Oz
Conrad
Stillwater, MN
Elected: 1980
Shooting Member
Satchell
Paige in baseball, Sam Snead in golf, and Gordie Howe in hockey
are ageless wonders of the professional sports, but none can
compare with our own Oz Conrad, who will be inducted in the
Minnesota State Trapshooting Hall of Fame at the State Shoot, St.
Cloud, July 9-13.
Oz was born in 1897 in
Stillwater where his grandfather built the first saw mill in 1844.
He shot his first skeet targets at the Stillwater GC which he
helped organize in 1930. Conrad shot practice and league targets
for many years before he competed in his first registered
trapshoot in 1947.
Since then he has
fired at 690,000 trap and skeet targets with 52 different guns, of
which 290,000 were registered trap clays. He has hand loaded
570,000 shells. Oz has won countless championships at both sports,
too numerous to mention. He competed in 15 Grand Americans
where he won countless championships. Conrad shot his last Grand
in 1968, took sick with emphysema, drove home alone after being
advised to go to a Dayton hospital.
That year he won three
Veteran championships, the Preliminary with 100 straight, the
Introductory with another 100 and the Class A with 197, the day he
became sick. Conrad shot his last registered targets here at
the Minneapolis GC last fall where he won the handicap with 98 of
100, five targets over the field.
OZ made his winter
home in Florida where he shoots six days a week at the Palm Beach
GC.
He broke 100 straight
at the Miami GC on his 82nd birthday.
Conrad has been
selected on both the All American and Skeet Teams and was six
times a member of the Minnesota All State Trapshooting Team, which
included 1980. Oz was a pilot in the first World War. His charming
wife, Faith, won several State Ladies Championships before she
hung up her guns. |