Top Flight Badminton Club

Top Flight BC was founded in March 1960 by Ray Scott, a Chief Warrant Officer in Strategic Command Headquarters (SAC) at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska. Purpose of the club was to promote the lifetime sport of badminton. At one time the club had 150+ combination of military and civilian members.

The club played on eight courts, Monday-Wednesday, Friday from 11:30AM to 1:30PM in the Offutt AFB gym. Top Flight has sponsored three national championships, one international championships, plus a yearly Midwest Badminton Association regional tournament, the Ray Scott Open.

Over the years club members have conducted exhibitions, clinics at schools, attended AAHPERD conventions, and sponsored local and regional tournaments. The Ray Scott Open being the most popular. Since 1988, Top Flight has administered badminton in the Cornhusker State Games and been a consultant to the Nebraska Senior Games badminton competition.

Top Flight maintained a web presence (nebraskabadminton.org) from 2002 through September 2020.

Ray Scott

Ray is in the USA Badminton Senior Hall of Fame (2001) (No longer on the web but local copy exists for reference). These words are on his citation:

“For your life-long commitment and dedication to badminton, numerous senior titles at local, state, regional, national, and international levels, for outstanding leadership as USA Badminton Executive Director, for securing sponsors for many of the senior/master perpetual trophies, for your efforts of getting the sport of badminton included in the Olympics as a Class A sport, and countless other ways you supported the sport of badminton for so many years”.

More from a Top Flight press release at the time: "Ray won many USAB championships over the years and has been a perennial competitor in the Senior nationals, Senior international championships, and the Senior Olympics". Ray is also the recipient of other awards: the USAB’s Ken Davidson Award, the International Badminton Federation Meritorious Service Award, and the Charles and Ada Wurst USA Badminton Senior Award of Merit for Service and Sportsmanship.

Additionally, on the local level, Ray was selected as Outstanding Male Athlete of the 1994 Cornhusker State Games. Ray founded the Offutt Top Flight badminton Club in 1960. He also sponsored the Ray Scott Open annually for 27 plus years.

Ray was volunteer executive director of USA Badminton 1980-85.

His motto was “press on”. He did until he was promoted to glory on 16 December 2001. “Promoted To Glory”, I wrote, was published in 1st Quarter 2002, Badminton USA Magazine.

Tom Lucas, a former Top Flighter and member of the folk trio, Peter, Paul & Mary, wrote and sang a song about Ray, “The Ballad of Ray Scott”, at the 1997 25th anniversary tournament. The tournament write up was in the MBA FLICK, Vol 18, No. 4 , Dec 1997. It includes my framed portrait of Ray and words to the song.

“Press on”!