Andrew Ottoson - sports/outdoors reporter
May 24, 2011
GRANGEVILLE -- Mark Kurruk started shooting trap in 1965, took a couple decades off to raise a family and truly dived into the sport in the mid-1980s. He wrote and published, and eventually won a spot on the Idaho State Trapshooting Association board of directors. Kurruk became an accomplished shooter in Grangeville. Now he's being inducted into the ISTA hall of fame.
"I never would have thought this would come about 25 years ago," he said. "I've made friends all over the country and it's just a joy to visit with all these people. Trapshooting is a community of its own -- a small town on wheels."
"I'm still overwhelmed with this," he continued. "It hasn't really come home to roost yet. It's an extremely high honor voted on by the hall of famers."
Kurruk said the honor reflects the contribution he made by writing and reporting. After learning combat photography through service in the Marine Corps, he learned to write at the Idaho County Free Press sports desk in the mid-1980s.
"I never thought I could write," he said. "My good friend, Gary Cash, told me, 'you can do it, just write how you talk.'"
In 1989, he founded On Target.
"I wish I had been a little smarter in those days," he said. "I thought I was the first person ever to do it. The longest-running one before On Target lasted seven years. On Target still suvives today. It's the largest independent trapshooting paper in existence."
It was read in Japan and Israel, he said, in no small part because he gave free subscriptions to servicemen.
Kurruk shot 25,000 rounds per year and eventually moved back to the 27-yard line -- the farthest line possible based on handicap -- and still practices once per week. The Grangeville club has 70 active members among the thousands of recreational trap shooters in Idaho. The Grangeville club holds events in April and August as well as a six-week spring "team shoot" competition.
(Hal Smurthwaite, the only other Grangeville shooter in the ISTA hall of fame, had the "high gun" score of 276 this season. See the full spring team shoot results in the scorecard on 3B.)
With the state trapshooting championships coming up May 27-30 at the Pocatello Trap Club, Kurruk will be in attendance, where he will be reporting on behalf of On Target, Trap & Field and Trapshooting USA.
He will also get a lifetime's worth of recognition for a lifetime's worth of work and play.
"Quite an honor," he said. "Quite an honor."
