This historic photo, though not the greatest quality, takes us back to 1966 and the relationship between Bill Dance and Charles Spence. It shows the pair with a couple of big bass taken locally and featured in a Memphis newspaper. That same year, 1966, was when Charles Spence bought the Strike King Lure Co. from Bill McEwen, who had created it as a side business out of his garage a couple years prior.
By 1970, Bill Dance would become one of the most successful bass tournament anglers of the time, while Charles would focus on building the lure business. The third spoke in that wheel, Ray Murski, who was part of a tackle sales rep group, would end up doing a lot of the promotional work for the company – and the rest, as they say, is history.
