Tad Taylor

Tad Taylor was an “A Hot Rodder” in his high school days. You’d never know it to see the 37 year old in his home with his 3 year old daughter Reily. An auctioneer and antique/collectibles expert by trade, Tad’s neat home close to downtown Scottsville where he has lived all his life is a memorial to the past, particularly his own . The house originally belonged to his grandmother as did the family business. The Wagon Wheel antique store across the street. He has tracked down and bought much of the families furniture to decorate his home. Accompanying the heirloom pieces are walls of lithographs (framed at the Wagon Wheel) and shelves lined with antique toys and bric a brac, such as his Charlie McCarthy and Howdy Dowdy dummies and his autographed picture of Gene Autry. “I’m one of these odd people who collects what looks good to me, not what’s popular.” One keepsake on the wall is a small stuffed red fox toy. Tad laughed as he told the story of how he drank a bit much at the county fair one year and went to sleep, when he awoke all of his tools were missing and in their stead lay the toy with a note on it reading “thanks for the loan slick“. His sense of humor about the incident would show in his later endeavors.

Books are another of Tad’s passions “I read everything especially Science Fiction.” When he becomes interested in a topic he completely engulfs himself in researching it. Magazines and books of all kinds fill the house, some of his most prized are an original newspaper printed of Tarzan and the Apes and a journal from a Titanic survivor. Though he always wanted to be a writer, at Western Kentucky University he majored in business management with a minor in real estate.

Until he was 26, Tad was active on the AMA sanctioned motorcross circuit. After 63 broken bones and seven operations he decided to turn in his helmet for scuba gear, serving on the water search and rescue team. For the past fourteen years Tad has doned a new mask, part of the protective gear for the sport which he has helped shape since its earliest day’s – Paintball. One of the founding members of Team Slick Fox, Tad manages the Paintball Field the team owns – Slick Fox Adventure Games – the largest continuously running field in the country.

At the time Mr. Taylor first became addicted to paintball he was also active the JayCees serving as the Allen County‘s chapter’s president. As part of a Chairman Planning Guide project for the JayCees he outlined proceedures for the format of paintball fields and competitions. In December of 1988 a mutual paintball enthusiast Jerry Edwards help implement Tad’s concepts in the form of The MidSouth Paintball Association. An active supporter of charities, the proceeds to paintball tournaments go to chartatable causes. Tad’s original concepts (to which he hold copyright) are implemented at tournaments and field all over the world today. These concepts include a set of standardized rules for fair and impartial judging and Field critera for safety, staffing, codes of conduct and facilities

A logical extension of his work, Tad has turned his focus on safety in the new sport. In 1990 he began the Professional Referee Association and since has coordinated referee staffs for all the major tournaments in the US and has been the receipent of many top ref awards. The Association trains and certifies other referees for the sport.

In traveling worldwide as an Ultimate Referee with tournaments Tad Taylor has built up a large collection of patches, jackets, captured flags, guns and paintball memorabilia. Modifications to the equiptment have come along way and Tad has a museum of their evolution. Now that as he put it the firepower has gone from “mild to wild” and the sport is rapidly acquiring participants safety issues are becoming even more important. Though a fairly safe sport when approached reasonably, the paintballs hit with quite a velocity and can do serious damage without protective gear. And when you play as hard as Tad does other injuries are possible. In an Alabama tournament one year he fell and broke is rotator cup and finished the game out despite the two bones protruding from his shoulder. Department stores are now marketing guns as powerful as those used by experienced users and their safe operation in some cases is quite different from that of other types of guns. As a result Tad’s organization teaches consumers, marketing people and store employees courses in paintball safety.

Slick Fox Adventure Games is open on Sundays and located in Scottsville. Paintball is quickly growing in popularity, and become a popular activity replacing the traditonal office picnic. Engineers and surgeons and country boys can be found on the paintball field having a ball.

When Tad’s not on the paintball field or behind the auctioneers block you might find him at the local tavern Jerry’s Lounge. Tad is son to Jerry Taylor and right hand in the business. He bartends a good part of the week and offers his father ideas on how to modernize the Bowling Green mainstay. The wheels are always turning.

Kim Mason is the Content Manager of the Amplifier which was founded by her in 1995. She serves as Executive Director for the BG International Festival and designs websites. www.kimmason.ky.net