Archery, from the Latin word arcus, meaning bow, has been used for hunting and combat dating to 10,000 BC.

In the United States, the National Archery Association was created in 1879; archery has been an Olympic sport since 1972.

Lee Edison Hansel, Jr., of Mount Holly and, later, Charlotte, competed for the Gaston Archers Club and won the National Archery Association Intermediate Boys national championships at age 16, in 1962, and the Boys 15-18 age group National Archery Tournament in Oakbrook Park, Ill. He was second in the State Indoor Championships in Winston-Salem in 1963 and won the Southern Archery Association championship in a two-day tournament in Stone Mountain, Ga., in 1965.

His success in the sport makes Mr. Hansel, who passed away last October at age 78, a 2024 inductee in the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.

He is the Hall’s only member to have won an individual national championship.

“Ed was brilliant,” says Eddie Wilson, secretary of the Hall of Fame, who remembers Mr. Hansel from childhood.

“He was voted Most Likely to Succeed in his class,” says Patsy Hansel, his sister. “He was the smartest one. When you grow up with someone, you don’t think of them as brilliant; they’re just your brother. He was certainly good at whatever he did.”

“Ed became a national champion and earned the highest award in Scouting, and set an excellent example for all with whom he came in contact,” says Patsy’s longtime friend Caroline Bailey. “He accomplished more in that brief time than many do in a lifetime. Everything he attempted in high school and as a young man, he was successful.”

Archery wasn’t prominent in high schools or college. Mr. Hansel learned through the Gaston club and Boy Scouts, known for their pursuit of developing life skills such as self-confidence, leadership, wilderness survival and personal responsibility.

“He would go into the forest and shoot at targets, and Daddy bought some and they set them up,” Patsy says. “They had tournaments in different parts of the state, and when he won the (national championship) finals, he won that in New York.”

A story of strategy & focus

The “Working Scholars Archery Study Guide” describes the sport’s requirements and techniques:

First: Proper stance. Line up, so your feet are in a line toward the middle of the target.

Mr. Hansel stood ready to excel. He became an Eagle Scout at age 13. The 1963 Mount Holly High School yearbook has a list under his name: Graduated with honors; archery wiz; president of band; outdoorsman; bound to succeed; Beta Club; Junior Heart Board; French club; bus driver; Most Likely to Succeed and Most Talented.

“He had an introverted personality, and he was in tune with nature,” Wilson says. “He was so gifted.”

“He was certainly good at whatever he did,” Patsy says. “He played clarinet in the band, and with archery he became the best he could be.”

Second: Put the arrow in the bow, on the arrow rest, which is part of the bow.

Mr. Hansel, set for the next step, enrolled at UNC-Charlotte. He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and found work in his field. But something, family members noted, began to interfere with the gears and equipment. Something in the alignment wasn’t pinpointing the target.

Third: Grip the string. Typically, three fingers are used to hold the string.

 Sometime after college, Mr. Hansel’s grasp on things changed. He said he wanted to “live outside.” He said he didn’t want to be a burden to anyone and wouldn’t accept handouts. Something interrupted his aim. “He had some kind of mental problem,” Patsy says. “When he first got sick, he had a psychiatrist he really liked, and that psychiatrist told him he should go to Rome someday.”