John Billings packed 414 trophies in his diesel truck and accompanying trailer, then relaxed with co-workers and a bottle of champagne earlier this month.
Another year’s worth of award-making was complete. Then it was time for Billings’ annual trek to Los Angeles.
The next day, he drove from his home in Ridgway – population 760 – and delivered the John R. Wooden Awards and Grammy awards.
There’s no such thing as shipping in Billings’ world.
He makes the trophies himself, with the help of his brother Don, son John and a friend, Jim Spear, in a studio down the street from his house. The Grammys each have a protective case and are stacked in a stuffed trailer.
His two Wooden Awards, given annually to a top men’s college basketball player and a legendary coach, got special treatment in the back seat of his truck – protected by seat belts.
The Wooden Awards were presented Saturday. So-called stunt Grammys, without engraving, were presented on stage at that awards ceremony Feb. 8. The 412 Grammys that Billings trucked west last week were the real deal.
Billings takes his craft, but not himself, seriously. The old-school trophymaker fashions the figurines of players from 40-year-old molds and uses a zinc alloy he developed called Grammium.
“We’re still doing things the old way,” Billings said. “To be able to do something that honors people is so fulfilling. I don’t need the spotlight. This comes from the heart.”
Billings grew up in Van Nuys, Calif., not far from neighbor and awardmaker Bob Graves. As a child, Billings used to sit in Graves’ garage and watch him craft trophies. Graves began making the Grammy awards in 1958 and the Wooden Award in 1977, said Billings.
After graduating from Van Nuys High School, Billings worked at the University of California at Los Angeles for 10 years. He started as a clerk in the mailroom of the student union and worked his way to manager of shipping and receiving.
When Graves was nearing retirement, he asked Billings to take over his trophymaking business. Billings completed a seven-year apprenticeship, and after Graves died, Billings bought the company in 1983.
Billings and his wife, Alice, moved to Ridgway in 1993. Alice was an assistant for many years to actor Dennis Weaver, who lived in Ridgway and died Feb. 24.
In Billings’ line of work, there are usually no contracts. Two years ago, Billings signed his first contract to make the Grammys, 28 years after he started making them. Billings, who will turn 60 this year, works 14-hour days but has time to practice with the two-person Harry Harpoon Band every night. He takes most Sundays off and finds time to play his bass guitar and drums in the local saloon.
Sam Lagana, former director of the Wooden Award and still a committee member, said he admires Billings.
“I always want to start singing ‘Rocky Mountain High’ as he enters the room,” Lagana said. “I just see him pulling up and I get a huge smile on my face. It’s like Americana. You’re like digging into the West. He’s someone who cares. It’s his workmanship, his passion.”
After the nearly 14-hour drive to Barstow, Calif., where his sister lives, Billings has a meal, visits and spends the night.
Sporting a mustache, soul patch and ponytail under his black cowboy hat, Billings hops out of his truck outside his friend’s house in Granada Hills, Calif., where he stays after delivering trophies. He forgot to call to say he’d be there. As if anyone would miss the truck and trailer with the name “Billings Artworks” on the side.
“My cellphone went dead somewhere in Utah,” Billings said with a chuckle.
Billings went to Hacienda Heights on Thursday morning to pick up a ton of custom-made metal and drove back to Colorado. His three-day vacation was almost done.
Then the process begins all over again.
The Denver Post contributed to this report.
