Bob Gurnsey ✞

Bob was born November 17th and passed away August 24, 2015 at the age of 72.

Bob Gurnsey is no less than the father of the game of paintball. Bob originally thought to use cattle marking pistols to play a game and developed the rules for the first ever organized game of what would later be called paintball. Not only did he play in the first ever paintball game, he also was the only one of the original 12 players to stick with it. He went on to create the first company devoted to the sport, The National Survival Game, Inc. He pushed for the water based paint we currently use instead of oil based paint used in the early 80's, developed and distributed the Splatmaster paintball marker, and was supportive of the other entrepreneurs who came into the industry during those early days. He even organized and sponsored the first international paintball competitions that ran from 1983 through 1989. Without Bob, paintball as a game, a sport, or even as an industry, simply would not exist.

The Very First Paintball Game:
Paintball was created from a debate among Bob Gurnsey, Hayes Noel and Charles Gaines as to who was better able to survive, a city person who had to be ever vigilant and street wise, or a country person skilled in the ways of the forest. Bob was a small businessman in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Hayes owned his own seat on the American Stock Exchange and was a trader, and Charles was a novelist and screen writer with the Arnold Schwarzenegger breakout film, Pumping Iron, to his credit. They devised an individual game where pistols used to mark trees for felling, cattle for slaughter and telephone poles for replacement would be used to mark players out if shot. Since the debate was about survival, they called it the Survival Game. The first game was centered on the individual, where the 12 players enter a wooded area from different points and attempted to secure four different colored flags and leave the area without getting marked. They invited some friends to play the first game which included Ken Barrett, a friend of Hayes and an investment banker from New York City.

Manfred Ulrich ✞

Mit großer Bestürzung haben wir am 03.11.2019 die Nachricht erhalten, dass Paintball Wegbereiter Manfred Ulrich, von uns gegangen ist.
Es ist kaum in Worte zu fassen, wie sehr dieser Verlust sowohl uns, als auch die Paintball Szene trifft. Manfred hat, wie nur wenige, die Paintball-Landschaft in Deutschland und Europa geformt und mitgestaltet. Auch das EuroBigGame wäre ohne ihn nicht das, was es heute ist.
Mit seiner unermüdlichen Arbeit hat er Großes geschaffen und war an den Meilensteinen des Paintball beteiligt. Als 2009 das totale Paintballverbot drohte, zögerte er keine Sekunde und scheute keine Mühe, um zusammen mit anderen Größen aus der Paintball-Industrie die drohende Niederlage in den größten politischen Triumph unserer Szene zu verwandeln.
Die Lücke, die er hinterlässt, wird nicht einfach zu füllen sein. Unsere Gedanken sind bei seiner Frau und seinen beiden Söhnen, die ihn bei seinem Kampf gegen die Krankheit bis zuletzt Kraft gegeben haben. 

Timothy L. Montressor✞

Februar 1984 - Juni 2020

The news is too heart breaking to believe. But one of the best people in paintball, one of the nicest most considerate person you'll ever meet, and easily one of the smartest and hardest working is gone.
We'll have more to say about what a huge loss this was and more tributes to pay to the man in the coming days. But for now we're just grieving at the news. Total shock. Events will never be the same.

Timothy L. Montressor passed away June 22, 2020 at Excela Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg, PA his home at age 36.

There will be no funeral services due to Covid 19, his remains are being handled by Pantalone Funeral Home in Greensburg, PA. His ashes will be spread across the globe by his family and friends per his wishes. A memorial for his contribution to Paintball is underway.

Dennis Tippmann Sr.✞

1946-2020

The game of paintball lost one of its early pioneers this past Monday, November 23, 2020, when Dennis Tippmann, founder of Tippmann Pneumatics passed away due to complications of COVID-19 and after a four-year battle with cancer. He was 74 years old.  Dennis is survived by his wife Mary, their 11 children and 47 grandchildren.

Dennis founded Tippmann Pneumatics, now called Tippmann Paintball in 1986 and released their first paintball marker, the SMG-60 in March of 1987. Soon after, Tippmann released their SL-68, 68 Special and their huge line of markers like the Pro/Am, Pro-Lite and Model 98—and later guns like the A5, TIpX, X7 and others followed.

Paintball fields and players around the world continue to use Tippmann markers and the Tippmann name and its influence on the game will live on. RIP Dennis Tippmann Sr.