The first game of paintball was played in June, 1981, near Henniker, New Hampshire. Following, from The New, Official Survival Game Manual, by Lionel Atwill (National Survival Game, Inc., 1987), is a taste of that game, and a look at the three men whose genius created a sport played worldwide today. If you find a copy of this book, treasure it, because its hard to find. Note that the equipment (particularly the goggles) shown in the photos in the book is not considered safe for use in the sport today.
Charles Gaines, Hayes Noel, and Bob Gurnsey get the credit for inventing paintball. The books introduction, by Gaines, talks about how the game was invented: One of the early brochures from National Survival Game, Inc.
One of the early brochures from National Survival Game, Inc. |
"One night during the spring of 1976 or 1977, Hayes Noel and I were grilling a king mackerel and drinking gills and tonic on the patio of a house in Jupiter Island, Florida. While we were grilling and drinking we talked, as we often do, about play. We both believe in play. Specifically, in this ginny conversation, we began to construct from an idea of Hayes's a form of play that might contain the childhood exhilaration of stalking and being stalked, might call on a hodgepodge of instincts and skills and might allow as wide a variety of responses as possible to this rich old question: How do I get from where I am now to where I want to be?
"Well, the Survival Game was conceived in utero that night---conceived as a lark, as something that was fun to think about. Somehow we kept thinking about it, discussing it, always in the context of other forms of fun, in New York City, on Martha's Vineyard, in a duck blind off the New Hampshire coast with Richie White and Carl Sandquist, and in dozens of places with Bob Gurnsey...."
Another gentleman, George Butler, located the Nel-Spot paint marker in an equipment catalog. One thing led to another, and another, and The Survival Game was born.
The history of the Nelson Paint Company: Nelson started making paint for the people of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 1940. In 1948, some forester friends of the founders, Evan Nelson and Charles Nelson, asked them to formulate a special paint to be used to mark trees for the management of forests. In 1960, Evan and Charles developed a wax pellet and then an oil-based paintball for use in marking trees at long distances and hard to reach spots. Eventually, farmers, ranchers, and veterinary operations started using them to mark their animals. These markers and the oil-based paintballs were used in the first paintball game. Due to the difficulty in clean up of the oil-based fill, a water-based washable fill was soon developed.
Gaines commented about the games rapid growth: "All of it happened, I believe, because the Survival Game extends itself naturally into a number of universally interesting metaphors. Playing the Game can actually show you in its own terms who you are, and there is no more interesting metaphor than that. The Game can also be seen as a metaphor for the efficacy of teamwork, for universal cause and effect and for the manner in which consequences evolve from sequential decisions. And some people will even tell you that it is a sure and ugly metaphor for war. We don't believe that is so, but I am not out to argue the point here.
"The Game may be interesting because of these various metaphorical extensions, but it is not fun because of them; it is fun simply because it is fun. Conceived as a lark, it is a lark to play--an intricate, demanding and thrilling child's play which, like all the best games, can never be played perfectly. Play like that for adults is always in short supply. With this book you can have fun reading about the Survival Game. Then you can have the great good fun of going out and playing it."
The book's chapter, "The Roots of the Game," describing that June, 1981, first game, opens with a quote: "A man's fate is but his disposition."---Menander (343-262 B.C.)
The original Nel-Spot spot marker. This one is a 1975 model and has been donated by Roy E. Hardy of Oregon for the future Museum of Paintball. Notice it does not have a pump. The 12 gram goes in the grip. |
Menander was a Greek comedic dramatist. The quote was appended to the letter inviting people to play in the first Survival Game. The Game's founders, Charles Gaines, Hayes Noel and Bob Gurnsey, suggested that those who were invited should "ponder that thought as we determined our strategies."
Atwill, who wrote the book, states, "You may view that notion as a comic crock. But if you find even a glint of truth in it, you will agree that the dispositions of the men who conceived the Game have bearing on what the Game is about, and their initial concept should influence how the rest of us play the Game today."
At the time, Charles Gaines was (and still is) a writer of novels, non-fiction, and screenplays, including the novel Stay Hungry and a nonfiction work, Pumping Iron (both about body building). Hayes Noel was a very successful New York stock and options trader (and still is very successful in that industry). Bob Gurnsey lived in New Hampshire at that time, and became the president of the National Survival Game, Inc., a company no longer operating.
All three are risk-takers. Atwill wrote that Gurnsey raced cars, Gaines had scuba dived in the open ocean in the company of a hooked marlin, and Hayes, when jumped by New York thugs, responded "by shrieking obscenities and damn near beating one to death with a convenient garbage can."
The game's roots, wrote Atwill, "started in 1976 with a cape buffalo, one of those big, mean things with horns that roam Africa. A friend of Hayes's had returned from a safari on which he had hunted a buff. He had told Hayes of the excitement, of the surge of adrenaline and of the heightened sense of perception that came from the danger of facing that animal. He swore he could smell and hear and taste and feel more clearly in that environment of fear. It was a sensory high, a drugless high.
"Hayes and his friend were walking through the woods when Hayes heard the story. Hayes suggested that, as a lark, they try to recreate some of that feeling, that on their way back to the house they stalk one another as a hunter stalks his game. As they did so, Hayes recognized something of what his friend had told him. A tingle. A feeling of being particularly well toned and alive.
"Later in the year, on the sand of Jupiter Beach, Florida, where they were vacationing, Hayes told the story to Charles. ... The problem, they saw, was creating the illusion of a dangerous atmosphere, for few people would risk true danger for a sensory reward. Then they started talking about Hayes mock stalk, and their dispositions began to shape the conversation. Gaines argued that in such a situation, a country boy could outsmart a city boy, because a country boy knows how to hunt, knows the woods, knows, in short, how to survive.
"Not so, argued Hayes. The skills to survive on Wall Street or in the subway could be transmuted successfully to the African veld or the New Hampshire woods. Suddenly, an intellectual discussion of sensory awareness turned into a debate--a challenge. Competition. Fun."
The argument went on for a few years. The Nel-Spot marker was located and tested on a volunteer, Shelby, Charles son, who said it didn't hurt much. The invitations for the first game drew 9 people, plus Bob, Charles, and Hayes. The 9 each paid $175 each to cover equipment costs, and incidentals such as food and adult beverages.
They arrived at Charles house the day before: "Bob Jones, a novelist, staff writer for Sports Illustrated and an experienced hunter; Ronnie Simpkins, a farmer from Alabama and a master turkey hunter; Jerome Gary, a New York film producer; Carl Sandquist, a New Hampshire contracting estimator; Ritchie White, the New Hampshire forester who had told Hayes he could cut his neck in the woods; Ken Barrett, a New York venture capitalist with lots of hunting experience; Joe Drinon, a stock-broker from New Hampshire and a former Golden Gloves boxer; Bob Carlson, a trauma surgeon from Alabama and a hunter; and myself [Lionel Atwill], a writer for Sports Afield, a hunter and a Vietnam vet, who had had the unpleasurable experience of leading reconnaissance missions in Vietnam in 1968, a decidedly poor year."
The prediction the night before the game? That the hunters would do well, and that the city boys were worth less than a case of beer. Atwill had the most respect due to his Special Forces experience.
The large field had 12 flags on it. The object of the game was to capture all the flags, and it was "every man for himself" (not at all like today's two-flag team game that usually is played with each team having its own flag).
An early poster from the National Survival Game, provided courtesy of Debra Dion Krischke. |
The first player to dye was Barrett. He surrendered to Gary. Simpkins hand marked Gurnsey. Dr. Carlson shot five people, one being Noel when Noel had three flags and was headed for a fourth. Atwill "hurled a moldy onion" at Gaines, charged and tagged Gaines in the leg--but the ball bounced off. The tables turned, and Gaines tagged Atwill.
The winner? Ritchie White, the New Hampshire forester. "No one ever saw Ritchie, and he never fired a shot. He crept through the woods from station to station, gathering flags as easily as a schoolgirl gathers flowers."
Atwill wrote, "The play was less than spectacular compared to some Games I've seen since, but there was a spirit to that first Game that will be hard to capture again. The weekend bubbled with humor, honor, fun and obnoxiously friendly, yet intense, competition. Those feelings, I believe, reflected the dispositions of the founders of the Game."
