tarpon and permit.
The Dorseys reside in Denver, Colorado with sons Luke and Nate. The family of passionate anglers and conservationists has fished together around the world.
Thomas McGuane
2014 The Curt Gowdy
Memorial Media Award
Image Courtesy BTT
Thomas McGuane
2014 The Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award
Acclaimed American author Thomas McGuane was born in Wyandotte, Michigan in 1939, and has lived in Montana since 1968. Educated at Michigan State University, Yale University, and Stanford University, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2010.
McGuane has built an impressive literary career, from humble beginnings as the “Humor Editor” at his high school newspaper, The Crane, to becoming one of the most accomplished and diversely talented authors of our generation. He gained acclaim by deftly exploring the depths of human relationships and bringing a decidedly local feel to all of his writing. Whether the setting is Michigan, the Florida Keys, or the plains of Montana, he deeply understands the environs in which his characters live and work.
McGuane is the author of 10 novels, three works of nonfiction, and three collections of stories. His novel, The Bushwhacked Piano, won the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1971 and his novel, Ninety-Two in the Shade, was nominated for a National Book Award in 1974. He is also the recipient of the 2009 Wallace Stegner Award from the Center of the American West.
An avid outdoorsman and BTT Honorary Trustee, McGuane has written extensively about fishing; his angling pieces are collected in The Longest Silence: A Life in Fishing. He received Fly Rod & Reel Magazine’s 2010 Angler of the Year award and the American Museum of Fly Fishing’s 2017 Heritage Award. McGuane was a cast member on the television series, Buccaneers & Bones where he inspired viewers to support BTT’s efforts to conserve the flats fishery.