‘He was a legend around here.’ Champion fisherman Jack Chancellor of Phenix City dies
Bennie “Jack” Chancellor, who won the world’s most prestigious bass fishing tournament, invented a new piece of equipment for the sport and owned a popular convenience store in Phenix City, has died.
Chancellor “passed away peacefully” Jan. 16, according to his obituary on Vance Brooks Funeral Home’s website. He was 80.
A celebration of life memorial service is scheduled to be conducted at 2 p.m EST Jan. 30 at the Vance Brooks location in Phenix City, 3728 Highway 431 North. Visitation with the family in the funeral home is set to start at 1 p.m.
Chancellor was a lifelong resident of Phenix City. He graduated from Central High School in 1963.
Residents of the Chattahoochee Valley knew him as the owner of Jack’s Quick Shop for decades, but he became nationally known when he won the 1985 Bassmaster Classic.
Chancellor’s impact on bass fishing continued when he invented the Do-Nothing Worm, which his obituary describes as “a groundbreaking lure that forever changed the sport of bass fishing. His innovation, determination and competitive spirit left a lasting impact on the fishing community.”
This is how Bassmaster.com reporter John Neporadny Jr. described Chancellor’s success in a 2011 article:
“He won only one B.A.S.S. tournament,” Neporadny wrote, “but Jack Chancellor’s lone victory is the one all Bassmaster competitors dream about winning.
“Among his 47 money finishes, two runner-up finishes and seven trips to the Bassmaster Classic, Chancellor is best known for his 1985 Bassmaster Classic win that launched a little-known technique into a nationwide bass-catching phenomenon. The Phenix City, Ala., angler caught 19 bass weighing 45 pounds mostly by dragging his Do-Nothing worm along a sandbar on the Arkansas River.”
Comments posted under Chancellor’s obituary show the high regard folks had for him.
- “Jack was one of my favorite sources of bass fishing expertise during my long career as a Bassmaster Magazine writer and photographer,” Don Wirth wrote. “Besides his uncanny ability to catch bass, he was a great guy and so much fun to share a boat with. Some of my most memorable magazine assignments were with Jack.”
- “He was a legend around here,” Keith Chick Melton wrote. “Remember when he won the Classic. I still use his do nothing worm.”
- Pat Waldrop wrote, “Oh how I am going to miss my lifelong friend!! He was a class act, a great friend and a very dedicated family man.”
