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In England in 1673 a small group of enthusiasts in Yorkshire created the "Ancient Scorton Arrow" contest and awarded a small silver bow to the winner. This organization still functions and the "Arrow" is the oldest continuous archery tournament.

Archery was fostered as a sport in 1676 by King Charles II of England. Queen Catherine of Braganza, an enthusiast, advocated the formation of clubs and awarded a silver shield, on which was inscribed "Marshal of the Fraternity of Archery" to those who won championships. Other European nations gave hearty approval and the sport flourished through the 17th, 18th, 19th and into this century.

The "Society Royal Toxophilite" was formed in England about 1790 for the purpose of advancing archery as a sport. In 1844 the Grand National came into existence and now is the ruling group in Great Britain. It arranged the first championship for the year 1844.

Archery was introduced into the United States as a sport in the 17th Century, but made little progress during the next 150 years. In 1828 a group was organized as the "United Bowmen of Philadelphia" and then discovered that it had no equipment. In this emergency, a committee visited a museum in Philadelphia, where sketches were made of the bows and arrows there. The bowmen then fashioned their own equipment, which served them until the following year, when they imported standard bows and arrows from England.

The club disbanded in 1859.

A revival in archery in the United States occurred in 1878 and led to the formation, in 1879, of the National Archery Association, now the governing body of the sport. The organization had its headquarters in Boston for nearly thirty years, with Louis C. Smith serving as secretary-treasurer during that period. His daughter, Mrs. Dorothy Smith Cummings, won the national championship seven times and the Eastern title eleven. Smith's son-in-law, Henry S.C. Cummings, was chairman of the Board of Governors of the N.A.A. for eight years and succeeded Smith as secretary-treasurer.

As the years went by interest in archery has continued to grow. In the 1940's quite a few states legalized hunting with bow and arrow and opened up a complete new phase of archery to thousands of hunters. These hunters were not interested in formal target archery. Archery hunters, or field archers, had revised the old British sport of Rovers to give them sufficient practice for hunting. Like the English, however, they found that they needed a competitive round to enjoy to the maximum the skills that they had acquired in shooting the bow. A group of these field archers formed the National Field Archery Association.
Before 1930 the sport of archery attained considerable growth not only in the United States but in many other countries throughout the world. An international organization was formed and was officially titled, Federation Internationale de Tir a l'Arc (FITA). FITA shot its first World Championship Tournament in 1931 in Poland. At first FITA held annual tournaments; however, travel costs and time involved were so great that the tournaments were finally held every two years.