ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. — This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first tandem skydive. That inaugural two-person jump took place on January 15, 1983 in Eustis, and those credited with developing the method are also from the Sunshine State.

Among them is Bill Morrissey, 84, and if you walk around Skydive City with him, the word "legend" comes up a lot.

"I've got 7,300 jumps," Morrissey said.

His first took place in 1959, when he was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division.

"After my first jump, I said, 'This parachute stuff is fun,'" Morrissey said.

Morrissey said that began a lifelong love of skydiving, and in 1975, a story from a fellow skydiver gave him an idea for a new way of jumping.

Friend Pete Chase told him his wife wanted to skydive with a parachute she wasn't trained on, so he rigged his harness so she could jump attached to him. Morrissey said they told him they both put their legs into the harness, but that wasn't all.

"He took a knife, and he cut out the seat belts out of the airplane, and he extended her chest strap. So, he got her in tight against him, like here," Morrissey said, gesturing.

The jump was a success.

"I said, 'I have to do this — I have to get somebody to build parachutes bigger and stronger,'" Morrissey said. "I said, 'There's only one guy I know of that can do that, and that would be Ted Strong.'"

Strong's business, Strong Enterprises, made parachutes.

Morrissey said for personal reasons, it took him seven years to make it down to Orlando to tell his friend the idea. While Morrissey said he thought tandem jumps would be a fun way to share a skydiving experience with another person, he said there was another draw for Strong.

"He looked at me, and he says, 'We'll never lose another student,'" said Morrissey.

According to Morrissey, the materials used for skydiving gear weren't as good 40 years ago as they are today, and it wasn't unheard of for students to be hurt or killed on solo jumps. 

In January 1983, Strong completed the first two-person jump using the tandem system created by his company. Morrissey said Strong hired him to create a training system and teach it to instructors.

Among the first places tandem was showcased was Zephyrhills, home of Skydive City, where the system is still used today. Morrissey trained instructors all over the world in tandem, saying safety was his top priority.

According to the United States Parachute Association, skydiving fatalities peaked in the late 1970s with more than 50 per year. The 1980s and 1990s saw 30-plus deaths per year before beginning a slow decline in the 2000s.

In 2021, there was a record low of 10 deaths. USPA officials say tandem skydiving has an even better safety rate, with an average of one student fatality per 500,000 jumps during the past 10 years.

Information from the International Skydiving Museum and Hall of Fame shows that tandem jumps are the most common way people are introduced to the sport. When asked about the impact tandem dives have had during the past four decades, Morrissey described an event he attended in France.

"What I heard was tandem training going on in three different languages," Morrissey said. "I sat back, and I said, 'Look what we've done. Look what we've done. We've given these people the opportunity to do that bucket list thing.'"

Morrissey, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016, says he hasn't jumped in a few months but may get back up there this weekend as part of a friend's memorial.

According to the Hall of Fame, Morrissey's fellow member, Strong, died in 2011.