Inductees

Long before the nickname, before the boats and before 161 tournament trophies, Bill Davenport was a 9-year-old boy walking the banks of the Roubidoux River near Waynesville with a fishing pole in his hand.

The river was stocked every March. After school and on weekends, he and his brother would head down from the house and fish for trout. There were no sponsorships, no custom jigs bearing his name. Just a kid, a current and a growing love for what might be waiting beneath the surface.

That love never left. It only deepened, sharpened and turned into one of the most decorated tournament careers the Show-Me State has ever seen. And that’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is proud to induct Davenport with the Class of 2026.

A 1963 graduate of Waynesville High School, Davenport is known around Lake of the Ozarks simply as “The Legend.” The title fits. He has won more than 161 tournaments of various types and sizes, from club events to team competitions. A 2024 issue of Lake of the Ozarks Fishing Guide featured him on its cover with the blurb, “The Legend: Bill Davenport.”

His success has stretched beyond one body of water. Davenport has recorded victories not only at Lake of the Ozarks but also at Table Rock Lake and Truman Lake, proving his ability to adapt and compete wherever he launches.

Part of that edge came from observation — and innovation.

“I caught on little bit faster than most of them,” Davenport said. “And why I say this, because when I first started fishing I would notice every once in a while, I’d hit a brush pile, I’d hit a rock, and I’d get a bite. And course, you know, I didn’t have anything like that of my own and no brush or anything up there of my own, so I had to just kind of go fishing and hope I hit something like that. So I got to thinking about it and I thought, ‘Well, shoot, I’ll just make my own (brush pile).’”

After every Christmas, Davenport got the OK to use Waynesville Chamber of Commerce’s cedar trees.

“And I mean, you know, it’s, it’s really paid off,” Davenport said. “With all the electronics they got now, I mean, they’ll find (the fish). And that’s OK. I really don’t need to pre-fish all the time, because I know where my brush is, and I guarantee that’s what I’m going to fish every time.”

He was also throwing something else most of the time — a brown-and-green jig that would eventually carry his name.

After a tournament win at Table Rock Lake, Chompers, a Missouri-based bait company and one of his sponsors, approached about producing the jig.

““And I said, ‘Well, sure,” Davenport said. “They were brown with green … and they put the ‘Davenport Special’ on it, and that was all (Chompers’) doing. I gave them the OK to do it, and they did it, and it took off.”

The color pattern, designed to imitate crawdads, has accounted for roughly 90 percent of his 161 victories, most of them coming on Chompers’ skirted brush jig.

“I’ve thought about that a lot,” he said. “Crawdads are brown, most of them with green or orange in it, and I think that was the key, imitating that crawdad. You go with that particular color, for sure. It doesn’t matter what lake you go to, I guarantee they’re gonna bite it.”

Among his many wins, one remains especially meaningful. In 1978, he captured his first big tournament at Lake of the Ozarks, earning a new boat and cash. His wife, Sharon, and daughter Andrea, then just 1 year old, were there when the trophy was presented.

“I won a boat and I don’t know how much cash, but that’s, you know, that means a lot to me there. It’s stuff like that,” Davenport said. “It stands out.”

He would go on to win three Charger bass Owners Tournaments on three different lakes — the only angler to win more than one.

Now, decades later, the boy from the Roubidoux River is a Hall of Famer, husband to Sharon, father to Andrea, father-in-law to Joe Bazan, grandfather to Madeline and Camryn, and still surprised by the honor.

From sinking cedar trees to seeing his name printed on a package of jigs, Davenport built a legacy the same way he built his brush piles — patiently, deliberately and with family never far from shore.