In archery, there may be an ideal age to start but there is no one telling you when you should finish, as is the case with Bob Perkins and Harold Rush, who will both be stepping onto the line at the 2025 USA Archery Indoor Nationals.
Perkins (above right) has never missed an Indoor Nationals, since the event began in 1969, and will compete in Lancaster, Pa. in early February. He is aged 78.
Rush (above left) returned to archery in 2021 after a 15-year hiatus. He turned 80 in September and will appear in Chula Vista, Calif over the same weekend.
The younger of the two veteran archers, Perkins, is getting set for his 56th Indoor Nationals but believes he could add on one more, albeit with perhaps an asterisk alongside.
“How it all started is, there was a guy named Clayton Shenk, who was the Executive Secretary of the NAA (National Archery Association) - what would become USA Archery,” began Perkins.
“It was a year before Indoor Nationals started – so 1968 – and he wanted to have a shoot in Harrisburg, but the NAA wanted nothing to do with it. So, he had a tournament anyway and it was such a big deal that the next year it ended up being the nationals.”
Rush, on the other hand, arrived at archery relatively late in life, at the age of 40. He refers to it as his mid-life crisis, with his heart set on representing his country in whatever sport he could.
He said, “When I was in high school, I had a fiberglass bow, which had a crack in it. The string was so long, I had to tie a knot in to make it short enough. I had four wooden arrows that didn't even match. I didn't know which side of the string to look on.
“And I didn't shoot daily. I didn't train. For a year I was in a club, but I’d be lucky to shoot once a week or once every couple of weeks. I wouldn't take it seriously.
“And that's why when I turned 40, I thought, if I'm going to try to make a team, whether it’s bowling or curling or bocce - I couldn’t do tennis or track and field, there were just some sports that I couldn’t do. So, what can I do? Oh, I kind of like archery, and so I looked up and read some magazines.
“I thought, it’s time to do it or give up on the dream. And so I went to the shops and finally found a recurve bow. The guy at the store said he could put me in touch with someone, who turned out to be Al Henderson, the coach of the 1976 Olympic team.”
Rush became a fanatic of the sport. He would devour books, reading and learning about this amazing world of which he had previously known little about.
Perkins, meanwhile, was already well into his run of Indoor Nationals. Now, while he missed other events – including when he broke a bone in his neck – his run of appearances at Indoor Nationals kept on going. And far from slowing down, recurve archer Perkins has employed a fitness coach as he seeks to do something he has failed to do on his 55 previous appearances.
“There are three highlights in those 55 appearances,” he began with a laugh. “I could never make the top 10! This was in the masters’ class. The highest I shot was 11th indoor three times, and the last time I got 11th the guy before got the same score, but he got more 10s, and I’m like ‘man, I can’t break the top 10’.”
Perkins finished 22nd in the 2024 edition of Indoor Nationals, competing in recurve 70+ men. Rush – competing in barebow 50+ - came in 13th. For Rush, his reason for starting out on the archery journey was to make the national team. The former biology teacher, later a dentist for 26 years, Rush fulfilled his dream, though not without incident.
Rush made the USA men’s team for the 1987 World Archery Championships in Adelaide, Australia, alongside Jay Barrs, Darrell Pace and Lonny King. Rush was 42. His teammates were more than 10-15 years younger. He explained, “On the flight to Australia we landed in Hawaii in the middle of the night. As we were waiting, the head of the NAA was talking to our team coach and while looking at my wife and myself, asked coach, “that couple – which archer are they the parents of?” Coach had to inform him that I was on the men’s team!”
What happened next took the shine off of Rush’s national team debut.
Rush, who would later represent the USA in barebow at the 2002 and 2006 World Archery Field Championships, takes up the tale, “We reboarded the flight and proceeded to Sydney where we were to stay three days before continuing to Adelaide.
“As the luggage came off the carousel, each archer claimed their equipment. I waited and waited. Mine did not arrive. In fact, 37 years later, it still has not shown up.
“I borrowed equipment from five other archers. I shot Lonny’s bow with modern carbon foam limbs, and I had been shooting wooden ones. Got a stabilizer from Darrell, turned a left-handed chest protector inside out, mine being right-handed.
“NAA got me some XX75 aluminum arrows, and I had about an hour to tune them up. I did not win nor get last place. I finished in the middle of the final ranking with a score below my normal.”
Despite a combined age of 158, neither Harold nor Bob are ready to hang up their bow. In fact, as well as competing and training, Bob Perkins also still works a 40-hour week in a job he has had for almost 40 years.
“Are you familiar with a Chinook helicopter? Perkins began. “I'm a painter, so I don't do too much manual work … just climb up and down a helicopter.”
That level of understatement underscores both men. Both just do what they do, carried along by their long-standing and deep-rooted passion for the sport. And even after all these years, both still have hopes and dreams.
“I want to make the USAT (United States Archery Team),” Rush commented. “It would be a feather in the cap and a personal feeling that I can do it. So, that’s my goal for 2025.”
As for Perkins, he added, “Next year will be my 56th appearance at Indoor Nationals. I hope to go a little better than I’ve been doing, especially with all the training I’ve been doing.”
Registration remains open for the 2025 USA Archery Indoor Nationals and JOAD Indoor Nationals, which begin in California in January and end with competition in six different states toward the end of February.
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