The Best Outdoor Sportsman ESPY Award was an annual award honoring the achievements of an athlete from the world of outdoor sports —understood as those related to outdoor recreation and

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-based occupation, including

sport fishing Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit (economics), profit; or subsistence fishing ...

, most especially of bass, and lumberjacking, most especially the

logrolling Logrolling is the trading of favors, or ''quid pro quo'', such as vote trading by legislative members to obtain passage of actions of interest to each legislative member. In organizational analysis, it refers to a practice in which different o ...

wood chopping Woodchopping (also spelled wood-chopping or wood chopping), called woodchop for short, is a sport that has been around for hundreds of years in several cultures. In woodchopping competitions, skilled contestants attempt to be the first to cut or s ...

, and high-climbing disciplines thereof—on an amateur or

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level primarily in the United States or Canada. It was first presented as part of the

ESPY Awards An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN (as of the 2017 ESPY Awards the latter still airs them in the form ...

at the 2002 edition after broadcaster

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purchased the

Bass Anglers Sportsman Society The Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.) is a fishing membership organization with more than a half a million members. It is geared toward bass fishermen, mainly in the United States but with members located worldwide. The society publishe ...

in mid-2001. The Best Outdoor Sportsman ESPY Award trophy, designed by sculptor

Lawrence Nowlan Lawrence Joseph Nowlan Jr. (January 11, 1965 – July 30, 2013) was an American sculptor and figurative artist known for his statues of notable individuals, including Harry Kalas and Jackie Gleason. Nowlan also designed memorials, including the f ...

, was given to the outdoor sportsperson adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year. From the 2004 to 2008 ceremonies, the winner was chosen by online voting through choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee. Before that, determination of the winners was made by an panel of experts. Through the 2001 iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in July and reflect performance from the June previous. The inaugural winner of the Best Outdoor Sportsman ESPY Award in 2002 was American bass angler

Kevin VanDam Kevin VanDam (born October 14, 1967), often called simply "KVD," is a professional bass fisherman from Otsego, Michigan. He is the all-time money winner in professional bass fishing, having earned $7,089,388 through August 2022 according to Major ...

. During 2001 and 2002, he won the Bassmaster Classic XXXI, the 2001 Wal-Mart FLW Championship, and attained the rank of the top-ranked angler worldwide during that period. VanDam became the first of two bass anglers to be nominated, and hence to win, an ESPY Award. Bass anglers have been the most successful sportspeople (with two victories and eight nominations) with the win of Jay Yelas at the 2003 iteration. It was presented to one woman in its history, logroller Tina Bosworth, in the 2004 edition. The winner of the Best Outdoor Sportsman ESPY Award in 2005 was lumberjacker J. R. Salzman after winning 14 medals at the Great Outdoor Games and claimed five logrolling titles at the Lumberjack World Championship between 1998 and 2005. After that, the accolade was partially replaced by the Best Angler ESPY Award for the 2006 edition before returning the next year. It was permanently discontinued after the 2008 ceremony.

Winners and nominees

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Best Outdoor Sportsman Espy Award ESPY Awards Outdoor recreation Awards established in 2002 Awards disestablished in 2005 2002 establishments in the United States

Winners and nominees

See also

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links