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In January of 2009, Jim Anderson passed away, the end of a painful battle with cancer and a long life tied to the sport of paintball.

For the modern paintball player Anderson's name may not be familiar, but his involvement helped national tournament competition happen in the 1990s, though much of it was in behind-the-scenes types of roles.

Jim's involvement in paintball reaches back to the 1980s, as a member of the Wild Geese, and helping to build and operate the original National Professional Paintball League. He wrote for multiple paintball publications, and by the time the WARPIG.com staff met him in 1996, he coordinated the prize packages for NPPL tournaments and helped with logistics for the Paintball World Cup.

We remember Jim fondly, as a true old-school paintballer with a sometimes cantankerous attitude that was always tempered with a friendly demeanor. News of Jim's passing came to us via a phone call from the Paintball World Cup's founding promoter, Jerry Braun, who asked to share these comments with WARPIG's readers.

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of Jim Anderson.

Jim was not only a friend, but passionate in his devotion and loyalty to our sport and industry. Jim was one of the earliest players of the game. He reported on events for the first paintball publication, Frontline, the forerunner of APG and Paintball Sports. He invented "Short Change", a fast lever adapter that cut the time of changing 12 gram CO2 cartridges to a few seconds. He was on the 1987 Wild Geese Team that won the National Survival Game World Championships in 1987 and the Master Blasters from New York that took the Skirmish Title in 1989.

He was a trusted aid in the early development of the NPPL and the growth of the World Cup. He was a small man in stature. I, at 5'4" always said that I kept him around because he was one of the few people in the industry that looked up to me. But his size in no way matched his footprint on our industry which was significant.

I will miss my friend.

Jerry Braun

Our condolences and prayers go out to Jim's family and friends in this time of loss.

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