Thirty-eight years later, history makes official what the skeet world has known for decades. Golladay Stratton, one of the greatest .410 shooters to ever call for a clay target, is to be inducted into the Texas Skeet Shooters’ Association’s Hall of Fame Saturday at a ceremony at the National Gun Club in San Antonio at noon, during the annual State Championships.

Golladay is only the 12th shooter ever to be inducted into the hall, which includes the very elite group of great Texas target busters. Recovering from a recent operation, Golladay will not be able to attend the ceremony. His friend, Dr. Arthur Bostick, will accept the plaque signifying his entry to the hall. It will be presented by Al Tpham, Dallas.

Stratton thus joins the small group of great Texas skeet shooters, which includes former Wacoan Grant Ilseng, Granger native Ricky Pope, Herman Ehler, Robert Paxton, Wacoan Bob Reay, Jack Johnson of San Antonio, and Bubba Wood of Dallas.

Stratton’s career in shattering clay targets in skeet competitions has indeed been amazing. He didn’t take up the sport until he was 41, at an age when many of the great ones have already hung up their guns. Although Golladay got a late start, his rise to the top was to be meteoric. Those who were there when he first started shooting were amazed to see him break nearly all of the targets the first few rounds he ever shot.

Golladay didn’t view his early achievements as being all that unusual or difficult. For two reasons: “I’d hunted all my life, so I’d had lots of shooting experience. And I was fortunate to start under the coaching of Grant Ilseng.”

Ilseng, who now lives in Houston, was working for a Waco sporting goods store just before World War II and was later hired by the U.S. Air Force to teach gunnery at the old Waco Gun Club, not far from where Waco Madison Cooper Airport is now located. “Skeet was basic training for all tail gunners, and I was a member of the gun club at the time, and that’s where I really got to know Grant.” And when Stratton took up the sport in 1948, Ilseng was his mentor.

The first year he shot in the sport, Stratton was the State Class A Champ in the .410. Three years later, in 1951, he and Ilseng won the Sub-Small 2-man team championship in the National shoot, and Golladay went on to claim the high average for the year in the .410 among all members of the National Skeet Shooting Association.

Golladay was to be a consistent winner in high-level competition throughout the country for the next 20 years. He was the Texas 12-gauge champion in 1950; the 1951 High Over-All champion in the Oleander Southwest Nationals in 1952; the 1958 Sub-Senior State 12-gauge champ; and a member of the Texas All State Team in 1969.

A visit with Golladay and Virginia at their Waco home shows the wins above to be only a smattering of his many glitter days in world-class competition. Their trophy room is a stroll down skeet’s memory lane. There are countless silver trays, cups, and trophies that Golladay has won in shoots throughout the country. Virginia has kept scrapbooks with stories of her husband’s many accomplishments, complete with glossy black and white pictures of Golladay and such greats as Ilseng, Ehler, and Ed Scherer.

Space doesn’t permit giving an account of Stratton’s many wins over the years. And in spite of the fact that he’s now 79, he remains a highly respected competitor. Before his recent operation, friends said he was shooting at a level very close to that of the 50s, when he was among the greatest.

A charter member of the Waco Gun Club, Golladay is the topic of many conversations when he competes in the major shoots held locally. There’s always somebody who recognizes him or recognizes his name, and the stories of “the man who was the master of the .410” start circulating again. There have been times when Golladay has been paired in shootoffs with much, much younger challengers. And in a sport that often is heralded as “a young man’s game,” Stratton has won more than he has lost.

The sweet swing and the amazingly fast reflexes are still there. The man is still a wonder with the shotgun. Especially with the .410, the little gun which he shot as few ever have. He remains humble through it all. “I feel fortunate to have accomplished what I have in skeet,” he says. “Especially since I got such a late start.”