The fact that I am sitting here writing this makes me smile a little bit in serendipitous gratitude, for it is abject proof that you can, in fact, will something into existence.
My journey to Sporting Classics actually started 11 years ago. I was hosting a gun company’s TV show, scampering about the globe living out boyhood dreams of being an international gunslinger and hunting in places my heroes Ruark and Hemingway and Capstick had forayed, from Spain to Africa and more. Running two hunting magazines for a media company paid the bills, but with a newborn back home, I was lucky to stay married.
I managed to hang on to my dream girl, and the TV whirlwind ended at the right time for that, so I focused back on the niched hunting titles (waterfowl and predators) I was running. Wild adventures outside those niches still came my way through industry friends, chasing stags, bear, even African game, and I somehow left boot prints in the dust on five continents, going to Argentina so often my wife accused me of having another family there.
Yet, I was restless. Enter Duncan Grant, a founder, and the publisher of Sporting Classics, who offered me the editorial helm at SC, a dream job. I badly wanted to work with Duncan. Some people in life are surfing your wave in the way that they approach things, and you quickly recognize it. Duncan, this fiercely intelligent visionary, surfs mine. It would be an opportunity to grow again professionally, and I could relate to him so well, the man who had launched the wildly successful SC brand 40 years earlier, a juggernaut that soon became the aspirational industry benchmark.
But family came first — I now had two crumb snatchers at home and another on the way (I did eventually figure out what causes that), and I wanted to get my darling wife closer to family support in Colorado. The SC window slipped away. The chance to start a beautiful elk magazine came along, quenching my big game thirst, and feeding the family organic meat. I enjoyed an adventurous career, even taking my dad on safari in Tanzania for the big stuff, but every so often dad would mention SC and say, “too bad that didn’t work out.” He knew it would have been a terrific fit. In my gut, it felt like unfinished business.
“I tried to hire Skip a few years back,” says Duncan. “He seemed perfect for this position at Sporting Classics. He’d been at the helm of seven popular magazines in the outdoors and luxury lifestyle niches. He’d hosted both TV shows and video series on outdoor adventures. He was an award-winning writer for a major daily newspaper covering the Olympics, and he’d hunted and fished all over the planet. He seemed exactly the right person to be the ‘face’ of our company. However, at the time, we just couldn’t work it out.”
Soon after, the intrepid Wayne Nanney entered the picture, a hard-working South Carolina country boy who would rather be on a tractor or in a tree stand when not running SC’s finances or eating grits and socializing at a greasy spoon joint. He possesses a no-nonsense, rapier mind, and he tightened things up, steering the ship through the pandemic. Duncan and Wayne will simply never let this brand fail.
The door swung back open, and this time it worked out. I’d befriended the writer Michael Altizer (Ramblings) along the way, and working directly with him now is a treat. Veteran editor Chuck Wechsler returned part-time and is still grumbling about the South Carolina office, tapping his pencil, frowning at his notepad and editing books. He tried to retire briefly, having been at SC ever since flintlocks were considered new-fangled (he probably called them a fad), but his love of SC won out. Tech whiz Ryan Coleman runs the business side, and the talented Eric Taylor lays out the mag beautifully as creative director.
Nobody is more passionate about their iconic brand than the people who work at SC, and I am humbled to join their ranks.
To keep it light, we’re bringing in my favorite humorist Nate Corley, who readers will love. We will expand the feature offerings, cover more gear, and pump up the energy level. And don’t worry: We will always endeavor to keep the “classic” in Sporting Classics, as SC long-time writer Jim Casada requests.
I am keen to explore the new worlds this adventure offers: elite firearms, adventure travel, wildlife art and dogs. Running a waterfowl pub for years, I only went afield with Labs, (I have two black dogs) and I’m excited to hunt over and learn more about other breeds as I often did when filming that broad-ranging tv show.
Buckle up! This is gonna get good and your support is much appreciated.
-Skip Knowles
Editor-in-Chief
How can we make SC even better? Comment to Skip@sportingclassics.com