Billy Bristol

Fourche River Rambler

Webbs Benny Jester

Jo Jester Hellums Jr.

Dash Rip Rock

Dawson Stride

Hornet G.

Big Tim Liquor

Coy Flowers

Burris Hill Tom

Big Jester

Hills Kelley Lawyer

O'Neils T. Ross

Wilson's Smokey Joe

PnDale Clown B.

Steve i see a stack of great producers that carried and produced on or even produced better than they were.i wish i could of seen alot of these hounds run besides seeing them in my old horns.i remember scott hoehner giving us a schooling on some of these great hounds when he speaks one should listen he is a man of alot of knowledge.

Steve you have forgotten some hounds that made change in hounds like Haggin, Ray Raider, Bandit, Hub Dawson, and many more. It was easier to make a hound back then hunters would go and hunt with a hound that they heard about and they would try pups off of him. Hunters today do not cull hounds like they use too. It is a shame that we do not have the hunters like they did 50 years ago. I still run on the outside but it is getting harder every year. In 40 years of running hounds I never thought the united states would have gotten the way it is.

Travis, I left out alot of good ones was hoping that people like yourself would add to it. Good Hunting

You mentioned Dash Rip Rock, but what about Levi's Reno, that's where it started on those dogs. I'd LOVE to have Reno back today to breed today. I think he was one of the first studs in the last 20 years to actually produce the both fast and tough needed for 3 day trials in a fox pen. They were the total package, which is mandatory today to be competitive.
At the Texas State last month, Lamar Smith came over to the Bole to visit. He said it's the first time in many, many years for him to come over. We chatted for awhile bout the olden days. Boy, did he bring back some memories of great hounds, which he owned many of them!!!

Canadian content -- all of the hounds listed have infused foxhounds in this country.
However, the Burris Hill Tom and Coy Flowers hounds have played prominent roles in Canadian hounds. Both were at the foundation of the Rose Haven blood line and, at one time, most foxhounds in Canada carried some of that blood.
That blood line has been the foundation of Ron Sheridan's breeding program for a long time and he has been, perhaps, the most successful breeder in recent Canadian fox hound history.
I believe he said one time, he got a lot of his blood from Mr. Herm Pace, who I believe leaned more towards the Burris Hill side of the equation.
Ron Sheridan and Dave Lawson won back-to-back USO championships with that blood and, at one time, it seemed like every other stud listed in the Chase was out of Sheridan's Dice Man.
A lot of the Flowers blood in the Rose Haven hounds came through Red Foley F. Clyde Rose's hounds and Canadian breeders like Ralph Cole had a lot of it in their Rose Haven hounds and it, of course, went back to Coy Flowers numerous times.

Thank god those hounds are'nt around today to be bad mouthed, ridiculed and subject to judges that don't know what a hound is suppossed to do.

No ill will intended, just food for thought, and dam it it's the truth.

Very nice list Steve.
I can only comment on one of them,Wilsons Smokey Joe.
I was WAY to young to ever see him run but talked to plenty of men that did and not one of them said a bad thing about him. They all said he was a very very good running hound that always got more than his share of an all night coyote race.
They also said that there were some nice pups out of him.

To add to the list some dogs that we have seem in the coyote hounds in the mid west are.

Hi Mitch
Abe Lemons
Taylors Osage

In more resent years

Cheif Charger
Little Whiz N
Turners Red Rattler

Steve, I tell you one that has been overlooked for too long and needs to be in the Hall of Fame is a hound named Calvin. This hound is probably more common in Walker pedigrees than Tennessee Lead himself.
Here is a story taken from the Walkerhound website about Calvin and what he produced...



Wooldridge's CH. Calvin 400 (F)

S. L. W. March, 1933

Wooldridge's CH. CALVIN (F) 400-Winner First All-Age at the National, Bardstown, Kentucky, 1906. Will Richards, breeder. (Walker). Black, white and tan Dog. W'helped July, 1903. By Young Hustler (J. Bennett) ex Nell (Richards). Nell by Tom York ex Lottie; Tom York by Drive ex Phoebe; Lottie by Brown's Calvin ex Dinah. Young Hustler by Cliff ex Bee; Cliff by Hustler ex Nell; Bee by Ed Walker ex Kate.


In the summer of 1905 1 received a letter from W. S. Walker, Point Leavell, Kentucky, saying that he was shipping a hound called Dart that was by Arp, to be bred to Calvin. This was the first intimation I had of owning Calvin. W. A. Wade, of Huber Kentucky, and later of Versailles, had been to my place hunting and wrote Mr. Walker that he wanted to buy the most outstanding Walker hound for a stud dog in America, and for him to recommend the hound. Mr. Walker's reply was that he had recently sold a pair of hounds; Calvin 400 and Hustler 112, to J. H. Wilder, then of Vincent Alabama. Mr. Wade got in touch with Mr. Wilder and tried to buy Calvin alone, but he wouldn't sell him without his littermate, so he wired him to ship them to me. In a few days this pair of hounds arrived, a wonderful pair of hounds to look at and entirely different in type and looks. Calvin was a very near white hound with blue specks on him, coarse hair, flag tail, 24 inches tall, black ears and black spot on the root of his tail. Hustler was a black, white and tan ring necked hound, short hair, 24 inches tall.
Hustler was one of the greatest hunting hounds the writer has ever known, could find more foxes and trail them up better and up to the time that he began quitting ,was an outstanding hound. He was poisoned when young and some say this caused him to quit, but a lot of good hounds run back to him, and it took hard, long race for him to get enough.
Calvin was a hound that has as much gameness as any hound had, a wonderful hunting hound and a hound that would not cry such a cold trail, but knew how to get his fox to running. When this happened be was the master of any pack he ran with. He was one of the most beautiful hounds in motion I ever saw and although I have beard thousands of hounds' mouths, I have never heard one with as good a mouth as Calvin had. This he transmitted to his pups, although be never got a hound with as good a mouth as he had, unless it was Chinn's CH. Pete (F).
Calvin's breeding is given above and it shows excellent breeding as the pedigree will show. When I say this, a great many of the Walker breeders are going to disagree with me. I may be wrong, but at the time Calvin arrived in Kentucky the Walker hounds I hunted did not have the speed and get-away they should have. They dwelt too long in one place and were more or less leggy, but the minute these ******* begin being crossed on Calvin, class began to show every day. They began to win at the field trials and I am going to show you a remarkable record a little later in the story.
The best breeding hound crossed on Calvin to my knowledge was Wade's Ella 88 by Arp out of Lippie; Lippie by Dickerson's Don. Through this cross, the wonderful Pride family of bounds originated, also the John Branham family of hounds and many others of note. CH. Pride (B) was third at the National at LaGrange, Kentucky; won the National bench show twice, was the pivot hound in the Walker July race that ran at Barre, Massachusetts; also won at the Kentucky.
CH. Pride bred to Cable produced Pride II that won the Kentuckv State All-Age in 1914. She was also second at the National and won in ten other stakes which was remarkable. She disappeared while suckling a litter of pups.
CH. Pride III (F) out of Pride II by Wade's Alex, a mate to Hub Dawson. won the National at Crab orchard, running on three legs. She had had a bad steel trap foot and the last hour of the race she was better than the first day she started.

Pride IV out of Pride III by Running Sam 524, a Calvin bred bound, won the National at Bowling Green and Pride V by Flying Cloud, out of CH. Pride IV, was placed high at the National.

Wade's Phoebe 151 by Joe White out of Nancy, was another hound crossed on CH. Calvin that made hound history. Through this cross the Big Stride blood comes. In this litter were several outstanding hounds. I have mentioned them before, so will not go into detail about them, but Creek of this cross will go down in history as one of the greatest hounds of all time. She won at the Forked Deer Club, won high at the National and was just one of the greatest bounds of her day. Bred to Wade's Alex she produced Sprite who won the Kentucky Derby and Sprite, bred to Cable, produced Big Stride.

Another great field trial hound by Calvin was Wooldridge's and McHenry's Ike 114. Ike did a world of winning. He was out of Topsy; Topsy was by Scott out of CH. Ailsie (F), a mate to Arp. Scott was a mate to Frank. Ike's winnings in 1912 included V.H.C. at Forked Deer Red Foxhound Derby, second at Brunswick Derby. V.H.C. at National (highest award that year), and the combination cup at the National. Won the Kentucky Derby, won the Kentucky All-Age and sired Hot Point that won the Forked Deer Derby.

Another bound of unusual merit by CH. Calvin was Speed sold to W. K. Herrin of Clarksdale, Mississippi Speed was a beautiful, black, white and tan, arched-back, racy gyp. She ran a wonderful race at the
National at Crab Orchard and a though she only won second, her performance was outstanding. She was later shipped to Mississippi where she won the Forked Deer Red Fox Club All-Age. Although an old hound she was brought back to Kentuckv and ran at the National at Olvmpia and was placed high. She was out of Tadlock's Lindy who was by Phill out of Coyle's Ollie.

In the John Branham blood , John Branham was by Lockhart, a son of Hub Dawson and out of Hayden's Ella, she by McKenna who was byCalvin out of Ella- McKenna being a brother to CH. Pride, only a little younger.

Another great hound of this litter that won at the National was Vain. In fact, there were a great many Good ones. Calvina, another sister, was the dam of CH. Audrey Alford (F) that won the National.

Looking over the National list, it certainly is surprising to se how strong this Calvin blood is. After 1906 when CH Calvin won the National at Bardstown, a pup of his, CH. Pete, out of Lady won the National. Two grandpups of his, CH. Audrey Alford and CH. Hustler by Skipper out of Winona, won the National. Then a great grandpup of his CH. Pride III by Alex out of Pride 11, won the National and from that time he has not skipped a generation with some of his family winning the National All-Age Stake.

Here is a list of the winners and you can see that of the 26 years, in 14 of these years the National championships have been won by CH. Calvin blood. The list of winners are:
1909 CH. Pete, 1915 CH. Audrey Alford, 1917 CH. Hustler, 1920 CH. Pride 111, 1924 CH. Pride IV, 1922 CH. White Rowdy, 1927 CH. Model Rowdy, 1925 CH. Betsy Stride, 1926 CH. Ona Stride, 1928 CH. Maydell, 1923 CH. Diana Mayo, 1930 CH. Churchill Weaver, and 1931 CH. Gay Nell.

All of these are field champions and in lots of cases the winners of second and third carried the CH. Calvin blood. It is my honest opinion that be did more toward giving the Walker hounds, run, dash, class, mouth and speed and improving the breed than any bound up to his day. When be was running with a pack it was a race sure enough. The minute be would be thrown at a loss and it looked like the bottom fell out of it, he had just that way of running a fox.

Remember once at a field trial, Calvin hounds were all winning right along and some one said something about Calvin. Bill Leavell remarked that the way his pups wagged their tails has made CH. Calvin famous. They had a way of wagging their tails that was beautiful when after a fox and whipping themselves around.

Couldn't finish this story without mentioning Ramey by CH. Calvin out of Creamer, an Arp gyp. Ramey won second in the National Derby, was sold to Col. T. G. James of Mississippi and won second in the National. Placed high again at the National and won second at the Forked Deer and Red Fox Club. She was later given back to me and was a very outstanding hound.

Buddy Watts

Ozark Bourbon Liquor

Mean Liquor

Wild Goose Diamond

Sun Dial Randy King

Mark S.

Howard Pickett

Mulberry Pickett

Faulkner's Old Charter

Canoys ringo

Steve I'm gone add a few that we see alot back in the 5th and 6th generation here on the East.....

Edwards Mr Fred
Purvis Highball
Garners Singing Sam
Senator Sam
Sheridans Red Rufus

That's just a few that stick out to me...

If you will go back and check I can assure you that most of these hounds listed above won with big hunting and trailing scores. Not all of them but most, and I'm not taking anything from them, yes they were most all outstanding hounds but more of a combination hound rather than just speed and drive like we have today. Lots of guts, or bottom, keep going and keep hunting when the running broke down the second and third day when it began getting hotter and no running going on to keep them in the field. Before you get on me too hard and start mentioning exceptions, I agree, there are some exceptions but most were very good about getting good hunting and trailing and endurance scores. Especially the ones owned by Mr Hellums, gutsy hounds, tough, lots of bottom, very little getting scratched. To win in the trials in the f0's, 60's, and even the 70's and 80's, the main thing was to finish the trial.

Don you still have to finish a hunt to win it. Those old hounds might not have had the speed that today's hounds have but they could do something most hounds of today can not do and that is stay on their game and run it all night and did not need help or a road to cut a pack of hounds. What is funny is that we pretty much have the same rules after all these years. We have change the rules a little bit for the pen running but outside rules are about the same. The hounds today still have have to do 4 things that those old hounds had to do 1. Look for game (little easier today) 2 jump his game 3 run his game 4 not quit til the race is over. A good hound is a good hound, no matter when, where, or who ever owns him.

You are right, they do have to finish, but I don't think the ability to find and jump game is that important any more in the pens. There is a coyote behind every bush and for the most part wall to wall running so all they have to do is get in a pack and cross the road before the others do to win.

Actually, they don't need to get in the pack, they need to get ahead of the pack and cross the road before any of the others do.

Also, finishing is not that hard to do now with the aid of GPS and tracking collars and as David Bailey terms it "current" most professional field trial hunters have their hounds caught up really quick after the 5 hrs is up and as I termed it "on the chain, fed, watered, and even more refreshed that ever before with the aid of irrigation, etc, so they are not as likely to be as worn out as they were many years ago. Most of the field trialers can get close to a crossing and call out the hounds name pretty roughly and because they have been trained with "current" they will squat and let them catch them out of a race.