31
year by DeWayne Convirs,
Oklahoma D-Day. The largest paintball event this side
of Moscow, Russia, D-Day
draws players from all walks
of the game: regular players, re-enactors, spectators,
campers, vendors and sponsors. Either way, DeWayne’s
game is the biggest paintball
event around, not to mention a respectful commemoration of the Invasion of
Normandy in World War II
and that makes him an important part of paintball’s
history!
Steve Davidson
No one in paintball has gotten less public credit for
their accomplishments in
paintball than Steve Davidson. Steve was one of the
founding members of the
NPPL and is credited with
being the one that pushed
for the meeting that eventually ended up catapulting
the league into existence.
Steve has been a magazine
editor, a paintball website
owner (68caliber.com), a
long time player with the
late 80s paintball team
Werewolves, and the driving force behind the push to
place an historical marker
at the roadside of the site of
the first ever paintball game
in New Hampshire. NXL
Marcus Davis
Paintball has its share of
larger than life characters
and Marcus Davis is probably the leader of that pack.
But in just two short years
after forming the UK Pred-
ators Marcus led his team
to international prominence
when they became the
first team from outside of
North America to win a major event in the U.S. taking
first place at the 1991 Lively
Masters in Nashville, Tennessee. Marcus meant so
much more to paintball than
just winning an event in the
States. His UK Predators
were the first team to make
the U.S. powerhouse teams
take notice, game plan
against, and ultimately even
fix games to keep them
from winning on a grander
ten-man stage (more on this
story in a future issue). Marcus singly-handedly changed
the international perception
that only U.S. teams could
dominate. The Predators
went on to win dozens of
events all around Europe.
Don Dekieffer
Don was an attorney by
trade and the official council
for the NPPL at its inception.
From the late 1980s until
the mid 1990s Don really led
the charge to “internationalize” the game of paintball.
He (and his team Green Machine [captained by Todd Inman]) raised funds and traveled to places like Montreal,
Canada (1985), Johannesburg, Capetown, Durban,
Africa (1988), Sydney, Australia (1991) and Moscow,
Russia in 1994. Don was an
advisor to the International
Paintball Players Association
(IPPA) in the early 90s as
well. Sadly Don passed away
in 2011.
Dewayne Convirs
Steve Davidson
Marcus Davis
Don Dekieffer
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