Helen Sevier

Helen Sevier — In her 31-year career with B.A.S.S. LLC, Helen Sevier rose from direct-marketing expert to President and CEO of the world’s largest fishing organization. Along the way, she quietly but unquestionably contributed greatly to the growth of the sport of bass fishing and the industry that serves it.

Signing on in 1970 as only the third full-time employee of B.A.S.S., behind Ray Scott and Bob Cobb, Sevier was tasked with growing membership in the struggling Bass Anglers Sportsman Society. Using skills honed by marketing Southern Living cookbooks, she more than doubled membership, from 9,000 to 20,000 in her first year. Membership, which translated to paid circulation for Bassmaster Magazine, grew exponentially under her leadership, until it exceeded 600,000 by the time she sold the company to ESPN in 2001.

In 1986, after Scott directed her to find a buyer for his company, Sevier put together a plan to purchase B.A.S.S. herself, in partnership with a Birmingham investment company. She quickly expanded the media component of the company to include seven full-color magazines, including Bassmaster, Guns & Gear, Fishing Tackle Retailer, Bass Fishing Techniques, Bassmaster Tour, CastingKids Magazine and B.A.S.S. Times. It was her idea to create a television series, “The Bassmasters,” focused on the Bassmaster Tournament Trail and air it on TNN, The Nashville Network, beginning in 1984. She added the “World Championship Fishing” program in the late 1990s.

She maintained the Bassmaster Tournament Trail as the world’s most prestigious tournament circuit, and she also raised payouts to more than $6 million, the highest purses at that time. With the growth of the marquee B.A.S.S. event — the Bassmaster Classic — and expansion of the media operation, she was able to attract major national sponsors to B.A.S.S. and its pro anglers, including Chevrolet, BP, Rubbermaid, Polaroid and Wrangler, along with insurance and credit card companies.

Sevier was deeply devoted to the network of affiliated bass clubs, now known as the B.A.S.S. Nation, and she helped grow membership to more than 40,000 worldwide, with state organizations in 47 states. She hired the first full-time conservation director for the organization, Al Mills, putting him in charge of coordinating the efforts of state conservation directors in the B.A.S.S. Nation. Seeing the need for a means of recruiting youngsters to the sport, she and her B.A.S.S. Nation director, Lyn Wheatley, organized CastingKids, patterned after football’s popular Punt, Pass & Kick program, in 1991. Within its first decade, more than 1.5 million children had competed in flipping, pitching and casting, with the winners earning more than $1 million in scholarships over the years.

Actively involved as a volunteer leader in the sportfishing industry, Sevier was elected chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sport Fishing Institute in 1987, and she helped guide its merger with the American Fishing Tackle Manufacturers Association to form the American Sportfishing Association (ASA).

In recognition for her accomplishments and leadership in resource conservation, Sevier received the William E. Ricker Resource Conservation Award from the American Fisheries Society in 1997. That same year, the U.S. Department of the Interior presented her with its Conservation Service Award, and in 2002, she was given the Norville Prosser Lifetime Achievement Award from ASA. Sevier was inducted into the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in 2004.