I was an avid reader (or scanner) of the Field for all its print-format years from about 1965 onward. I published a piece in its Holiday (Christmas) issue every year from 1973 onward. After I started reporting trials in 1995 I published several reports each year, including of the Florida Championship every year, the Invitational at Paducah ten years, the Continental and Free-For-All several years, and the Lee County (a personal favorite) many years, all filled with fun for me.
I owe the Field for providing my ego a forum. I never earned a cent for reporting and paid my own expenses for most assignments. I did it for the love of watching great dogs and meeting characters in the world of trials.
Through it all the Field held itself out as the pillar of virtue and integrity. This was exemplified when DNA testing was introduced without prior warning and several prominent breeders and sellers of bird dogs were caught having misrepresenting the parentage of dogs they sold or campaigned. Most were let off the hook after “reimbursing” the Field for corrective actions in its records. But at least one very prominent sponsor of stud services and seller of pups and trained dogs was dealt capital punishment and permanently banned from competition, and from owning or selling dogs or their stud services. This action rendered worthless the two most effective studs of their breed (as proved by a count of entries in the National Championship sired by them over a decade). A few of us with no dogs in the fight plead for mercy for this individual. Others who were envious of the alleged offender argued successfully for no mercy.
How pure was the Field through all this?
Consider the Quail and Pheasant Futurities it sponsored annually and profited from their entry fees (over purses and expenses). It advertised in its magazine (distributed via U.S. Mail) that to be eligible to enter, a derby must be from a litter enrolled within thirty days of its conception. But it had been an open secret since the days of Bill Brown that the Field would accept post entries upon late payment of litter enrollment fees, registration fees and entry fees. Why? For the profit the Field would thus earn. The Field was not Caesar’s Wife.